“You’ve gotten crankier over the years,” my husband observed.
This is true, and never more so than when we arrive at the airport to check in for a flight.
I try to stay calm by reminding myself that long lines are the nature of the beast. You have to just ride them out.
But I find it hard not to lose it at the security checkpoints. I’ve got nothing against the hard working employees of the TSA. In my experience, they are always professional and polite.
But since 9/11, the security protocols have become ever more intrusive. By the time I take off my jacket, my shoes, and remove my mountain of personal electronics from their protective casings (all the while feeling aware that I’m holding up the line behind me), I become a frazzled mess.
Then, I have to race to put myself together again: the jacket, the gadgets, the laptop, the phone… none of which ever end up where they were when I so carefully packed them. I wonder why I even bother to try, since after going through security it all ends up a shambles.
And why is it that once you get through the X-Ray machine and you get to reassemble yourself, there are never enough places to sit, which makes it hard to get your shoes back on?
So yes: It makes me cranky. And on Thursday it was worse because I could not find my beloved pocket camcorder. I unpacked all my stuff and still could not find it, so reluctantly returned to the security station to see if someone had turned it in.
No. No one had seen it. I was referred to a supervisor who took it upon himself to query the workers at all the stations (because I was unsure which one I had actually gone through). That’s when my daughter caught up to me with the information that she had found it in my bag after all. I guess this is not a surprise, given my haste in grabbing all of my belongings and sticking them wherever.
I have to hand it to the TSA, who I am certain must spend hours each day dealing with anxious passengers who do stupid things like overlook the items they cannot find. I wasn’t angry with them, just with me, for feeling the need to travel with so much stuff.
It didn’t help that it was now 2:00 PM and I hadn’t eaten anything all day. We grabbed a nice meal and the world immediately became a better place.
