Flew to Toronto last Thursday for the Hay House “I Can Do It” Conference, which was chock full of New Age, self-help goodness. It was less about the actual conference and more about meeting up with my friend Nik — we haven’t seen each other in 13 years so this was our excuse.
The flight with Porter was abso-freakin’-lutely awesome. My gate was the one nearest to the security area. I killed time waiting for the flight by watching some Apprentice and NCIS on my netbook. The waiting area at the gate was full of dark-suited businessmen tapping away on their BlackBerries in unison. It was really quite eerie, in a “Children of the Corn” kind of way. I got my two seats without the hoop-jumping that Air Canada and Westjet make you go through, the crew was super nice, we got free snacks. I love the size of the plane — better view out the windows.
Thursday night, we attended lectures by Sylvia Brown and Colette Baron-Reid. Sylvia Brown is an odd mix — she’d make a fantastic stand-up comic, but as a spiritual speaker, she’s a little off. And she completely lost me the minute she started talking about “our Lord” and her church. Felt a bit like those revival meetings, which is so not what I was going for. Colette Baron-Reid is really funny. I was ambivalent about her from reading her books, but she’s extremely entertaining in person. (We saw her again on Saturday.)
I’ve never seen so many pashminas, in so many colours, in one place before.
Friday, we were late getting to the Caroline Myss workshop we were supposed to attend and there were no seats left. When the AC conked out, I left and went back to the hotel room. In the evening, we got to see the premiere of Wayne Dyer’s new movie, “Ambition to Meaning”, as well as a lecture from the man himself. It was a long 5 hours but worth the discomfort. I have to admit, though, that all I kept thinking about throughout the movie was the Stargate SG-1 episode “Wormhole X-Treme!” — Michael DeLuise was the director in this movie and portrayed the actor Nick Marlowe who portrayed Colonel Danning in the fictional TV show, Wormhole X-Treme.
Saturday, we saw Brian L. Weiss and Colette Baron-Reid. Both did some interesting group meditations I’d’ve enjoyed had it not been for the group part. (I’m not one for doing my meditation in a group.) Both of them were extremely funny and worth seeing for that if not for the spiritual aspects of their talks.
Sunday, we decided to give the rest of the conference a miss, which is kind of funny since it was the first morning we were actually going to be on time. I thought we were going to hang out and chat, but Nik decided to hop an earlier flight back to BC so I was left on my own for 9 hours before my flight. Unfortunately, I was also feeling very poorly at the time (for a number of reasons) so was fairly miserable until after I’d gotten to the City Centre Airport for my return flight.
By the time I ran the security gauntlet at the airport (I’ve never had to remove my shoes at an airport before), I was feeling much better than I had in the morning. And imagine my surprise that (a) you could help yourself to drinks and snacks
and (b) they had loads of large Mac screens with free Internet access.
So, had no trouble whiling away the time until my flight home. Again, the Porter crew was super nice, loads of room in my seats, and nice view out the window. Was surprised when they came around with a small box lunch for everyone: turkey sandwich, Babybel cheese with Melba Toast, and a chocolate cookie.
(I definitely had more than my daily requirements of water that day.) Despite leaving late, we got into Ottawa on time and I was home and hugging my cat well before 9pm. I highly recommend Porter if you’re flying to/from any of the cities that they service. I know I’m going to use them the next time I fly to Halifax.
Life Begins at 41...or maybe 43 
Peter DeLuise directed ‘Womhome X-Treme!.’
Michael DeLuise guest starred as the wry Colonel Danning.
I flew Porter a couple of times, too and I agree the staff was amazing, the seat/leg room in the place was amazing; even the food was pretty good. The whole experience was positive except the airplane “walls” were so damn thin. There was like maybe an inch between me and the clear blue sky. That kind of freaked me out — that and being able to feel every bump and wobble. I flew from Halifax though. I think a shorter trip would be not so scary.
Morjana: I think you misread the post — when I wrote that “Michael DeLuise was the director in this movie”, I meant in the “Ambition to Meaning” movie, not the SG-1 episode. I know that Peter DeLuise was the director of both the SG-1 episode and the TV show within a TV show. (That was part of the humour of that episode.)
XUP: I kept thinking of you and the thin walls every time I looked out the window. 😉 I didn’t feel any closer to the sky myself, though, at least not in any kind of negative way. I did feel a little too close to the wing propeller, as you can see from http://www.flickr.com/photos/37034877@N02/3420568282/ . We had turbulence on the flight home but it was no worse than my last Air Canada flight.