Lost Monday

In case anyone was wondering what happened to the Monday class blogs, I thought I better ‘splain myself. I’m afraid today's class plan got waylaid by traveling woes.

Due to circumstances beyond my control (i.e. weather delays) a connecting flight was (barely) missed causing me to spend Sunday night unexpectedly in Denver. To make matters worse, somehow on the way to Denver I’d managed to lose my drivers license. I was pretty sure that one couldn’t fly without some form of valid I.D. The airline official assured me though that I would be allowed back in the airport but only after a much more thorough screening than usual. All sorts of dark images clouded my mind but I pushed them out as I settled in at the Spinghill Suites just outside of Denver International.

This morning (Monday), I got to the airport early to attempt to make it out as a “standby” on a flight leaving around 11 a.m. I was pretty nervous about the ordeal that awaited me whenever I got to the front of the security line and tried to explain why I didn’t have a photo I.D.

In trying to think of possible solutions to help me with my lack of ID, Mary Olson suggested someone go to my house, photograph my passport and send it to my I-phone. In a matter of 30 minutes or so that task was accomplished and I at least had something with my photo on it.

As I got near the front of the line, I told a nearby TSA agent my dilemma and to my surprise, this gentleman said he’d help “walk me through”. In fact, he opened up a new lane for me and carefully examined my boarding pass, credit cards and the beautifully photographed passport, which was surprisingly crystal clear on my I-phone. Just when I was ready for cavity searches and crotch sniffing German Shepherds, the TSA agent said, “it looks fine to me, have a nice flight”. Yeehah!

The next step was getting on the flight to Little Rock as a standby. I was traveling with a buddy of mine and we were numbers two and three to get on this “full” flight. Amazingly though, the screen kept saying that three seats remained open. It looked like we were going to make it.

At the last possible moment, a young man came running up and it was pretty clear he was an unexpected addition. Uh oh, only two seats left. My friend insisted that I take the remaining open seat – asking only that I grab his bag when I got to Little Rock. I agreed to do more than that, I promised I’d come pick him up at the airport when his flight got in at 11 p.m. and give him a ride home.

Somehow over the course of trying to fly home I also managed to pick up some sniffles. I’m hopeful that this won’t turn into a cold causing me to miss more classes but I won’t know for sure until tomorrow (Tuesday). I’m planning on taking a couple of afternoon classes tomorrow if I feel up to it.

Right now though, I’ve got to head to the airport and pick up my selfless friend.