So, the day we left, me for Detroit, Matt and Nate for CA, we all went to the airport together. My flight was scheduled for 12:16, and theirs was supposed to push back at 9:53am. We got there at about 7:45. We ended up having to wait for a bit to check my bag since it was more than 4 hours to departure of my flight, but the curb check guys took pity on us, and told us to go on in - they'd hold it off to the side for a bit then send it off into the system. Yay! I figured that we were SO early that even if they lost it like they did last year, they still had several hours to find it and send it on it's merry way, so I wasn't overly worried.
We went through security with very little problem - they'd directed us to the idiot - er, the family and handicapped security lane, so everyone was pretty relaxed - annoyingly so. Matt had checked the car seat with the other bags, so it was just the three of us, and 4 carry-ons...*frown*
We stripped down to get through security, and had to take Nate's monkey off of his back to send him through the metal detector. He stopped and put his hands up over his eyes (we refer to this as "putting on his goggles") and I had to give him a little push to start him through the metal detector. Once I got him started I was prepared to run after him, but he ran straight into the plexi-glass booth behind the TSA lady, you know, the one that they scan wheelchairs and stuff in? I started to get him out but she laughed and told me I could leave him there until I was done. YES!! He was totally corralled - three sides of plexi-glass, and the open end filled by a big (sweet) black lady! Happy dance! He stood there at the far end with his "goggles" on watching the TSA lady the whole time. We got our shoes back on, Matt put his belt back on, both laptops back into cases and the CPAP hand swabbed and repacked before getting Nate out.
About 20 or 30 steps past security, Matt's phone rang. We frowned at each other, and as he was pulling his phone out and mumbling, "That can't be good..." MY phone started ringing - confirming that it was United calling to tell us somebody's (likely Matt and Nate's) flight was delayed.
It got delayed 3 or 4 more times across the morning, and eventually *I* ended up having to leave *them* at their gate to get to the other end of the terminal to catch my flight in time. We killed time by having breakfast at Wendy's and watching the ground crews work, walked all over the place, shopped and broke stuff.
Yes, we broke stuff in the Airport. Some security person probably peed in his pants watching us on a surveillance camera. Do you know those lighted ad signs that are in the airports (and sometimes malls) that are basically a roll of ad posters that switch out every few seconds? Yeah. Nate opened one. He'd been really good up to that point, really he had. :) Neither one of us noticed that he was fiddling with something under the bottom of the glass until the glass popped open at the bottom and the ad posters started spilling out onto the floor. I became useless almost instantaneously because I was trying NOT to laugh out loud and blow whatever cover we still had. Matt frantically tried to push the paper back in (while trying to keep Nate from opening it again and getting into it) and close the glass but it wouldn't catch. At one point, the glass opened up to a 45 degree angle, and we thought we were going to have to just leave it. I managed to shove in the right place to get it to close finally, but the ads were screwed up - it was displaying the bottom half of one and the top half of the next one. 8) oops. We walked away quickly.
THEN we went into one of the convenience stores to get some battles of water. They were going to stay out of the store, but Nate followed me in, and since he was tied to Matt, obviously Matt came in too. I'd gotten the bottles and Matt and I were standing in one of the more open spot of the store, looking around to see what else we wanted. We decided we were done, and I realized that Nate had wrapped his tether around me so that I couldn't get out, and Matt wasn't paying attention. The lady behind the counter asked if I was done, and needed to check out, I grinned, indicated the problem and said, "I'll be there in a minute!" Conservatively, I'd say about half of the people in the store started giggling. Matt finally woke up and unwrapped us, then took Nate out. Adding to the fun I ended up with a defective bag that ripped, dumping the water bottles onto the floor as soon as picked it up. I just looked at the bottles and said, "Well THAT didn't work." The ladies behind the counter just lost it. Who knew I was funny?
I refused the apologetically choked out offer of a new plastic bag, and took my purchase and the remains of the bag out to a set of seats right there. I put my carry-on down, and put the bottles on the chair - where they promptly rolled off onto the floor behind the seats. By this point I was giggling and muttering to myself - it was all just a bit too much...
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