Our First Evening in Not-Toronto

[bjarvis]

We should be in Toronto right now, but we're not. OK, fine. I'm still bitter but I'll have to deal with this situation as best possible.

The hotel is charging $10/day for Internet access --10baseT in our room-- but no charge for wireless in the lobby. Guess which I'm using.

After getting online to check what things a tourist might do in Buffalo besides visiting the place where Pres Garfield was shot or watching the house fires in North Tonawanda, we decided it was too late to do much; besides, we have all had a relatively long and annoying day so rest & relaxation was in order.

So we went to see the Simpsons movie at a cinema only a 1/2 miles for our hotel.

I liked it, although there was a couple a few rows in front of us and an unrelated group a few rows behind us who proceeded to recite the dialog of the movie from memory. WTF?! Does that what people do in Buffalo for fun? Fortunately, a cinema staffer came by to request everyone shut up but it was still annoying. Well, that and being trapped in Buffalo.

Following the movie, we slipped next door to Friendly's for a light dinner, then returned to the hotel to snooze.

Various relatives called --sometimes more than once-- offering ideas of how to potentially resolve our situation in Buffalo: having someone in DC courier up my green card (yeah, great, if only we knew where it was), perhaps begging the INS for a waiver (they're not that generous) and so on. Bless their hearts from trying... they love me so much they'll do anything to get me out of Buffalo so I can help pay for the wedding. :-)

Comments

[brunorepublic.livejournal.com]

May I suggest The Anchor Bar? Home of the original Buffalo wings, and the food is actually quite good. Later in the evenings they have live entertainment. The jazz band that globespan and I saw there were fantastic.

[greyguy-sf.livejournal.com]

Is it too late to spend the weekend in Phoenix? It IS a dry heat, after all.

[moofedct.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear about all that. :(

[ohwolfman.livejournal.com]

It could be worse. You could be in Cleveland. :)

I'm sorry to hear of your troubles.

[trawnapanda.livejournal.com]

what things a tourist might do in Buffalo besides visiting the place where Pres Garfield was shot or watching the house fires in North Tonawanda

couldn't you do a housefire tour??

you know - Tonawanda first, then North Tonawanda, then on to Lackawanna one night; then the next night the flaming homesteads of Cheektowaga followed by Depew and Kenmore. I'm sure you could find SOMEthing to entertain you - just follow the TV news trucks, if you can't see the glow on the horizon.

Growing up in Trawna, watching Channel 7 Eyewitness Nooz on WKBW I was (like so many canajuns) impressed by the daily appearance of house fires (plural) every night. Years later, when I actually drove through streets of Buffalo (as opposed to zooming through on the interstate) I expected to see burned out shells every second block, but no. Nevertheless, all the houses seem to be wood - have they not learned the lesson of the three little pigs? (or indeed, of the daily lessons from Channel 7?)

Maybe the people burned out of their homes in Buffalo have nowhere else to go, so the go see the Simpsons movie and memorise the dialogue.

seriously, sorry to hear about your official paperwork distress. I guess this means no evening-meal-in-trawna-for-brian-and-friends... that's a disappointment too.

did I miss it?

[justetthon.livejournal.com]

so I probably missed it along the way somewhere, but why are you not allowed into Canada? Aren't you a native and your passport shows it? Are you sorry you're missing (have missed?) this wedding you went there for in the first place?