Grammys 2013 Adventure Part 2

Last week, I mentioned that ET Canada’s biggest show of the year was the “Grammy Awards Red Carpet Special.” It’s the show’s most elaborate production and it requires the most people to make it work.

And, after seven years of working at ET Canada, I was finally given the privilege to be invited to the Grammys.

My flight was Friday morning. All I had to do was wake up and call the cab to take me to the airport for my 12:15pm flight. But when I woke up the following morning, there was a slight problem. Toronto was suffering from its biggest snowstorm in five years.

My work friends who were allegedly flying out at 8:15am kept me updated with text messages. “The roads are terrible, get out early.” “The airport is terrible, get here as fast as you can.” “We’re on board!” “We’re still on board but we’re sitting here on the tarmac.” “There is no hope! Tell my family that I love them.” “Oh wait, we’re leaving. Stay out of my family business.”

I called a cab for a pickup. “Probably 15 minutes. But it could be 30 minutes. Maybe an hour or more.” Guess which one it was? If you answered “an hour or more,” you are correct. And it was much more. Much much more. In fact, I later cancelled it.

Fortunately, in my condo lobby, a mother & daughter were also waiting for a cab. Their cab (from the same company), for unknown reasons, arrived in 10 minutes. We agreed to buddy up. And I was an awesome buddy to have. I paid for the cab; they paid for the tip.

It didn’t really matter. Sure we arrived at the airport at 11am, but our 12:15 flight wasn’t going anywhere. Not that Air Canada was forthcoming with that information. The big board said the flight was “on time” right until that scheduled departure time. Only then would you learn how delayed it actually was. So at 12:15, we found we were delayed by a couple of hours.

Good thing, one of my traveling companions, had a Maple Leaf Lounge pass. Sitting around an airport goes down much easier when you’re munching on free breakfast and sipping free alcohol. May I recommend the Grand Marnier Latte? It’s my new favourite. I just made a latte from the airport vending machine and added the most expensive booze available.

Hours later, Air Canada fooled us into believing that we were flying out that day. We loaded our bags, we found our seats, and we sat there. And sat there. And sat there. The crew even went through the motions of de-icing the plane. But we weren’t going anywhere.

Then came the ominous announcement, “This flight was cancelled.” Not postponed. Cancelled. That meant we had to go through Canada customs and retrieve our luggage. And then re-book the flight as if nothing had ever happened.

That meant joining all the other previously booked flyers on all the other regular scheduled flights. We were the extras. We were the new menace. We were just adding to the chaos of already full fights.

The oblivious Canada customs agent smirked when he read my customs form. On the date departed line, I wrote a big 0 with a dash through it. “We never left the tarmac. The date is meaningless.”

The true misery was in the baggage claims area. Despite not going anywhere, the bags still took over an hour to get to our carousel. Meanwhile, my boss and other people from our office frantically booked new flights for us. But they couldn’t get us all together. Most were booked for 6:15pm the following day, but two of us were booked for the 8:15pm. Guess which flight was mine? If you said, “8:15pm,” pour yourself a Grand Marnier Latte!

The next order of business was finding a place to stay. Going home in a snowstorm wasn’t an option. We all had to stay at a hotel near the airport. So eventually we were all booked for the Holiday Inn Express. Now all we had to do was wait for the hotel’s shuttle bus to pick us up.

“Probably 15 minutes. But it could be 30 minutes. Maybe an hour or more.” And it was much more. Much much more. In fact, our shuttle bus never arrived. Despite several assurances on the phone that he was coming… he didn’t. Our driver gave up.

Now what? Well, desperation is a pretty good motivating factor to get things done. So we went to the departure level and scooped a couple of taxis. Ooh, this drives the other legit taxis crazy. But we didn’t care. We were abandoned and tired and hungry and the buzz off Grand Marnier Lattes can only last so long…

We arrived at the Holiday Inn Express ready to get warm and eat. However, both this things weren’t immediately possible. The hotel didn’t have a restaurant and if we wanted to eat, we would have to walk ten minutes into the snowstorm to the nearest restaurant.

Usually that’s not a big problem… except that none of us were wearing winter clothes. It was virtually springtime in Los Angeles, so we all wearing our springtime collections.

Needless to say, but our ten minute walk in the snow was more of a half-jog/half-hop race amid freezing temperatures and howling winds and chattering teeth. But we soon ate and drank. And then half-jogged/half-hopped back to the hotel.

We reconvened at noon the next day in the hotel lobby. The roads were now clear so the Holiday Inn Express shuttle man decided to show up at work and deliver us back to the airport. He did not receive a tip.

It was now at 6-8 hours until the first scheduled flight, but everyone in our group proceeded like this was all acceptable and normal. All those with no carry-on bags then marched up to the security gate.

That didn’t include me. I had an extra bag filled with ET Canada paraphernalia. I had to stand in line for the ticket counter. That very long line that snaked across the ticket counter lobby, out the departures entrance, and far down the Pearson airport hallway. It would take two full hours.

So now what? Well, desperation is a pretty good motivating factor to get things done. And we discovered new friends in the line-up. And we discovered that you could order rum pina colada slushies in the hallway. And drink them in public without anyone knowing. And two rum pina colada slushies later, it was the most satisfying two-hour-long lineup of my life. The sun was shining, everyone was calm, we joked, we drank.

The rest of the day was a slog. We ate and drank for free at the Premium Service Lounge on the company’s dime. We read. We joked. We even wrote lines for the post-Grammy show on Monday.

And at 8:30pm, our Air Canada plane finally took off for Hollywood.

So the final tally for the weekend: 10 hours on planes, 43 hours left stranded in Mississauga, and only 35 hours in Los Angeles.

So what about those 35 hours in Los Angeles? That’s for next Monday’s post…
 

For more adventures at ET Canada, check out:

https://www.johnmeyerbooks.com/grammys-2013-part-1/

https://www.johnmeyerbooks.com/grammys-2013-part-3/

https://www.johnmeyerbooks.com/the-view-from-my-desk/

https://www.johnmeyerbooks.com/unusually-thicke-common-people/