Saturday at the Airport

Saturday morning did not go quite as planned. After arriving at the airport, I found that my flight had been canceled. The flight from Charlotte to New Orleans had been rerouted to Miami for the Superbowl. Stupid Superbowl. A lame comment to make considering it's the sole reason I'm going home. US Airways kindly found me a new flight with Delta, and I proceeded to check in with them. On my way through security, I piled all my stuff into the bins and made sure all the metal was out of my pockets. Oops, I forgot to take off my hat. Oops, I forgot to take off my belt. I step through the detector one more time. and it goes off again. At this point, I can't really take anything else off without being indecent. The nice TSA lady ushers me into a glass room behind her and asks me to please wait. So there I was, in a glass box in the middle of the airport, on exhibit for all to see. A TSA woman came in and told me that she's going to use the wand and give me a pat down. For real.

Obviously I complied and she proceeded. She was awfully nice about it and let me know that when the detector wand goes off, she has to pat that spot. She patted the clips in my hair, the rivets on my jeans, and finally concluded that it was probably my underwire. And then she had to rub my legs, arms, back and sides. So there I was, on display for all to see being TOUCHED. RUBBED. If you know me, you know that that was NOT ok.

Somehow i survived and went to my gate. My flight to Atlanta wasn't scheduled to leave until 12:40, which was 2 1/2 hours away. I wasn't expected to get into New Orleans until after 6. I really hoped to get there sooner, like my original time of 2 pm, but I'm learning a lot about holding onto my peace. I have a choice to get flustered and anxious (which I am more prone to do) and I have the choice to keep my peace and trust God, even in the most trivial of situations. Once in Atlanta, I hoped to catch an earlier flight, but decided that, even if I couldn't, it would be ok. I would choose to be ok.

So I piddled around by my flight gate, and 12:40 came and went--still no boarding. We were finally allowed to board at 1:25. As I was stepping onto the plane, the thought occurred to me that I was climbing into a tube that's supposed to shoot through the sky like those capsules at the drive-thru at the bank. Except that the plane wasn't going through a tube, it was being launched into open air. That's much safer.

Once we arrived in Atlanta, there was another delay in getting off of the plane. Then, in keeping with tradition, I had to jet across the airport, like I usually do with a layover in Atlanta. Terminal D all the way to Terminal B. I arrived just as the last passenger was boarding only to find out that there were no open seats. I trekked over to Terminal A to see if there was space on the next flight home. There was : ) for a $50 fee : ( Even after I told them that they were the ones to reroute my flight. Rude. I was not going to pay $50 to see my people an hour early, so I made my way back to concourse B to wait for my scheduled flight at 5:50. I tried to watch the movie I started downloading in Savannah, but it didn't finish downloading, and they make you pay for internet in Atlanta. So, I was not going to pay $5 for internet to watch a movie I already paid to download. Rude. Again.

I finally arrived in New Orleans at 7 pm. All I had to eat all day was a handful of chocolate caramel popcorn Thea made me take. Thank you Thea. Also, thank you for the luggage you let me borrow so I didn't have to check a bag. Also, thank you Reuben for the iTunes gift card that bought me the movie, even though I didn't get to finish downloading it.

But I suppose the Saints Superbowl win made it all worth it : )

Who Dat !?!