Departures

[raven]

You know your life has taken a turn for the unpleasant when you've sitting a cold, dim domestic terminal, thinking to yourself that if you hear "I'll Be Home For Christmas", one more time, you are going to start crying.

ARGH. I am exhausted. I left New Hampshire late yesterday afternoon through thick, thick snow. I was advised that it would get less severe the further south I went, but no one seemed quite sure how far south. ("Tampa?" narahttbbs suggested, only half-ironically, and I think she was probably right.) After a few hours in a bus from Concord, most of which was spent staring at the beautiful, but very thick snow that was coming down horizontally by this point, I reached Boston expecting the weather to be better. It wasn't. The first thing I noticed was that my flight was delayed by an hour and a half, and the second thing was that the queue through security control was a hundred miles long. Eventually, I handed over my driving license in response to a demand for picture ID - my passport is somewhere at the bottom of my increasingly TARDIS-like bag - and the man stared at it, and then at me, for what felt like half an hour. (Much to the chagrin for the ninety-nine miles of queue behind me.)

Finally, he said, "When does this expire?"

I had spent most of the journey from Concord reading about the adventures of Mr. Spock, Vulcan, and thus felt the need to be strictly truthful in all things. 2057, I told him. After a long moment, he painstakingly wrote "2057" on my boarding pass and handed it back to me. I was somewhat baffled. Then, of course, they random-checked me and my belongings. Dear world in general but US Department of Homeland Security (bleurgh) in particular: it's not random when you check the same person five times. Why don't you just call it brown-person-checking, that would be more accurate and Mr. Spock would hate you less.

Having survived this, I noted with interest that my flight was three hours late. I sat in a corner and finished off Star Trek novel number one. (narahttbbs lent me a bagful before I left, which in retrospect was the best idea ever.) When I'd finished, I went to get a sandwich. Standing in front of the board in an almost silent terminal - every other night flight had departed - I noticed we were now five hours late and said, aloud, "Fuck, fuck, fuck."

Someone close at hand breathed, "Amen, amen, amen," and when I turned around she waved at me before disappearing into the distance.

That cheered me up for about five minutes, and by the time I'd got through Star Trek novel number two, the flight had been wiped from the departure boards as a lost cause. Apparently the incoming flight had been diverted to Hartford, Connecticut, and they weren't letting it leave, according to the astonishing incompetents that US Airways employs for customer service. It finally arrived at three - scheduled departure was 8.15 - and at twenty past four in the morning, I finished off the third book and the plane took off. (They let us board with the words, "Thank you for waiting", to punch-drunk hysterical laughter from all.)

But I got here. I got here at sunrise, only seven hours behind schedule. I have slept a little, I don't feel half bad. In fact, the only injury I seem to have sustained from the experience is a latent desire to get three cats and call them Kirk, Spock and McCoy, and I'm sure this will pass. I am glad to be here, where it's a positively balmy five degrees Celsius, and the BBC site insists on telling me that in world weather news, there is "record snow in December for parts of New England."

No kidding. But I did had a lovely time in New Hampshire, and it was worth it. I'm only here for a few days - I fly out again on Wednesday, and should be home on Thursday. I think it will be a nice Christmas.

Comments

[osymandias.livejournal.com]

Yuck. Glad you made it in the end, at least...

[pinkishmew.livejournal.com]

Oh, what an excellent icon!

[shimgray.livejournal.com]

Dear lord. Glad you got there in one piece!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Oh, god, me toooooo.

[tau_sigma]

is a latent desire to get three cats and call them Kirk, Spock and McCoy, and I'm sure this will pass

Oh, i hope it doesn't, because that would be awesome. Please do. :) If you don't, I may have to do that, only with hamsters or something.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*laughs* If I do ever get cats, I will indeed do this.

[absinthe-shadow.livejournal.com]

Star Trek! Yay!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Yaaaay! I never realised I liked the TOS characters so much. My favourite is McCoy now, after many years of its having been Spock.

[hips-lips-tits.livejournal.com]

it is most decidedly not snowing anywhere in florida, at least as far as i know it's not. should have come here, it's a balmy 78 or so with breezes and clear skies. ;)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*is miserable at you* Waaaaaaarm!

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

I sincerely apologize on behalf of my country. UGH.

But, eee, Star Trek novels! Which ones are you reading?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*grins* In Logan, I read "Tbe Wounded Sky", "Doctor's Orders", "Uhura's Song", and I'm now in the middle of "Spock's World". All of them, but particularly the first, were shockingly good - I used to read the TNG and Voyager ones as brain candy, but these really stood up as good books, not just good Star Trek books.

