2nd Leg

Thursday, May 29, 2008 

We arrived at the airport, checked in with no problem, waited while my Mom parked the car, then cruised quickly through the security line.  It was much too smooth, something had to go wrong, there is no way that going through all this could be this easy.  Sure enough, I sent my carry-on bag through the conveyer belt…I was standing waiting for it to come out the other end for 15 minutes when they said they needed to run it through again.  Then I waited, and next thing I know I’m being hustled over to the examination counter, where they tore my carry-on apart, unpacked everything, open every compartment, every inner-bag, and touched everything.  They, of course, could not find anything, but the monitor operator thought he saw something that was “questionable” like some type of terrorist device, please, do I look like a terrorist?!  They had to run all my stuff through again, individually.  They finally determined that I wasn’t a terrorist nor had any type of threatening device.  The traitor that caused this high level of alarm, my computer converter.  They had never seen anything like that previously, and did not know what it was…maybe they should educate TSA personnel on the latest technology so they do not freak out when they see a standard piece of equipment.  I guess they noticed my face covered in shock and felt they owed me an explanation, which was that there was so much technology in my carry-on that it was suspicious.  Let me see, my computer, mouse, and converter; my handheld; digital camera, plus lithium batteries; cell phone; and the corresponding power cords.  Not sure how this is too much technology that it causes great alarm, but whatever.  I suppose that if you are not familiar with technology you would think that was too much, but I didn’t bring that much, I’ve actually brought more with me on other trips!    After my 45 minutes with TSA trying to convince them that I did not have some type of threatening device, we rushed off to find the gate, which we had to take the train to reach.  We had just enough time to grab a breakfast sandwich and get in line to check in. The flight to New York was pretty much uneventful.  We had a slight lay-over until our next flight.  The movie we watched was decent, we were just glad it wasn’t a little kid-little kid movie, as we usually seem to get on the flights.  Grandma had all of us sitting in an aisle seat, so we looked like the four-corners.  The flight attendant noticed Ariel’s knees jammed into the back of the seat in front of her and cleared the exit row for her.  She and Grandma went and sat there.  I had an entire row to myself and Auntie was smashed with her whole row filled, so she moved back with me.