January, 2003:

I don’t generally get excited when I get SPAM, but today is different. For today, I have received my first piece of SPAM en français.

Jess tells the story of our morning yesterday. I think this sums it up pretty well:

And all this before seven in the morning.

Oh, by the way: all the mentions of “Daniel” are references to yours truly.

She made it!!!!

She was still waiting for everyone else to get through customs when she called. She didn’t have time to give me all the details, but she said they didn’t let her through without a fight.

She may have missed her bus to Chicago. She won’t know until she gets to Buffalo. Either way, I’m getting in the truck and heading towards Illinois. Depending on where she ends up, I’ll either pick her up in St. Louis or Chicago.

She made it. She made it. She made it!!!!

Her bus left about 45 minutes late. Assuming that the trip to Buffalo takes the same amount of time regardless of what time they leave, she should have been in Buffalo 30 minutes ago. I didn’t get a call from Fort Erie, which I understand. She’s under a lot of stress and it was last night at midnight that I asked her to do that, so it’s easy to forget. But why hasn’t she called yet?

Is she still being interrogated by the INS? Did she get turned down and, for some reason, her cell phone doesn’t work at the Border and they don’t have a pay phone there? Did something even worse happen to her bus while travelling to the border?

I’m so very worried.

After arguing with myself for 15 minutes, I decided to take a shower. I put the phone in the bathroom and jumped in. Just as I was about half-way through brushing my teeth, the phone rang. I peeked out of the shower curtain to see who it was.

“PRIVATE“, read the Caller ID.

It seems about half of the times when Jess calls from Canada the Caller ID shows something it’s not. Either “UNAVAILABLE“, or in some cases “AMERICAN VOICE“, whatever that is.

I rinsed my mouth quickly and jumped out of the shower.

“Hello?”

“Hi! This is Lee with an important message…”

“Oh shit,” I thought. “Something’s happened. This is either a collect call, or she’s in Jail, or… something. I don’t know what.”

“… about Personal Health Care. “, the voice continued.

Damn telemarketers. Now it’s personal.

Her bus left Toronto late because the heater in the original bus was broken. So it’s understandable that, even though her original schedule had her in Buffalo 15 minutes ago, she’s not there yet. However, she told me she’d call when she got to Fort Erie (just on the Canadaian side of the Border) but she hasn’t called yet. She may have forgot. Let’s hope so.

In the mean time, I’m going crazy. I printed out separate maps to every bus station in Chicago, since I don’t know which one she’s going to yet. I also printed out a map to St. Louis — in case I can’t make it to Chicago — and a map to Louisville — just in case.

She’ll be going across the border within the next 15-45 minutes, unless her bus is running late. Please keep her in your thoughts this morning.

She’s on a bus that will be in Toronto, ON in 5 hours. From there, she’ll get on another bus bound for Buffalo, NY, which will arrive about 9 hours from now, with or without her. The bus schedule claims that it takes 15 minutes to get from Port Erie, ON to Buffalo, NY. It’s a 5 minute trip if you don’t count the border. This means that they’ve alloted about 10 minutes for border crossing. Let’s hope that works out to our advantage.

I had planned on meeting her in Louisville, KY at 10:00pm Monday night. However, her bus tickets have her bound for Dallas, TX through Chicago, IL, which is a schedule that doesn’t appear on their website. I contacted Greyhound and they told me that there are no busses that go from Sudbury to Dallas via Chicago. The person I spoke to said that they probably got on a bus that was called in as an extra to handle additional load, and therefore, the schedule for that bus isn’t in their system. There are no times on her tickets. The bus driver couldn’t offer any information about travel in the US, and said that she should ask the driver in Toronto. I’m convinced that, if a bus left Sudbury, ON with people on it, that there should be some record of it’s departure.

I called Greyhound Canada who seemed much more willing to help. I spoke to one of their lead customer service representatives who told me that there are no busses that leave Sudbury at 12:50am to arrive in Dallas, TX. Therefore, what is on her tickets must be wrong. He told me that he sent a note to the ticketing agent in Toronto to give me a call when she arrives there to inform me of her schedule. Hopefully, they’ll do what they say.

I feel so helpless about all of this. There is nothing I can do. There is no way I can help. All I can do is sit and wait and hope for the best. I wish I could put on her skin, put a little makeup on under my eyes to hide the circles, and make this trip for her. But I can’t.

So I sit, and I wait, and I hope.

I’m going to try to get some sleep.

I apologize if any of my bi-lingual entries seem to be very elementary in thier use of the English language. Because I am trying to learn French, the bi-lingual entries are usually written in French first, and then translated to English afterwards. Because my French skills are not very mature, the translations of it are also not very mature.

My brother’s girlfriend is having a party for my brother today. It was his birthday three days ago. I would like to go to it but I don’t know when it is. I have tried to call her but she does not answer. My brother does not have a phone and I am certain that she is there with him. I guess I’ll have to try more.

Traducion en français:

La amie de mon frêre aura une partie pour mon frêre aujourd’hui. C’était son anniversaie il y a trios jours. Je voudrais aller à lui mais je ne sais pas quand c’est. J’ai essayé téléphoner lui mais elle ne répond pas. Mon frêre n’a pas une téléphone et je suis certain que elle y est avec le. Je pense j’aurai essayer plus.