YYZ

Being stuck at the airport on the last leg of 5 months of business travel can be as exhausting as thinking the next trip is right around the corner. So here I am, having accomplished a lot with work I love and enough with family I must endure, and yet still not enough with others as hoped. I'm happy I came to Toronto (both times) this round and happier to be finally getting home for the summer.
The last time I was in Toronto was July 1994 with my best friend from high school and by best friend from college thus far. It was the summer after my freshman year, the first of which I spent at The Ohio State University. We drove up after semester finals to see Pink Floyd's final tour (again).

This time around, 14 years later, I got to a Blue Jays game (they were trampled by the Cubs 8-1 but it was cool being back in the old Skydome) and remembered the last time I was engulfed in that sound system. Every angle of what is now Rogers Centre, as I set out to prove this time, has great sound, the dome is well equipped. But it's no classic ballpark, no Wrigley, Fenway, Yankees, Dodgers. There were more Cubs fans there (and surrounding me here at the airport in fact, they too stuck and just hoping to get home). We're watching the U.S. Open, the Tony's are starting, the Lakers are winning their final game at home this season, lots happening.

Still here, still waiting for a flight. How much bullshit can I peruse on the www before I just slam the screen shut? It's raining and raining and the rain just won't stop. Pearson airport is no JFK, though you can't blame it for Sunday night schedules (Admirals Club closed at 6:30p!?!)

I flew in to JFK once through the classic TWA/Terminal 5, that gorgeous beauty designed by Eero Saarinen, pictured above. What a gem of a structure.

Unfortunately, I'm headed to LGA, which really has but one merit: Metrocard service home. There's a JFK flight, not on that, ahead of ours and it doesn't look like either is leaving anytime soon... neither is that flight to Chicago with all the Cubs fans. What's for dinner?? Last chance before the universe around us shuts down on a Sunday night.

YYZ has its merits. Let's give it up for those Torontonians and their speedy Customs process, gateway to the US by way of enough US agents to fill a commuter jet. Could they really commute like that to work every day? Government jobs are hardly worth extreme commuting, I gather.

Amsterdam's airport and entrance to their train system was pretty insane, like an indoor mall I couldn't quite grasp. The language was just far enough from comprehension to confuse, but boy are those dutch so sweet-looking; enough to want to pinch!

Acapulco's airport was my childhood gateway to Fantasy Island. The immediate heatwave, the staircase off the plane and onto buses, then trucked in through customs with loved ones and peace (only if you're under 14) just on the other side. Lately, it has gotten so big and upgraded, like all the cute small ones I also remember (MDW, ISL). But I have the memories, that's what carries me.

I've just been bumped onto the JFK flight, lovely, and we've been cleared to board and depart. Headed home