Small Toothpaste is Making Me Feel Better About Lost Luggage
maya angelou has a quote “i’ve learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage and tangled christmas tree lights.”
right now i’m dealing with the lost luggage scenario and trying not to lose it so maya will be proud of me.
for all the travel we do, yesterday was one of those “uggggh travel is super stressful” days. i woke up at 3:33am even though our flight to chicago>toronto didn’t leave until 10:30am so i was already exhausted and a little whiney.
then we get to the airport and find our there is bad weather in chicago (of course) so our plane is delayed until 1pm, which means we miss our connecting flight from chicago to toronto. when the woman changed our tickets to get us on another flight, she took our old tickets and threw them away (along with the luggage tag). our airline was also switched to air canada, which is a much fancier airline than most of the US airlines we fly on!
spacious seats, bigger windows, free movies/tv shows and we had the back of the plane to ourselves. by this time it was 9pm.
we are in toronto for the District 60 conference and my husband’s first book signing! woohoo! our new friend galia (and jack) picked us up from the airport at 12:30am this morning with such a cute sign! all ravery had to do was look for a picture of himself-hilarious and adorable.
as we watched the last few bags spin around the conveyor belt and our big silver suitcase was no where to be found…my heart started beating super fast and then i could feel panic start setting in. “i shouldn’t have left my silver bracelet in there, ohhh my deodorant! now i’m going to smell bad, my nice clothes, my husband is keynoting this and his suit is in there, and crap-i totally packed food i’m probably not supposed to be boarder-crossing with…”
we talk to the baggage guy and he rolls his eyes at me and says “you don’t have a baggage tag?!?! you NEVER throw away a baggage tag!!!!!!!” obviously, thank you kenny. take deep breaths and get him all the information we have.
this is a fancy event where people are dressed in suits and lovely dresses and i’m rocking a t-shirt and high water jeans. i don’t even have nice socks on (though everyone else waiting for the flight to toronto did) hilarious to to me:
learning that lesson of maybe i need to start traveling in more ‘event appropriate clothing’ in case things like this happen. according to the bag tracing website…they are still searching for it. still trying not to freak out and imaging the hotel calling us at any moment to tell us they have it in the lobby. good thing my husband always looks like he just walked out of a magazine catalogue so he’ll be fine. maybe i can create something from the curtains like maria from sound of music?
we arrived to the hotel after 1am and feel so lucky that this conference is taking such good care of us! we walked into a gorgeous hotel room and they had goodies waiting for us (although we will have to save the truffles for after our challenge) but they gave us delicious smelling coconut bath treats because there is a gorgeous bathtub that i will be using twice a day.
for now i’m putting coconut lotion on my armpits and hoping that lasts the day.
i used to be a pretty pessimistic person so to combat that, i force myself to come up with at least 1-3 positives for negative situations. here they are for our lost luggage:
1) this tiniest and adorable-ist toothpaste the hotel gave us
2) good blog material
3) we made it here safely
oh and happy friday! hope your day is going well and you are finding the positives!
the new wifestyle: you may not be able to control all situations but you can control your reactions to them
questions:
1) have you ever had the airlines lose your luggage? did you get it back?
2) what kind of clothes do you wear when you travel? (i’m 100% about comfort, not fashion)
3) would you say you are more of an optimist/pessimist/realist/other-ist?
debra
April 4, 2014 at 10:35 am
1) Nope, never had lost luggage….knock on wood. Would be a stressful situation though.
2) Warm clothes when traveling. I freeze on airplanes!
3) Definitely optimistic here. Can’t deal with negatives or negative humans.
chelsea
April 4, 2014 at 1:24 pm
ohhhh good keep knocking on that wood-i’ve never had it happen for business so it’s super stressful! i freeze on airplanes too debra-how does anyone wear open toed shoes on there?! i can attest how great and optimistic you are and i love that. time/energy/bad vibes wasted on negativity (glad i’m finally seeing this)
Heather Hawkins
April 4, 2014 at 1:31 pm
1) I don’t think I have. But I am super afraid of it. Especially for international flights.
