The Problem of Stuff

Well, tomorrow is the big day.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm insane because I paid to fly 4 overweight Rubbermaid totes from Ontario to Rankin Inlet, and I'm going to pay for them to make it to Iqaluit tomorrow with me.

The 37 hours it took to go from Sarnia to Rankin Inlet were quite stressful. I made it to the Sarnia airport an hour before my flight, but apparently the Air Canada employee wasn't in yet. That airport doesn't have an x-ray machine for baggage, so they have to open up all of your items and dig through them. Because I had so much stuff, a long line formed and everybody was staring at my open Rubbermaid totes. Apparently packing popcorn is funny. I heard more than a couple laughs about all the popcorn packages interspersed in my totes that day.

In Winnipeg I was all prepared to haul off my 5 pieces of luggage...but only 4 showed up. And a bottle of hair styler sprayed inside the only tote that had electronics in it. The baggage counter people told me to keep coming back to see if my lost tote arrived on a later Toronto flight and thankfully it did arrive later in the afternoon.

The next day, the Calm Air people kindly informed me that any item over 50lbs cannot be guaranteed to be loaded on the plane. I knew I was allowed one priority piece, but it turned out my suitcase couldn't be made priority since it too was over 50lbs. I looked down at my clothes in dread that I might end up wearing the same get-up for the next while. The Calm Air employee also told me the flight was full and she insinuated that there was no chance in hell I'd be seeing my stuff for awhile.

By some stroke of luck in my favour, all of my things made it to Rankin. I didn't even mind hauling my totes out to my friend's truck; I was just so happy to see them.