[pinkishmew.livejournal.com]

Why don't you just call it brown-person-checking, that would be more accurate and Mr. Spock would hate you less.
Oh, yuck. [hugs] Luff you. If Clinton gets in, I will put it entirely down to you. :D

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*grins* I hope she does! And thank you.

[kayloulee.livejournal.com]

My cousin's husband flew Fukuoka-Tokyo-Chicago-Toronto last year, and in Chicago they pulled him aside at every opportunity they could, and at the actual US Customs desk they asked him every question they could think of - "what were you doing in Japan?" "Where's your teacher's licence for Japan? "Where's your Japanese Alien Residency Permit?" "Where were you living and what was your address?" "Why are you going to Canada?"...

"You're Canadian, hey? What's the name of that coffeeshop they've got up there?" I swear this one is true. Absolutely true.

His mum is Peruvian and his dad is black. That was why. He swears he's never flying through the States ever again.

Bloody racial profiling. Did you know that Australia actually has a Middle-Eastern Crimes Squad? Forgodsake.

[casirafics.livejournal.com]

I can only offer my own tale of woe from Logan International a couple years ago (http://casirafics.livejournal.com/137765.html). I'm pretty sure the departure gate to hell is in that airport. (Given September 11th, one could say there's empirical proof of the fact.) But at least hell had wireless. could have been worse. ;)

As for you: *hug*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Aaaargh. Is it some kind of demented meme, being stranded at Logan? *loves*

[outintherain.livejournal.com]

Argh. Boston is baaad. Has been for about 2 weeks now. Everyone one of our inbound Boston flights has been delayed.

"Why don't you just call it brown-person-checking, that would be more accurate and Mr. Spock would hate you less."

Amen to that, sadly.

Well enjoy your Christmas! If you happen to be flying back to Heathrow on Thursday morning, I may well see you there! :p

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

I bypass Heathrow, alas! I'm going through to Manchester straight from Chicago.

A very lovely Christmas to you, too! I hope your travelling goes better than mine has!

[outintherain.livejournal.com]

Ah, hope you have a safe and puncutal trip anyway ;)

Thanks! I'm getting a bit jittery because every single one of our Heathrow flights were hideously delayed today because of the weather... I've never had to get a connecting flight before so I'm going to fret about missing it until I'm actually sitting safely on the plane!!!

[msilverstar]

2057!!!

Flying in this weather just sucks.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Seriously. Until the day I turn seventy, I am entitled to drive in the European Union.

[absinthe-shadow.livejournal.com]

OMG! I got Men With Brooms for Christmas and I just watched it and it's SO GOOD. *squeee!*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*is answering comments insanely late*

YAAAAAY. I am so glad you liked it, it's adorable.

[wendelah1]

Flying anywhere in the winter is a crap-shoot. I am happy you made it out at all. I am so sorry for your experience with our Department of Homeland Insecurity. I have always thought they were pretty evenhandedly difficult to deal with. I have admittedly only flown occasionally in the past few years. My most recent experiences were round-trip from LA to NYC last summer, and last year, in early December, round-trip from LA to North Carolina, via Atlanta outgoing, and via Cincinnati going home. I was randomly searched both coming and going on the trip to New York. They took my carry-on apart, every time, every item. I wondered if there was something specific in the luggage that was setting off the search. On the trip to North Carolina, I was only searched for the flight from LAX to Atlanta. The other person who was being singled out with me was an elderly black woman, who was in a wheelchair. For the record, I am a pale, moderately overweight, middle-aged woman. I was traveling alone on that trip. For the New York trip, I was with other family members.

This is something I ran into when I was hunting for my Emily Dickinson icon, and I got the author's permission to link to it. It describes a different airport experience. I hope you read it and enjoy it. I hope you arrived safely at home. Merry Christmas! It was lovely to visit you. http://posh-cookie.livejournal.com/457385.html

*answering comments insanely late*

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Thanks for commenting! I fly a lot - travel is a vice my family all share and thus indulge me in - and I've been searched in so many places and so many times that it's come to seem like de rigeur, which is not something I approve of.

And that link... wow. Yes. That is the world I search for, in all my travelling. That's what I want this world to be like.

Re: *answering comments insanely late*

[wendelah1]

Yes, that is the world I long for, too. I put that entry into my memories for a rainy day. I am glad that it could brighten yours, as well.