More Excitement

Washington DC

Hello,

The alarm went off at 3:30 am, Leroy and I hoped out of bed, put on our clothes, I wet my hair so it would not look like I had slept on it, Leroy shaved, I put on makeup, we ate a bit of breakfast, brushed teeth, packed toothbrushes, packed the car, and Brian drove us to the airport so we could arrive in good time for our 6:00 am flight.

All was well until I opened up my billfold to pull out my driver’s license for the photo ID. A gaping blank hole faced me. “Oh no, I lost my license. I must have left it in my purse.”

The ticket agent told me that if I had a credit card they could accept that. I had left my credit cards in my purse. She would ask me some questions and they would issue my boarding pass, but she did not think security would like that. The questions were tough. Brian had booked our tickets.

What is your home address? We explained that we were not in a home now so it was decided that I should give the last address. What is your email? I have four of them and named two of them before getting the right one. Who should be contacted in an emergency? Brian was the answer, but she wanted his phone number. I had four for him. Finally I just showed her what was in my phone and she found the number. At that point she commented that we needed to be a bit more on top of our information. She felt it would be okay here, but possibly not in DC. Could someone bring my ID? It is a half hour trip from Brian’s house to the airport, but we had a little over an hour of time.

We called Brian and asked him to get my license and bring it to the airport. In the meantime the agent suggested that Leroy go through security with my carryon bag too so that I could move faster when I did get the document. Talk about sweating, my deodorant had quit for sure. The ticket agent then commented that if Brian could get back fifteen minutes ahead of time it would probably be ok, but ten minutes ahead, probably I would not get on.

After I waited, prayed, begged, and breathed deeply, I thought to call Jen to tell her my license might be and if not where my passport would be. Then I reassured myself that it all could be worse, I could just spend more money and get a later flight. After all it was only money.

At that point Leroy called to tell me that the guy in security said I would be able to come through, they would just “pat me down”. Because the time was moving on I called Brian, learned they had not found my license, but only the passport, consequently I told him that I thought they should just speed mail it to DC.

I then got in the security line that had grown by leaps and bounds. As I was waiting nervously in line, I noticed another line that seemed shorter, but I did not know what it was for. After a bit some guy said while waving his hand to people at the end of my line, “You can come over here.”

I considered that my invitation and I more quickly got to the TSA person who wants to see your photo ID and boarding pass. I commented about the “pat down search” but they just gave me a look and said, “That is not it”. He instead called Tom over. Tom wanted to see my credit cards or anything with my name on it. I had some magazines, but Leory’s name and various addresses were on them. He said they would get me on, but they needed to run a check and he went off somewhere. Leroy called to ask where I was and I told him that I was in security. In the meantime another guy came up and asked me many of the same questions. I thought he did not know what was going on, but I got the impression when Tom came back that he was just verifying my answers. They then decided that they must get some form for me to fill out. For reasons unknown to me and to them, they had trouble finding the form. I just had to put in my name, address, and sign it. They then phoned someone who asked for my birthday, (They all commented on the Christmas birthday.)my last address, last four digits of my phone number at that place, previous home address before that one, I was not so sure about the house number, but they were ok with the street address, then they asked for Leroy’s name and birthday which they said was my best answer. One guy took note of all my answers and they wrote something on my boarding pass. They then told me to budge in line, which I did as it was now about 10 minutes before the plane was to depart. I hurriedly put on my shoes grabbed my stuff and ran to the gate to find lonely Leroy the last person waiting for me to come. We got our boarding passes scanned and got on the plane. My being was so in flight or fight mode that I could not relax enough to read until about half an hour later.

Paula