S is for Security

Well, here I am, looking like a yuppy in the fancy coffee shop, drinking tea and typing away on my macbook, in the Cedar Rapids Airport. Yup, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. With snow everywhere, I'm very glad to be headed toward slightly warmer clims. Texas here I come baby.

This leg of the trip was pretty successful. We got the equipmentSe up and running, took it all apart, put it all back together, took it apart and packed it up. Then loaded it in the van that left home the same time I did, but arrived two days later. Just in time to watch the snow start to come down again, which very politely stopped in time for my drive to airport today. Since I ran out of stuff to do, I'm here and checked in 3.5 hours before my flight. Thank goodness the Eastern Iowa airport is much more forward thinking than say, Chicago O'Hare and provides free WiFi, so I can blog for you today.

Speaking of what else the airport can provide. How about some visual interest:


That is a fancy old car for sale right here in the airport lounge. It's a sweet ride, and given the amount of snow on the ground here I'm posting it so dear hubby can see getting his own old beauty is possible, even in the bad weather. :)

So, while the goal of the trip was accomplished and overall it was a success, I did have a bit of logistical issues getting here, which I alluded to last time. The short story is my orignal flight was canceled so I was last minute rebooked on another airline, evoking, what I like to refer to as the evil S on my boarding pass. It's actually a set of four capitol letter S's in a row along the bottom, which makes the security agents get out their red pens, and sends you to the special line, with full bag search, triple ID check, and full body pat down. This is the first time I got the S for a legitimate reason (last minute booking), but I'm numbering over a dozen of the Ss in my time. It's not really evil, just inconvenient and raises the heart rate just a tad. As much as I follow the rules there is always a little voice that says what if you left your pocket knife in the bottom of your bag, being scrutinized that closely is never fun. It is a post 9/11 security measure, some Ss are assigned randomly, some are assigned on itineraries that have been flagged and some are just because you might be on a list. For a period of time I think I was on that list, I got the S 2 out of every 3 times I flew, then sometime in the last year and half, the Ss stopped, I've taken 4 or 5 trips without the intense scrutiny. (I think the list was active for 5 years and hence after all those inspections the list expired. I personally don't think there was any logic in the system, just bad luck on my part, or good luck depending on how you view the situation.)

Why am I telling you all of this? Well, because I was reminded of the whole security issue in a roundabout way this morning. I woke up at the hotel this AM to the people in the room screaming. At each other. Loudly. The couple was fighting. Loudly. It was scary. The girl was crying and shreiking, the man was yelling. Loudly. It started off simple enough, a heated discussion in another language. At first, I thought maybe it was the TV next door, I had heard the TV from across the hall the other night, so it was a plausible explanation. Then I realized that there were no foreign language channels on the hotel's cable system. The argument got louder, and more heated. There was more yelling and a loud bang. By this time a little over 20 minutes had passed. So I called my husband, who convinced me that yes I should call the front desk. Who then called the police. In less than 5 minutes, the police where knocking loudly on the door, waking up anyone in the vicinity that had not been awoken by the initial argument. They separated the couple and another 15 minutes of interviewing ensued. (The walls in this hotel were particularly thin, and much of the interviewing occured just outside my door, so I heard almost all of the details).

Then, what I had been dreading from the start happened. Someone was knocking on my door. It was very kind police officer who nicely asked if he could come in an talk with me. Hello heart rate. Here I was, with nothing to fear, having tried to do what I believed to be the right thing, and suddenly I could feel my whole body go into fear mode. I was suddenly like a awkward teenager who didn't know how to talk to anyone. My voice was barely above a whisper as I explained what I heard, why I had called, apologized for calling, etc. Why is that? I am a pretty self assured individual, a law abiding citizen with absolutely nothing to hide. But there it is, a fear of authority. I felt unbelievably vulnerable. And it can't just be because I was still in my pajamas, because it's the same feeling I have every time I'm marked with the evil S, and I never go to the airport in my PJs. Anyone have any good theories on why I apparently have a fear of authority? Anyone else have it? Police and security agents are there to protect us, shouldn't that envoke feelings of safety and calmness, not clammy plams and hot flashes? Anyways, just some random musings I thought I would share. I think we have maybe done something wrong in our society if someone like me has such a stressful reaction in situations that should be just fine.

Anyways, I've rambled long enough, it's time to face the security line. The kind cop did explain that they had been arguing, their stories aligned, there was no evidence of physical violence and that probably something just fell against the wall. He thanked me for calling. Left my room and told the man that the fighting needed to stop because it was disturbing other hotel guests, etc. My breathing returned to normal. Then my alarm clock rang. It was quite a way to start the day!