Tidings from the windy city

A one-hour layover in Chicago. Nice airport. Flight came in earlier than expected. Just finished my lunch, waiting to board . . .

I noticed a new security sign when I was checking in this morning. I have to admit that it troubled me a little. There was a big picture of a gun on it, and it said. Firearms must be UNLOADED and you must declare them to your airline.

Say what? I can't bring my nail clipper on board, but as long as I take the bullets out of my gun, I can bring it with me???

I'm sure that's not what it meant. That's just silly.

I have to say that the entire check-in process this morning moved like clockwork. Southwest had about 25 ticket agents working at 7:30 this morning. The long line moved very quickly. My bag was selected for "special" inspection, which was handled by a very professional, very polite, very together crew of Transportation Safety Administration people. Very impressive.

My luggage checked, I then got in line for security and I was selected for "special" inspection once again. Why is it that I never once went through the belt/shoe/frisk treatment when I had long hair and a beard, but now that I look . . . I don't know . . . less hairy . . . that I stick out like a security risk? Or maybe it's really just random selection now and it's all a funny coincidence.

Last night, while I was taking care of the last hundred or so details for my trip, I really had the opportunity to notice how my four months of "life training" has helped me transform my life. I had a very long list of things to get done, and I accomplished almost all of them. The ones I didn't accomplish were replaced with a "by when", so I know they will get done.

I was still awake at about 12:30 last night, knowing that I would need to be up at 6am, and unlike in the past, I was really fine. Not so tired that I couldn't get my work done. And I actually pushed a little and cleaned up the kitchen and the bathroom and tidied up the living room and bedrooms, so Corey and I will have a relatively clean apartment when we get home. I've always heard about people doing such things, but never believed in them myself. Who wants to go through all that work??? Vacation is starting!!! Let's go play!

And that, right there, is the miracle of transformation, folks. Douglas chose tidiness over sleep. Those of you who have known me since birth will need to pick your lower jaw up from the floor and re-attach it to your face. And it's not such a rare occurrence for me these days. Kind of normal for me to get only six hours of sleep and be fine. (And I still don't drink coffee or other caffeinated-type things. Don't get me started on that!)

I'm noticing that my absence on this blog over the last several months has dulled my writing focus. For now, anyway. I remember it was like this when I started, so I'll just keep plugging away. Expect the entries to get more interesting as the weeks go along.

Time to board.

Posted: Tue - November 23, 2004 at 01:18 PM

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Tidings from the windy city

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