Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Two Minute Hate at the Airport

I am on my way to Washington, D.C., for my godson's confirmation tomorrow; and I arrived at the airport a bit ago. Of course I have time to kill, that's all part of the devious plan.

Actually, this went better than usual--but I'm only as far as the Sbarro just inside Security, where I had to do the following:

> Unpack, to retrieve my shaving kit, and place all liquids and gels in a ziplock bag. I gather the ziplock bag itself has nil security value on the airplane ("ah, brother, brother, we cannot go ahead! I cannot open this ziplock bag! Ah, what servants of Satan these American industrialists are!"), so I suppose it's to expedite the search in the Security line.

> Remove all articles of clothing...ah, I'm just kidding, but it increasingly feels like it. I only had to take off my overcoat and shoes. It is undiginifed, all the same; thankfully my socks had no holes in them (that I noticed).

> Not only take my laptop out of its case (they no longer make you turn it on, that's a plus), but now I must place the laptop and case in separate containers. So where I arrived at the airport thinking I wasn't carrying much -- the laptop in its case, plus a small bag with all my other gear -- suddenly I had a whole baggage train of items rolling down the security (oops, forgive me Almighty One, Security!) counter.

At least the priests and priestesses of Security -- er, I mean the "personnel" -- are behaving more curteously.

Meanwhile, it is soooo thoughtful of the Airport moguls to program all-Christmasy-music-all-the-time; may the travel gods forbid we go even five minutes without sleigh bells and winter wonderlands and wishes for a white Christmas!

Okay...I feel better now!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

Expensive and inconvienant, some of us have just started mailing various and sundry items to our destination.

The last time I traveled I had two pair of socks, underpants & shirts, and a pair of pants and sweatshirt in a bag and that was it - other things I mailed ahead.

Of course that probably set off alarms somewhere. "Why doesn't this guy have toothpaste? No shampoo? Is he filthy or not planning on living much longer?"

We can't win. The less you take, the more suspicious you look, probably... On the other hand, the less you take, the less of a mess you have.

Unknown said...

Cincinnati Airport is worse with security then DC's airports, I know after having to fly there and back for a conference this past summer. Have fun while you are in town!

Anonymous said...

Have fun!

Anonymous said...

So do you feel safer? I don't.

Anonymous said...

why not buy the things you need when you get to your destination?

most sundries are available in travel size.

Rich Leonardi said...

Welcome to my (almost) daily routine.

* sigh *

Fr Martin Fox said...

Anonymous:

Because I get these little bottles of shampoo when I go to hotels, and keep them, and they work great for traveling. If you open one of them, or unwrap a bar of soap in a hotel, it'll be thrown away anyway, so why not take it with you?

Plus, finding a drugstore when traveling -- and you don't have a car -- is a real pain. Unless you're willing to pay a premium for stuff you'll use for a day and then throw away.