Don’t you just love to fly?!

Over the weekend I flew to San Diego for a workshop.  It wasn’t the best one I’ve attended, but it was pretty good.  The travel – yuck!  on the way out things went pretty well except for being stopped at security because I forgot to take my emergency knife out of my suitcase and I was trying to carry-on all my (2) bags.  Back to the counter and check in the roll-aboard.  When I came back through, my hair clip made the thing beep — it hadn’t 10 minutes before that.  Oh, well, take out the hair clip, put it in the dish and try again.  Whew!  Success!

Returning, I was scheduled to fly through San Francisco, then on to Atlanta, and lastly, home.  The flight from San Diego to San Francisco was delayed almost 2 hours because of the storms caused by hurricane Hannah in DC.  good grief… well, grief, at least.  Missed the connection for the red-eye to Atlanta.  almost made it.  Ran from the United terminal to the Delta terminal just in time to hear the last call for boarding;  I didn’t even have a boarding pass and all the ticket desks were closed (11 pm Sunday night.)  They even let me through security *sans* boarding pass — accompanied — but the plane was gone. *sigh*  Walk back to United to reschedule.  Of course, no more flights until morning.  The one really great thing was that United gave out vouchers for hotel stays without any hassle.  My new flight was to leave at 6 am, so I got about 4 hours sleep in a very comfy bed — much nicer than the floor of the airport terminal — and I even remembered to ask for a toothbrush at the front desk.

Back to the airport where there are lines everywhere for everything.  I try the e-ticket computer check-in which tells me I need “special attention, please go to manned kiosk.”  Back in line.  By now I’m wondering if I’m going to make my flight.  One of the attendants then calls out for anyone taking my flight, and I get moved up to the front of the line.  Yeah!  Get my boarding passes and head for the gate.  More lines.  I ask someone if I can make my 6:00 flight and am assured, no problem.  A few minutes later, another attendant comes along and asks if anyone is leaving before 6:15 and I say, “my flight is at 6,” whereupon I am led to the VIP line which is empty but ribboned off at the end.  I wait.  And wait.  Suddenly I see the young guy I had been talking to in the regular line.  He calls to me and we laugh that he has made it to the search point before me.  I look around and it looks like no one is coming to let me through any time soon, so I lift the ribbon and my *friend* lets me ahead of him.  I put my stuff in the bins, take off my shoes and my hair clip, and walk through the beeper.  Miracle of miracles — no beep.  But — the TSA person says, “step this way.  You’ve been chosen for extra scrutiny.”  Yep, I’m Granny Frani, looking like a potential terrorist.  Back through the screener and into the puffy drug detector arbor.  Pass that test and it’s on to the table where they are going through my bags.  The TSA guy casually asks why I came through the closed ribbon.  It all comes clear — I got their attention because I went under the ribbon.  I bite back the caustic remark that almost cleared the tip of my tongue and patiently explain how I had waited in the speedy lane until the person who had been in front of me in the regular line showed up ahead of me, etc.  He made some remark about not going through closed places, and I bit my tongue again as he waved me through.  I got to the gate where they were making the final calls for boarding and GOT ON THE PLANE.  The rest of the flight was mercifully uneventful.  However, when I went to pick up my bag (that I had not planned to check in the first place, remember?) — no sign of my bag.  And then I hear what you never want to hear while you are waiting for your baggage — my name being paged to baggage customer service.  They regret to tell me that my bag did not make it on the plane.  They are very polite, very helpful, very agreeable, but my bag is not here, and it won’t be until tomorrow morning when they will bring it to me.  (No, thank you, I don’t want to come back at midnight to pick it up.)  At least my car keys were in my pocketbook and not the suitcase!  With trepidation I drove home hoping that nothing more would glitch.  Made it.