Delayed and Dismayed

So here I am, sitting in the Las Vegas airport, tired, bored, and getting increasingly annoyed by the doo-doo-doo-doo noises from the Wheel of Fortune slot machines that are everywhere. You know the sound - the one that plays as a new puzzle is framed on the TV screen and Vannah smiles her plastic smile.

I'm waiting for the last leg of my trip to be over. My first leg was delayed leaving Oakland by an hour. Luckily Southwest was kind enough to hold my connecting flight to Tucson so I could actually get to my destination Friday night. While I was exceedingly happy about it, most of the people I passed on my long trek down the aisle of that plane were bitching about having to sit on the plane at the gate for an extra half hour waiting on ten random strangers to show up. One man's trash.... So for the return trip I got to fly through Vegas instead of LAX. Leg 3 was late, and the plane for leg 4 still hasn't arrived at my gate. I probably won't get home till close to 1 AM. But I'm impressed that Southwest was 0 for 4 for my trip. I'm not looking forward to the trip to Seattle in a month, but at least it's a direct flight.

And now comes the comment about the absurd rules in place at airports that are meant to help with security. Check it out. You can have as many bottles holding 3 oz. or less of any liquid, as long as they fit into a quart sized, sealable bag. But the kicker is - the bag must be transparent. Nevermind that the security workers can pull out the bag from your suitcase, individually inspect all the bottles that are less than 3 oz. and confirm that they do not in fact contain liquid explosives. If they can't put them back into a clear bag, you throw them all away. The intelligence of the rule floors me. Needless to say, I lost all my travel sized toiletries on my way to AZ. On the way back, no one bothered to check. Good thing I had my ziplock bag with me.