I am almost back to 100 percent after the half marathon last weekend… my trainer seems to think I might have a small stress fracture in the bottom of my foot… but I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything and it doesn’t hurt THAT bad… anyway… so after the half marathon in florida we went to lunch at downtown Disney… Rainforest Cafe was awesome… then we went back to the hotel… and I have to say it felt great to sit by the pool on an January day and feel the warmth of the sun… I had packed sunscreen and a swimsuit just in case it was warm enough… I didn’t do any swimming but did plenty of relaxing… we turned in early that night because we had to drive 45 minutes to the airport to catch a 7:00am flight the next day…

After two early mornings in a row.. and two aching feet… I was pretty tired when we got to Sanford/Orlando airport… I told Matt to go ahead of me that I seriously could not hobble any faster and I didn’t want us to be late for the plane… he went inside to turn in rental car keys and then we made our way up the escalator to the line where you have to take your shoes off.. which I did early.. hoping it would make my feet feel better… I had my little zip-loc baggie with my gels… put all of my stuff in the plastic bin and looked at a very tall gentleman in uniform on the other side of that little “arbor thing” we walk through to make sure we don’t have any metal…

Other than the actualy flying part.. going through the check point makes me nervous for some reason… as soon as I walked through the metal detector.. a loud horn sounded… my eyes got big and I thought maybe my watch had set it off.. as I went to turn around to go back through the security guard seemed to think I was trying to get away or something and sternly said, “Ma’am,  You have been selected for a random screening.”

I was surprised, half asleep and in pain because of the race.. I am sure I looked confused.

Then, he spoke into a little walkie-talkie thing that was attached to his shirt collar very loudly as if he was announcing to everyone, “Random on 3!”

He promptly opened the door of what looked like a plexi-glass closet.. shuffled me inside.. slammed the door shut and turned his back on me as if he was guarding the rest of the passengers from me… if you could have seen my husband’s eyes… they got as big as saucers he mouthed the words,“Are they screening you?”

I smiled and shrugged my shoulders as if to say.. no honey.. I want to spend part of my morning in a clear plastic closet with a lot of strangers staring at me as if a third eye is forming in the middle of my forehead…  I doubt he got all of that from my expression….

Then magically the other end of the closet opens and there is a woman asking me to follow her… uh oh…

She says, “Please hold out your hands.. palms up… do you have anything on your hands?”

Immediately I started thinking about my obsession with anti-bacterial hand gels.. had I put any on that morning.. would it show up as something crazy?

I said, “No ma’am.”

She said, “I see a band-aid.”

I was trying not to laugh because I thought that one was obvious…

Then I felt the need to explain to her that I had a finger nail that had ripped into the quick and I had to have the band-aid…

Why was I trying to justify a simple band-aid? 

Because I was all of the sudden nervous that I had somehow inadvertently done something I wasn’t supposed to and I hate to make mistakes of any kind… when preventable… that is what airport screenings do to me.

She put a small square cloth on the end of a little wand.. swabbed my hands.. removed the cloth.. checked it and as soon as I thought I was good to go.. Matt says,“They are checking your bag too.”

I thought he was kidding until I saw another screener grab my little carry-on suitcase and start to unzip it…

I said, “What for?”

Matt replied, “Suspicious powder… and I think I might have put my pocket knife in there by mistake.”

Through clinched teeth I said, “What?! Don’t say that out loud.. if they find a pocket knife in that bag.. after my random screening.. they may not let me get on that plane.”

As the screener pulled out a small plastic container of a nutritional supplement I take he said, “Ma’am, may I ask what this is?”

I explained how you mix it with water after a hard work out… that I had just run the half marathon (I was wearing my medal)

He looks at Matt and says, “Did you run too?

Matt: “No.”

Screener: “Ahhh you are just the cheerleader.”

Matt: “Yeah.”

Meanwhile… I am thinking there better not be a pocket knife in that bag… they re-scanned the powder and zipped my bag back up…

Whew… I felt like I seemed suspicious… I hadn’t done anything.. I could never play poker… I have no ability to bluff…

We continued onto the plane.. and thankfully got home safely..

Matt proclaimed from upstairs..“I found my pocket knife!!”

It was in his dop-kit in our “checked bag”... thank goodness!