Travel Day - Part One

Good morning from New Orleans, Louisiana - deep in the heart of the south.

I’m in a different time zone, so the posts may be slightly later than normal.

My flight yesterday was at 6:15 AM so I was up early, not only to catch my flight, but to ensure the blog was posted. See how dedicated I am?

Because I booked the flight on points, I didn’t get to have a direct flight so I had to fly to Atlanta and I think the airline (Delta) thought it would be fun to put me at the back of the plane on both flights.

Why am I in New Orleans? I’m wearing another hat this week. That of a freelance educator for SVP (Singer, Viking, PFAFF). This is the annual convention where new machines are introduced - a general gathering of the dealers across North America. They choose New Orleans and so here I am.

You know that I like to travel light. I’m going to a sewing convention and I do NOT want to bring any check-in luggage. Hm - what size of scissors can I bring? I took a chance and put all my stuff into my carryon - the only bag I have besides my backpack. Shoot - when it went through the X-ray, it got flagged. Fortunately I had left time that I could go and check it if need be.  I had done my research before we left so I knew what was going to happen.

You have scissors in the bag the lady asks? Yes - but I thought I was good with blades up to 4”. No - she says - 2 1/2”. Oh shoot. Well, she takes out the bag with the pointy objects - like my long bent ended tweezers - doesn’t give them a glance, but she looks at the scissors and measured against her name tag. Yep the blade passes thee test, but the 25 MM rotary cutter that I brought does not. I knew that - I’ve taken it with me before, but this time it was in the same bag as the scissors. They were not looking for that. The scissors were good, the rotary cutter NO - It’s a concealed blade and NO concealed blades are allowed. I think even those little cutters that they say are OK are in fact NOT OK. I asked if I surrendered the blade would I be OK. Yep - so I surrendered the blade and I was good to go.

Then I got to go through NEXUS. I couldn’t get my finger prints to register properly. I finally did and then got a big black X on my exit card so I had to wait to speak to an agent. I got a lecture - well it wasn’t but it felt like it - those guys have no sense of humour. I just need to place my finger tips gently on the screen. No forcing. I wonder how he knew what happened - perhaps because others had the same issue. Then I was good to go.

I’m not in the terminal that I normally travel from and NO gate on my ticket on my phone. The screens for the departure gates are not frequent and I had to choose between the left or the  right corrindor I choose left and that was the right one!  I bought breakfast (no Tim’s) but a good breakfast burrito and I was good to board the plane. Like I said - I was near the back of the plane - no worries - there was room for my luggage overhead.

I was reading that book by Plum Johnson - “They Left us Everything”. While it’s a book about cleaning out a house after the parents die, it’s more about the emotional baggage that is left in a house than the physical. It was a very emotional book to read and there I am crying almost at the moment I started to read. There were several more sad instances in the book but I managed to finish it. It is an excellent book if you can get your hands on it. I know - I’m just a big softie at heart. Why do I cry for someone else’s family that I never knew? I blame it all on the movie Yeller. When I was a kid, every time I watched that movie (and we watched Disney or should I say Walt Disney World every Sunday), I would cry my heart out when the dog died.