Sheila, Mark and Joyce FINALLY made it home. Here is a written description of their saga that she sent out.... Remember this was written by Sheila.......
We knew we had to get to the Toronto airport early due to 'heightened security' at the airport. (or as Homeland Security likes to call it....how to piss off, annoy, frustrate and make lives as miserable as possible for all travelers, who wish to visit their country).
So we get there at 3:30 for our 7pm flight. Pandemonium reigns! Fortunately we had already printed our boarding passes at home, so we got to miss the 'big' lineup that looped twice around the terminal and instead we were directed to stand in the smaller baggage check line up with only a few thousand lucky people. Then....oops! An air Canada rep comes along after 40 minutes and says' what are all you people doing in this line' it doesn't go anywhere. Bags must be checked in at aisle F, so there is a stampede over to F.
Where there are a whole lot of people sitting on the floor, but no check in agents. Finally after standing here for an hour an agent comes along and fills out the tags by hand and attaches it to the bag. Oh and we have to check everything, but purses, small bags or laptop bags. At some point we will be physically searched, so less is best for carry on So I start stuffing everything, I can in my checkins. (more about this later)
Now we are told we have to wait until our flight is paged to go thru US immigration. At this point we notice the flights that are being called on the pager system, were suppose to fly out at 9:30 am. So we find a place against a wall and settle in. It is now 6pm, and when we look at the monitor, its says our flight to Dallas is still on time. HA HA!!
Next an announcement comes on and begins to list cancelled flights...dozens of them but not ours. Whoopee!. We run into a friend of Marks who has been trying to get to Florida with his family since 9am and is still waiting to be called to security. I'm concerned that it stills says our flight is on time, but we haven't been called, so I track down an agent who happily tells me all 4 digit flights to the US have been cancelled, by Homeland Security so sorry, nothing Air Canada can do and we should TRY to rebook for the next day. I tell her it still says our flight to Dallas (ac7995) shows as still taking off. She points me to a courtesy phone. I call, of course go on hold for the next available agent for another 30 minutes. I finally talk to this very frazzled agent who says she doesn't know what the hell is going on, but will try and find out for me. Another 10 minute hold. She then comes back and tells, me that her departure department isn't much help, but she thinks our flight has been delayed unitl after 8pm, and has not been cancelled. She said we should already be thru security or we will miss it. I explain the 'wait till you are called' policy in affect at Peason, she says ignore it and go for it or we will be left standing at the airport. So I round up Mom, Mark and we bull our way up to the immigration entrance. (you know Canadians are really nice ;-), we just pushed our way thru with a few excuse me's and 'our flights boarding' and they parted like the red sea, friggin amazing considering everyone's frustration level). Anyway we get to the door, where there is a TCA security person who looks at our bourding passes and of course says we haven't been called. Then a very excited AC agent who happens to be there, yells OMG DALLAS you should already be through security and they let us pass, along with a few other Dallas refugees who were lurking. I will try to shorten the next 2 hours. Line up.....immigration. Line up.....to hand in the blue US immigration cards. Line up to throw your bags on the belt. Line up... to go through security. Finally, we're free, we're free!!!! and head to the gate. But....we get 50 yards from our gate and run into a very angry mob all penned in by barriers. We have now reached the physical search part of the program. They tell all the women to stand on the right and men on the left, Mark gets seperated. (more about this later). Mom and I inch our way up to the front and finally get searched. They take every little firggin thing out of the bags, pat you down, look in your shoes, hair . The women searching me kept apologising and I told her to just get on with it. I'll strip naked right here if it will get me thru this line up faster. She said that wouldn't be necessary. I can see the gate and they are starting to board. Mom and I get there, but no Mark. (2 guys in the mob fainted and they had to call para-medics, which put the boys line behind the girls) The agent tells me we only have about 10 more minutes, so I run back to the mob, flag down a TCA woman and tell her, she either needs to get my husband thru the line now or have him throw me the car and house keys, cause our flight is leaving. She asks his name then screams out Mark Coles your wife needs your keys, your flight is leaving. Fortunatley the mob thinks this is pretty funny and actully lets him through.
