Plains, Trains, and Recurring Migraines: Part 2 of My Adventures in Sleep Deprivation

Once the Alaska Airlines counter is open, I'm able to check in. The agents are friendly, my disposition is cheerful. All is well.

Brian's flight to Chicago is cancelled but he is rerouted to Dallas. I hang out with him and Nate Nelson, another chaser, at my gate. Lou Ruh had already boarded his flight by the time I clear security so I don't get to say goodbye to him in person.

I read my new book on the flight and catch up on a bit of sleep. Thankfully no one is in the seat beside me.

We land at SeaTac at around 7:40pm in blizzard conditions. Back in Wichita, Rocky had kept mentioning the bad weather that was hitting Seattle, but I didn't give it a lot of thought. None of my flights were cancelled so it didn't concern me.

Rows and rows of snow plows line the tarmac. When I exit the plane, the gate is one of those outdoor ones so I enjoy being blasted by the high winds for a minute or so.

Once inside, I b-line it for Club at SEA, which is a Priority Pass lounge at the far end of the A gates with free food and booze. I get 4 free entries a year with my credit card. Though, even paying the $27 is worth it, considering that a couple drinks and a meal could easily cost double that at the airport.

My flight is at 11:15pm, boarding at 10:35pm. I enjoy two drinks and a few mini sandwiches as I charge my phone.

Delayed - 11:40pm 

I decide to make my way back to the C gates at 10:30pm, for the 11pm boarding. 

Delayed - 12:25am

I read more of my book. There is a guy on his cell phone beside me speaking in an exotic sounding language that he's mixing with English. 

Cancelled

At 11:27pm, the gate fills with muttering, sighs, and some light swearing. We all line up at the customer service counter. As we wait for the airline agents to decide our fate, the gate next to us announces that they will be boarding, and the group of people, many of whom are sprawled out along the floor and seats, burst into applause and cheers as they stand up and gather their things. We all look at each other and chuckle, envious. 

As I stand in line, I get a text message informing me of my new flight - February 12th, at 1:55pm; more than 36 hours later. There has to be something better. 

An hour passes before it's my turn. A part of me naively hopes that they will put me up in a hotel, but I know that airlines don't provide accommodation when flights cancel due to weather. A girl can dream though. 

I decide to go for a different itinerary: Fly down to Portland at 8:15am and then fly from Portland to YVR at 10:35am. The agent says it's risky because the second leg is an Air Canada flight so if they cancel, they have no obligation to re-book. I check the forecast for Portland - rain; lots of rain. I figure it will be fine and I choose that option. 

I sit down again and ponder sleeping options. I also look into renting a car and driving up, but the roads were pretty bad and the only vehicle options were expensive. I looked into some hotels, but the cheapest ones were full. I glance at the digital clock mounted from the ceiling. It was 1:07am. The bright red numbers glowed with a blur in my fatigued vision. My makeup felt like caked on face paint. I really just needed to take off my bra and brush my teeth. It was decided - I was going to sleep at the airport. I was boarding in less than 7 hours, so why not? 

I am so thankful for the free Silver Lining Tours t-shirt I got at ChaserCon. I wore that shirt for the next 18 hours or so. As I'm taking off my makeup in the bathroom, I notice someone standing in a stall with the door open. She's facing toward the inside of the stall, but it's not clear what she is doing. I can't see her face; the door half covering her. I go into a stall myself and then as I come back out, I see her standing in front of the sink. Her pants are down slightly and one hand is down her underwear, digging around in her butt-crack. And here I was, self conscious about flossing in a public bathroom. 

I go back out and stake my claim on a sleeping area. As I'm making my little nest, I see someone walk by me with some familiar looking polkadot sneakers - the butt digger. I was terrified she might sit near me. Thankfully, she went further down. 

Between 2am and 5am, the airport is relatively quiet and I am able to have little 20 minute bursts of sleep while trying to somehow stay aware of all my belongings. It's probably the closest I've ever felt to what being homeless might feel like; you can't let yourself fall into a deep sleep when you are in public. I clutch my purse the whole time and have my charger draped over my luggage in such a way that if someone moved my luggage, I would notice because it would trip the cable and I would feel it move. It was like my own little anti-theft alarm. Not sure if it would actually work though. When I am finally decided to get up, around 5:30am, I notice someone had plugged in their phone beside mine - very close to my luggage. It alarms me that they were able to get that close to me and I never even noticed. They could have easily unplugged my charger and taken my bag while I slept. 

I get a coffee and croissant and wait to board my 8:15am flight to Portland. 

Delayed - 8:52am

My arrival would now be 9:39am and my Air Canada connection is an hour later. That's a little tight. I decide to make my way to the A gates, where the Air Canada gates are, and see if I can speak to someone to get a boarding pass for my connection to save some time. As I'm standing in line.. 

Delayed - 10:22am

I step out of the line, as I realize it is pointless because I will miss the 10:35am connection anyway. Back to the C gates to speak with customer service. 

After speaking with Fanny, a friendly Alaska Airlines agent, my options are: I can either stay here and be on standby for a 12:55pm flight.. And if I miss that, there is a 11:15pm flight. But, apparently there is a ton more snow coming.