2) NOT a dress of any kind. See this link as my reason why. For serious. My life is a drama to me and a comedy to all others: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRPOMBcE7vk
3) I always say “the glass is half.” So I guess that’s a realist, but I prefer to think of it as an “eh, things happen”ist.
chelsea
April 5, 2014 at 8:40 am
haaaa loved your speech! that would be quite embarrassing but i’m glad you could laugh at it 🙂 yes international luggage loss is baaad. it’s still not back. we had a fake out call from one airline and when we called the other who was supposed to have it-no record. booooo. like your ‘things happen-ist’
yourlegacyspeaks
April 4, 2014 at 1:35 pm
Once when I was young, eighteen so it was a long time ago, when people made short connections – luggage didn’t. I ended up in Lexington, Kentucky in my jeans along with my debate partner, Tim. Our luggage (and debate evidence) would not come in until after the debate tournament began the next morning. Tim was smart and carried his suit bag. I had our affirmative case in a briefcase, plus my makeup bag and purse. I was in Jeans. That evening we let the tournament director know what was going on. They made sure we had an affirmative round first thing in the morning. One of the assistants (thankfully a good friend), picked everything up from the airport. Here I am debating Harvard in my jeans, my partner and the other team were in three piece suits. In walked Gil with our debate evidence and my clothing. Only he was carrying my dress, my slip, my bra, hose, underwear and shoes. All where everyone could see them! At least we won the round.
Now you know I wear jeans and comfy shoes – always comfy shoes. I am Optimistic. Just embarrassed. I did learn to pack a soft dress and shoes in my carryon. I always bring makeup and whatever hair appliance is needed.
chelsea
April 5, 2014 at 8:45 am
ack! how stressful. i’m glad the tournament director was understanding and made sure you could do the affirmative round first. glad you finally got your things but quite the embarrassing way for them to be delivered to you! good call that you bring a soft dress in the carry-on! i think this has showed me i need a different carry-on that isn’t a backpack containing just my computer, snacks and books!
G
April 4, 2014 at 8:15 pm
A quick tip, use straight antibiotic soap in the pits if you get desperate. Dont rinse. It will keep you stink free long enough to get through an event but might cause a little irritation later. Its totally worth it if youre desperate enough 🙂
chelsea
April 5, 2014 at 8:42 am
ohhh good tip! thanks G…i just may have to do that. i got some deodorant but still crossing my fingers for my bag because this shirt is gross and all airplane-y! thank you
Jess
April 5, 2014 at 9:00 am
1)When i studied abroad the airlines lost our luggage for the first few days. I was 21, in a new country with a new family. Luckily i had my glasses and contact things in my carryon!
2) right now im travellkng by bus so it is all comfort
3)optimist all the way!:)
Miss you guys and our moose knuckles!
chelsea
April 5, 2014 at 2:39 pm
LOOOOVE following along your journey all over the place jess-so happy for you and your adventures! smart thinking with your eyewear always in your carry-on, sounds like that was a semi-stressful start to studying abroad! you are the ever optimist and i love it. miss YOU and let’s have moose knuckles soon!
Corinne
April 6, 2014 at 9:20 pm
Love that – good blog material! Haha. I’ve only lost my luggage once before and it was when I was moving overseas. Luckily my new roomie was kind enough to let me wear her clothers for a few days.
I’m totally about comfort too – I feel you woman.
chelsea
April 7, 2014 at 8:54 am
yikes corrine-MOVING is a much more intense time to lose your luggage but good thing you did have a good roomie who shared clothes with you! yeeees travel=comfort+whatever i want to eat 🙂
Tom Mahoney
April 7, 2014 at 8:57 am
1. Never happened and these days, if I can’t drive there, I don’t take the gig.
2.Always comfort. I only dress up for pay gigs, The freebies, weddings and funerals are business casual at best,
3.Other-ist, Or better still – Stuff happens-ist.
Just glad you and the Ravery made it safely.
chelsea
April 7, 2014 at 1:31 pm
hah love that you also into the comfortable and more casual side like me tom! stuff happens-ist is a good one because it’s true! learning to roll with it all 🙂 and i’m very thankful we made it safely as well-thank you!
Pingback: Boat Shoes are the New Heels (Adventures in Canada Part II)! | the new wifestyle