Anaheim - Day 1

Sunday was day one of my trip to Anaheim, California for OFC 2007. In January, the US implemented a new rule which requires everyone entering the US by air to have a valid passport. I'd applied for my passport back in January but due to the huge influx of applications, they've had huge backlogs. So after two months and no word on my passport and a week and a half of attempting to get through on the Passport Canada phone line, I finally discovered that my passport wouldn't be ready in time for my trip.

Since I was going to attempt to fly on an expired passport, Sharleen, my coworker, and I got there early enough to give me enough time to get through customs. Good thing too, since it turned out that the travel agent never confirmed her flight with the airline and she didn't actually have a ticket! Half an hour and a bunch of money later, she had tickets. Now onto customs.... as it turned out, they didn't have a problem with the fact that my passport was expired. What they DID have a problem with was the fact that I had a Resident Alien Card that allowed me to live and work in the States. Forty-five minutes and one surrendered card later, I was onto security - where, of course, I get randomly selected for a pat down! One bag search and a pat down later, I'm through security to meet Sharleen and Kim.

Then our plane is forty minutes late. Next, halfway through loading, there's a problem with the power hookup - so they unload the plane, twenty more minutes, and finally we load and take off for San Fransisco. It's a good thing we'd had a two hour layover scheduled in San Fran because by the time we landed our next flight was already loaded! So they hustled Kim and I over to our next flight, loaded us on, and took off. Unfortunately, Sharleen wasn't so lucky and couldn't make her connection in time. Then the airline couldn't find her in their system and didn't want to help her get on another flight. They finally put her on standby for a flight to LAX and she got to Anaheim at 2am - four hours after Kim and I!

So, a long and painful start to the week. Tomorrow - the set up begins!