We finally get on the stupid plane and off we go. With 1 hour left in the flight, we are told we must remain in our seats, sit up straight, hands in our laps, no talking or gum chewing. (ok this part I exaggerated) We get to Dallas at midnight and wait an hour for the friggin bags. And, you have probably guessed this.......a bag is missing. My bag didn't make the trip. It's now 1:30 and the airport is closed pretty much, so I need to wait for today to report it. I call and the guy tells me there seems to be a run on lost luggage out of Toronto Pearson airport and this could take a while. I realize my cell phone is in it, my power cord for my laptop, my spare reading glasses, most of the christmas stuff and a whole lot of dirty clothes. I also realized this morning that at some point between immigration and Dallas, I've lost my good glasses.... have I mentioned how much I hate flying!!
May El Qaeda AND Homeland Security burn in hell together
The girls have spent most of their Xmas holiday school days off over here. They really have enjoyed the Lush Soap Bath Products that I received for Xmas. The only thing is, they stain your skin if you rub them directly on your skin as opposed to letting them dissolve in the bath water. Only Morgan could figure that out!
Chloe is a shower type of girl, but she loves the exfoliate soaps.
Okay, enough about the girls. We all got together for New Year's Eve at the golf course. Here is a pix of the most popular person at the event. NO! Not Margie (though she could have come in as a close second)!
I'm talking about the girls with her hands in the air. You can't tell it from this picture, but she is wearing a black thong! I can attest to that, because on her very last dance, she mooned us all just before her husband drug her out the front door.
Some people ran out of money early on while the rest of us managed to make out free playing money last all night. It didn't matter how much money we won..... or lost..... Margie and Ralph won a new coffee maker and a new Nikon camera.
The rest of us didn't "win" anything, but Mark was awarded a special prize of a private golf lesson with Kevin, the new director of golf lessons, and I was awarded a coupon for golf for four at Dallas Athletic Club with Don Kennedy.
Of course, I started bitching immediately, cause I need more free golf than that so I can take care of all my buds. He did agree to make it golf for 8! He's just so sweet. Don also decided it was easier to pay for the extra people instead of having to listen to me bitch.
Here's some more pix of the regular gang, minus Gerry and Don. They spent the evening with the Wiley group.
We had three couples that are not the "normal" group, but are fun people. Randy and Wanda are from my AT&T life. Carlos is from my AT&T life, and this is the first time I'd met his wife. She was fun. Then, there are Terry and Matt. I LOVE telling everyone what he does for a living. He's a Pro-Baseball Scout for the White Sox. I think that is so cool "normal" group, but are fun people. Randy and Wanda are from my AT&T life. Carlos is from my AT&T life, and this is the first time I'd met his wife. She was fun. Then, there are Terry and Matt. I LOVE telling everyone what he does for a living. He's a Pro-Baseball Scout for the White Sox. I think that is so cool.
I took approximately 500 pictures of Sue and Carlos before I got one where his eyes were open. She was perfect in every picture. She's a lot of fun, just like Carlos. Well, the fun part!
Matt and Terry were fun also. I wasn't sure they were coming until AFTER we got there. For some reason, their name wasn't on the list when I checked. I've got to work on getting Terry to try golf. Matt is a good player, but Terry is new and doesn't have enough confidence to play with the ladies yet.
There is always one ham in the group. Here is the infamous Wanda, Randy's sweetie.
The cutest couple there....... He was the most sober man there, and I was not necessarily the most sober of women at the event...... but close to it.
Anyway, we all seemed so compatible that I invited everyone over for this coming Saturday for a party. It started out as a Wii / Pass The Ace party..... but has since turned in to a "Dallas Cowboy Play Off" party. This should be fun. Especially if I don't get my house clean. I started yesterday, but lifted too much, and my back hurt all evening. So when I went to bed, I took a high dose of pain pills.... slept like a log, but I have a fog over my head today, so I've not gotten much done. 
Guess I need to quit blogging. We gals are off to see Blind Sided or whatever it's called this evening. I've got to get ready.
Guess I need to quit blogging. We gals are off to see Blind Sided or whatever it's called this evening. I've got to get ready.
Later....
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