7th March 2004: 5:15 am: And the Journey Begins


A few things of note...I-91 and I-84 are really empty at 4:45 in the morning...who'd have thunk it? Bradley Airport is really looking nice these days. First of all the parking garage is pretty sweet. Leads right into the terminal, it was a nice change from the outdoor parking of yore.

Delta is located in the new terminal here - and a new terminal it is indeed. Wow! It looks nice, the self-check-in was sweet. Really a super experience.

My bag had to be searched at hte security check point. My purse and jacket came through X-ray no problem. So, for that matter, did I. My rollerboard, on the other hand... Yeah, not so much really. It was the last thinkg to go through, so after I had collected my purse and coat, I was waiting for hte roller to come through. It's funny because I was 1/2 thinking "It's going to be searched" and 1/2 thinking about the fact that the woman who was checking the screen and hte man who was helping load the conveyer belt were quite talkative/chatty with each other. Maybe they weren't paying as close attention as they would have otherwise.

Sidebar - I'm sitting at the gate waiting for thm to start boarding and just saw a woman and her little girl walk by. The little girl is probably in like 2nd or 3rd grage and DEFINATELY has a femma-mullet. Who does that to their child?! Dear heavens, please! That is so very wrong! Okay, back to the story...

So then, in the instant karma section of my life, X--ray Screen Lady (XRSL) looks attentatively at the screen and...oops, they're about to call my "zone".

Okay, and on hte airplane in my seat, back to the story.

So XRSL looks at the screen and calls over the gentleman who will hereafter be called "Powder Blue Gloved Man" or PBGM (Chris Carter eat your heart out) and points at the screen asking him a question. I couldn't quite hear what they were saying, not that I was trying to. They were just giving off the "there's something here that's a wee bit suspicious" vibe. Plus it was only 5am and I'd be up since 3:30am and to be honest I couldn't care less. Anyway. PBGM brings my bag and says, very politely, that it needs to be checked, is there anything sharp in there. Not that I know of, replied I, thinking as furiously as I could given that ~ 75% of my brain was either asleep or functioning so slowly such as to not make a difference. Thus commenced the searching - it's fun when powder blue gloves are searching through things icluding my underwear and pads.

PBGM was super nice though - and kept apologizing in the "I'm sorry I'm digging through your underwear or if I'm embarassing you sense." Not finding anything in the outer pockets, or immediately available (there was a false alarm with some chapstick in a grey tube), we moved onto unpacking. Herein lies another comedic moment by the fact that PBGM couldn't undo the inner buckle. He laughed after a few tries, and let me do it, apparently in violation of code.

First up? Toiletries kit! I idly wondered if my razor would cause problems (it didn't). turns out my (metal) hariclip was dense and triggered some sort of alarm. ie they couldn't see through it. Super nice PBGM veyr carefully packed everything back, even going back after realizing he'd left the toothpaste and toothbrush out.

Interjection - that safety video is a bit annoying. Even more so in Spanish. I'm just saying.

PBGM apologized again for taking up my time, wished me a good day and sent me on my way. Whoo.

Oh, Captain just said we're number 2 for take-off. I really hate take-off in planes. Not sure why, it just bothers me. This flight is, at hte moment, nearly empty. It'll probably fill up in Cincinatti, which bites only because I'd rather have more room on the longer flight to SF. Currently, though, there are whole rows that are empty. Whole row to myself, yay!

I'm looking down now, god it's beautiful from up here. Really lovely. Looks deadish like winter though, the view in spring/summer is breath-taking.

That's it for now. Naptime, here I come!