Monday, May 15, 2006

We're back!

Saturday was the 13th. I know that is not big news. Any fool with a calendar knows that. It seemed to be more of Friday the 13th. We were returning from California on the 13th.

The trip to California was very smooth. When we arrived at Houston’s Intercontinental Airport, we got out boarding passes and checked the luggage smoothly. I was so pleased to get that boarding pass. I know that I was worried about it. But it was smooth.

The plane ride to Los Angeles was smooth. Lady Bug did decide that she wanted to sit with parents instead of us, but it still worked out most of the way. The landing was smooth. We found the rental car shuttle without a problem.
We were ready to get in the mini van K had pre-booked. It was a Town Car. We got that straightened out and got on the road to Anaheim. I was dreading the freeways, but they were actually better than Houston’s. The place we were to stay was beautiful. The days we spent there were great, and I’ll talk about them later.

All went well until we arrived at the airport. We went to get boarding passes, and all seemed well. We went through the first security clearing - all was still great. We got upstairs at the real security clearing. The other five went through. I was the last. There were only five boarding passes. Guess who didn’t have a boarding pass. Guess who was not to be allowed in to the gates. They wouldn’t let the others out.

I really was panicked! I had nothing but my driver’s license. I had no proof of a ticket. I had nothing. My purse and carry on were already though the machine. I was really scared. I just didn’t know what was going to happen next, and perhaps that was good. Otherwise I might have just sat and cried right there.

I was told to go back to the ticketing place. So I walked back downstairs, past the first security person who had let us up. I went to the curb where we got the boarding passes and checked luggage. I told my problem to the guy who gave us the boarding passes. He pulled up the screen. He said everyone was checked in. He asked for my license. He checked again. He said it showed me to be checked in. I said I had no pass. He checked again, then asked me to come around to the computer screen. The ones showing were checked in. FINALLY he looked carefully at the license. He THEN scrolled the screen down. There I was. I got the pass.

Back to security "cutie" number one. She checked the pass and the ID. She said I couldn’t go up the stairs. I said that my entire family was already through the scanners as well as all my belongings. She decided to get an attitude. She made a smart remark about "well go ahead, they’ll just tell you to leave" and she wasn’t nice about it.

It seems while I was trying to get my pass, they shut them screening down for a security check. I really believe it was because I had made it past little "cutie". Finally I got through. There was not a single person in my family around. I really thought I would lose it then. I was fighting back tears.

I went on toward the gates, and there I found them talking to a airport person. She was a supervisor for cutie. Cutie will be cited for her mistake. S was telling the supervisor that "cutie" was too busy flirting with some guy there to really check ID’s and passes.

After that all went fairly well with the exception of the nerd in front of me who had to lean his seat back even before take off, and then when the meal came had to lean forward to eat! I hope he got indigestion!

No comments: