The Cirque Journey – Montreal – Day 36 – July 19

The trip to Montreal was so stressful, tiring and long that I nearly wanted to head right back to Vegas – or, better yet, Los Angeles. It started badly. I couldn’t sleep all night long and felt like I was getting sick. I finally got up at nine, took a quick shower, grabbed my bag and took a taxi to the airport. I checked in fine but when I went through security, no one told me that I needed to have my boarding pass in my hand (unlike every other flight I’ve taken recently where they don’t want you to have anything in your hands). This was apparently a HUGE problem for them despite the fact that the boarding pass was in my carry-on a foot away from them.

After being checked by a body-scan machine (which is a really cool tube-shaped device that everyone had to step through) I had to be patted down – as if the TOTAL BODY SCAN wouldn’t find a weapon. I guess, like everyone, that it makes me feel safer that security is so strict, but of course, I don’t want it to delay ME. Don’t they know I’m not a terrorist?  I was at the airport way early so this wasn’t a major issue, just an annoyance.

But then, they get my order wrong at Burger King. I’m too far away when I discover the error and, besides, it was too crowded. So, basically, I’m grumpy and tired. A bad combo that’s aggravated by the fact that we have a 30 min wait on the runway even though we boarded a half hour early.  I really like new places but I’m not a very good traveler.

I have an aisle seat for the flight, which isn’t too bad, but I’m generally fairly afraid of flying and every bump makes me wish I could hold Scott’s hand – or anybody’s hand really. Instead, I do my best to hide my nerves.  A glass of wine helps. I try to rest but really only manage to doze occasionally. The five hour flight seems impossibly long and I even watch the animated film Monsters vs Aliens without sound – because I’m too cheap to buy the headphones.

When we land, it’s another long runway wait to get to the gate – though I am hugely thankful that we landed safely. In a stroke of luck, I breeze through customs and reach my mom, who had arrived a couple of hours earlier. Unfortunately, my mom’s hotel is awful. We had picked a place that was close to Cirque Headquarters thinking it would be easier for us to meet up but Headquarters is ten miles or so from downtown. So she was in a really crappy hotel with nothing around for her to do while I had to be at work.  I’m proud of her for making the decision to just get a different hotel. She gets a room at the Sheraton downtown – which turns out great – but she had to pay for a night at the yucky place and get a 2nd cab to take her downtown.

Meanwhile, I’m still at the airport and I can’t find the Cirque driver at first. When he gets there, I also meet Daniel, a clown in the new Cirque vaudeville show that’s starting its training in Montreal. We end up waiting for a guy on another flight (he’s an acrobat about to start training for Wintuk – Cirque’s seasonal show in New York). He finally arrives and the driver takes the guys to their hotel before taking me to the Artist Residence – which is right across the street from HQ. I throw my bags into my small but tidy room and then quickly grab a cab to meet my mom even though it’s already after 10 pm.  I’m exhausted and have to be at HQ by 8:30 tomorrow morning but I feel like we should touch base. Plus, I’m hungry.

After a $25 cab ride, I reach the Sheraton. We get a quick bite and form a loose plan for the week before I turn right back around and take a $25 cab ride back. I’ll use the Metro tomorrow but I didn’t want to do it the first time so late at night. When I finally get back to the room, I literally collapse into bed.

Just because I find it amusing, here’s a photo of Canadian money:

Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the banner above is a statue of a clown shoe that sits at the entrance to Cirque HQ.  I thought it was cool and I’ll use it as a banner for all of the Montreal entries.