Expert Traveler

Oh man, I am so exhausted. I spent the day packing up the rest of my things and moving them into a car I rented. Once that was done I gave Scott all the information he needed to take over my job. Yes, I trained Scott after giving my two weeks’ notice, so now he’ll be doing my job. He’s completely qualified and I know he was interested in HR work when I hired him so I think he’s a great candidate. In my opinion, I think most jobs should be filled internally if they can, especially administrative positions, so I’m extremely comfortable with the board’s decision to keep Scott on as my replacement. They will definitely be impressed by his work in the future. After lugging everything into my car I got to drive to my apartment and lug it up all the stairs. By the time I got the last box up it was time for me to grab my plane ticket and go to the airport.

I packed my suitcase this morning before work, added a few things I forgot (and remembered later in the day), grabbed my suitcase, and double checked my plane ticket before making the trip to the airport to return my rented car and check-in for my flight. When I was in college, I made this trip a lot, so I’m not a newbie to airports or travelling (I’m the daughter of an Army Lt. Col. So we moved ALL THE TIME). One of my biggest pet peeves is when people go through the wrong security line at the airport. Obviously if you have a stroller or a guitar case, you should not be going through the “expert traveler” line. Extra luggage means more time and I have developed a system to get through security within seconds (it’s the people in front of me that add the minutes on).

Take for instance what happened today: a family of four, a mom, grandmother, and two kids around 11 or 12 in the expert traveler line. First of all, the family had food and liquids with them, so they had to take those out, throw them away, and subsequently held up the entire line, they also had about 4 carry-ons a piece. Next the older kid walked back through the metal detector after going through it once which didn’t please the security guard monitoring it. Then the mother and grandmother forgot to take off their shoes so that added on time to the wait. Then the mother forgot to remove her cell phone from her pocket which set the metal detector off and required her to hold up the line even more. By this point, I was about to tear my hair out in frustration with this family. To top everything off the kids had bug vacuums in their back packs. On the x-ray machine they looked like weapons and their bags had to be inspected by hand because of it. Who the hell brings a BUG VACUUM with them on a trip? All in all, it took me about 25 minutes to get through security and at least 23 of those minutes were because of this family. Luckily I only had a back pack and a laptop so it was smooth sailing after that.

I don’t normally complain about things that take a long time, I’m actually one of the most patient people when it comes to things like waiting in line or waiting for a food order or what have you, waiting in security lines doesn’t bother me either, really. It’s just that this family in particular had no business being in the expert traveler line whatsoever. They weren’t even aware of basic security procedures like no liquids or the fact that you can’t walk back through a metal detector without the permission of the security guard! I know some people might see this as something I shouldn’t bother being annoyed by, but I can’t help it…I’m a fan of rules if you couldn’t tell (HR work is mostly enforcing rules). I think rules are important and should be followed if there’s a reason for them. The point I’m making is that the expert traveler line is for people who have minimal carry-on items and who know the drill for security and it’s clear that the family in front of me did not. They chose to go to the shortest or quickest line because they think they’re above the rules. The line designation signs are hard to miss at the airport which means the leader of that family made the conscious decision to not follow the rules and chose to hold up an entire line of people. I think that’s what bothers me the most about people who don’t stick to the lines they should be using at the airport; the complete disregard for following the rules and in turn not respecting the people around you.

Anyway, my dad picked me up from the airport and went to the get car while I grabbed my suitcase from baggage claim. When we finally got in the car and on our way home he looked at me and smiled.

“What?” I asked laughing.

“Nothing, just look at your shoes. I remember when you couldn't even wear really shorts high heels without complaining and now you’re wearing those things.” He said motioning to my 4 inch black pumps.

“Well, having to wear nice shoes to work every day forced me to wear shoes like this I guess.”

“Remember when you graduated from college? And you wore those shoes and by the time the ceremony was over you took them off the second you got outside the hall. Your mom had to bring you your flip flops because your feet hurt so badly.” We started laughing. It was true. I couldn’t wait to take my shoes off I practically threw them off and as a consequence I have no shoes on in a lot of the pictures I took with my friends that day.

We stopped to get pizza on the way home for dinner and my mom was waiting for us when we finally got home. The pizza was good and we watched some movies. I still have more to tell but I’m starting to fall asleep at the keyboard, so I’ll write another post soon.