M is for: Mays on a Plane

Welp…the cat’s out of the bag.

In what’s been a horribly-kept secret (kudos Bay Area Sports Guy), many of you know I recently moved to Connecticut to take a job with ESPN. Considering my first day of work was Monday, I feel I can now finally talk about it here on the blog. (Apologies to those I haven’t been able to respond to on Twitter, Instagram, etc in the past few weeks).

First of all, I’m incredibly sad to say good bye to San Francisco. I absolutely fell in love with the city, the food, and especially the people. In my five years at Comcast SportsNet Bay Area, I covered some unforgettable events (2 World Series Championships, a perfect game, and a trip to Japan to cover the A’s in 2008). I also ate some amazing food and bettered my own skills in the kitchen, constantly inspired by the amazingly fresh produce available in California. But most importantly, I made some amazing friends and connections whom I will cherish for a lifetime. I was fortunate to properly say good bye to most of those people (and restaurants) on an epic tour of the Bay Area that I plan to document here on the blog at a later time. (If you follow me on Instagram, I took you along for the ride).

But as I look ahead to this new chapter in my life, I’m ridiculously excited for the opportunities that lie ahead for me at the Worldwide Leader. I expect to learn a lot, work extremely hard, and become a better anchor, host and sportscaster. I’m looking forward to working with so many talented people, and learning from them each day. On a personal level, I’m excited to check out the East Coast and everything it has to offer (especially New York food…which is just a couple hours away).

Speaking of food…many of you have asked if I will continue the blog. As of now, I absolutely plan to continue cooking and sharing recipes here on E is for Eat. On that note, I apologize for the major lagging in my posts lately…but I hope you’ll forgive me as it’s been a crazy time in my life. I’m also currently surviving with just one pan, one pot, and a chef’s knife while I wait for my things to arrive from the West Coast…so you’ll have to wait just a bit longer for new recipes.

In the meantime…I thought I would share with you a hilarious (and horrifying) story from my cross country move….

As some of you know, I am the proud owner of a beautiful and mischievous orange cat named Mays. (As in Willie Mays…he is orange after all). In researching the best ways to get Mays to New England, I decided a one-way flight was probably going to be the easiest. (Though I later found out that transporting a feline from one coast to the other is far from easy).

The thing I was most concerned about is getting the cat through security, as you actually have to carry them through the metal detector and send the pet carrier through the x-ray machine. After consulting with several people (including my vet friend Tonya), I decided to use a mild prescription sedative to help calm his nerves. Imagine what your cat would look like if he was doing a bunch of tequila shots and downing Nyquil but trying desperately to stay awake…and that’s what my cat was like on sedatives. Drunk, sleepy but not *sleeping.*

As it turns out…security was a breeze. He was a champ (or maybe just drugged up), and everyone kept commenting on how adorable he is. I took this opportunity to tell anyone who would listen…

“I’m *moving.* I don’t normally travel with my cat.”

I felt like they were all silently thinking “Surrrrrrrre you crazy cat girl.”

I decided a red eye was a good route to take. It would be dark, quiet…and he’s used to sleeping at that time. In my mind it would be the least stressful for both of us. Once I made it on board, I was ecstatic to discover that the middle seat was open. SCORE. This was going to be even easier than I thought.

WRONG.

I put the carrier under the middle seat and shortly after taking off, I settled in to go to sleep, certain Mays would soon be doing the same thing. As I was dozing off, I sorta recall hearing a flight attendant walk by saying something about a cat as she walked by, but I didn’t think much of it. A few minutes later, I hear over the loud speaker “If you have a cat on board, please alert a flight attendant.”

Huh. That’s weird…wonder why they need me. 


It still hasn’t dawned on me, so I ring my call button.

Flight attendant: “Do you have a cat on board?”

Me: “Yes.”

Flight attendant: “Well, he’s OUT.”

Me: “What? No he’s not he’s right her…..”

UH. OH.

As I reach down, I discover the zipper of the soft-sided carrer is open, and has been busted off the zipper track. The cat was literally out of the bag.

The flight attendant leads me six rows up, where a nice man is holding Mays, who drunkenly looks up at me like “What?” Luckily the guy apparently loves cats. But he doesn’t have one because he’s ALLERGIC. Of course he is. Of course my cat found the allergic guy.

The entire section is giggling. I, meanwhile, am MORTIFIED. Seriously…how embarrassing.

Thankfully the guy sitting next to me helped me fix the zipper so I was at least able to get Mays back in the carrier. But I was worried he was going to pull his escape act again, so I had to stay up all night. On the bright side, I finally got to see Argo. On the down side…it would be another 19 hours before my head would hit a pillow (30 in all). We made it through the red eye, a puddle jumper flight to Hartford, a pet store run, and finally to our new home in Connecticut. (Note to self: red eyes are a *bad* idea when moving a cat to the other side of the country).

Now that Mays has recovered from his drug bender, he’s loving his new found space (turns out you can get a pretty decently big place for what you pay for a tiny one bedroom in San Francisco). So while Mays runs laps (literally) around my apartment, I continue to long for my furniture and a feeling of being settled.

Thanks to everyone for all of the well wishes and a San Francisco sendoff to rival all sendoffs. I look forward to sharing my east coast adventures and cooking in a normal-sized kitchen (with a gas stove!)