The other option is getting on my 10:22am flight to Portland and then catching a 3:30pm Air Canada flight

I need to make a decision based on the forecast. Portland only has a winter storm watch; Rain may turn to snow in the late evening. There is a snowfall warning in Vancouver, so the timing for my arrival comes into play too.

I decide to stick with my flight to Portland and catch the 3:30pm AC flight to YVR. I sit at the gate. By this time, I've spent almost 14 hours at SeaTac. I'm strangely delirious and in a really good mood. I make idle chit-chat with strangers, answer some work emails.. "Should I cc upper management in this..? Meh, why not?" 

Delayed - 10:52am

This is fine. I'll still have plenty of time to catch my connection in Portland. 

Cancelled

Time to visit my old friend, Fanny. She seems to be on a break when I get there so I speak with someone else, who was equally friendly. 

The next available flight to Vancouver is the next morning at 9:35am. There are no other options, so I reluctantly agree. She tries to suggest positive things, like checking out Pikes Place Market or going to an outlet mall. My flight is literally in 24 hours from now. 

If I stay here another night, I'll just buy this shirt and wander around in it..

I sit on a bench and think. A frazzled woman sits next to me and puts on her shoes (she had just cleared security). We chat for a bit and I tell her my situation and she's like, "Isn't there a ferry or something? You're so close." The lightbulb switched on in my head and I Google "Seattle to Vancouver ferry". I find a Bolt Bus schedule. I can get back to Vancouver in 4 hours and it will only cost me $27USD. Done.

The decision was made. I am abandoning my flight. Now I just have to get to the bus station, which was downtown. Thankfully, Seattle has something very similar to the Skytrain that we have here in Vancouver, called Light Link Rail. I wait on the platform, enjoying the fresh air after being indoors for the past 20 hours, as the snow keeps falling relentlessly; I know this is the right choice. It's only about 8 stops to get downtown, but the gap between stops is at least 5 minutes. I doze off periodically, and since I am so sleep deprived, I fall into REM instantly and have vivid dreams that only last about a minute or so before I snap awake. 

I find the bus station but I still have an hour to kill. I am starving and am dying for a drink. I find the only bar in the area, a seedy little dive called Joe's Bar and Grill. It was pretty sketch, but I didn't care. I needed a long island iced tea and some food. I chat with the bartender, a young woman with wild curly hair. She seems nice, yet she forgot that I ordered food. . I connect to the wi-fi and see that my boss's boss has been trying to get ahold of me for the past half hour. He was also flying to YVR from Seattle and wanted to give me his flight. I let him know I'm taking a bus. The long island hits hard. With the sleep deprivation and empty stomach, my mind melts into a warm sense of euphoria and I think about how great my coworkers are and how lucky I am. What a great life I have! Everything is awesome! I really need those chicken strips... and soon. I was at the "I love you, man" stage and it was barely noon. 

My food finally arrives and I burn my mouth eating it really fast before taking some of it to go and heading to the bus station. While waiting to board, I chat with a British girl who is staying in Vancouver on a working holiday visa. She had to come to Seattle to get her visa extended because apparently you can't do it within the country you are applying for, or something like that. The office she came down to was closed due to the snow, so her trip was essentially pointless. She seemed to be in good spirits though. At the end of the day, that's all you can really do. Mother Nature doesn't give a sh*t; she does what she wants.

Finally on the bus. In the most nonchalant, "I don't give an eff" way, the driver announces over the PA system, "Smoking, cannabis, and booze are prohibited.. Wifi's on, enjoy the ride."

I fade in and out of sleep and I start feeling like Tyler Durdin from Fight Club. My consciousness strung together by jump cuts. 

We get through the border crossing and I feel a sense of relief being back on Canadian soil. It's past 5pm now. It continues to snow as we crawl through rush hour traffic. 

We finally make it to Pacific Central Station and once again, I am outside in the snow and back on a platform, waiting for a train. I am so close to home.. yet my vehicle is still parked at airport. I take the Expo Line downtown. My plan is to stop at London Drugs and buy something I've always needed - a dash cam. As I exit the station and walk up Granville Street, I hear a panhandler say, "Wow, that woman looks angry," as I walk by. Surely he isn't talking about me, is he? I am running on empty and on a mission. This was the homestretch. My resting b*tch face is probably locked on.

I find a dash cam and load up on snacks. One last bathroom break and then it's off to the Canada Line to go rescue my car.

Okay, maybe I do look a little angry.

I sit at the front and watch the snow cover the tracks as we push forward. A Skytrain attendant boards and stands near me. She says she has to keep an eye on the tracks because sometimes when it snows too much, the system thinks something (or someone) is on the track and it halts the train. She needs to be on board to override that and manually drive if need be. 

After spending a good 10 minutes orienting myself and figuring out how to find my car (after everything I had been through.. this was the most challenging part!), I finally get there and see it partially covered. 

I spend about half an hour cleaning off my car and figuring out how to use the dashcam. 

I am finally ready to drive home. 

I know for people who live in other parts of Canada, this amount of snow is nothing. But for a Vancouverite like me and someone who has only been driving for about 4.5 years - driving home in this is a big deal, especially with the little amount of sleep I've had. The adrenaline is still lightly pumping. I am ready for this. 

I make it home safe... have a long bath and go to bed. I have work the next day and then I have to prepare for my adventure to Whitehorse that takes place in a couple days. Stay tuned!