Getting there: Leg 1

May 18, 2011
Houston, TX

I intended to leave Austin at 8:30 last night (the 17th), right after black belt class. Naturally, that didn't happen. Instead, I went home and spent an hour putting the finishing touches on getting my apartment clean enough that I wouldn't mind K the Kat-Sitter seeing it, and wouldn't mind coming home to it. Then I set out, which put me in Houston at J&E's house at 1 AM. I crept in so as not to wake anyone, and went straight to bed. This was smart of me, since I sprang awake approximately 6 hours later.

I spent the day with my beautiful and intelligent nephews and niece, and their equally intelligent and beautiful mother (her only questionable decision was marrying my brother, but I'm awfully glad she did). I went for a run with their certainly beautiful but possibly not-as-intelligent dog, too. Then we set out for IAH, which I refuse to call Bush International, even though it's named after Bush 41, who I mind less than Bush 43. Anyway. We got oh-so-slightly-lost, but since we'd left in plenty of time, we arrived in plenty of time. Travel tip: budget time to get lost. Especially if you have my sense of direction.

I spent time in the security line people-watching and thinking about their lives and the adventure I was about to have. Then I got bored and still had lots of line to go, so I did what I typically do in that kind of situation, and listened to a book on my iPhone.

As I approached the beginning of the line, I noticed they had the see-you-naked scanners, and I contemplated whether I was going to have the guts to strip to my unders, as I have previously threatened to do. I like that approach because it avoids overly harrassing the front-line folks, whose fault it really is not, but still makes the point that maybe insisting on seeing everybody naked is Taking Things Too Far. But while civil disobedience is well and good in theory, I didn't want to miss my plane. Luckily, I went through the familiar and unobjectionable metal detector. I still attracted the attention of TSA, though -- not for my person, but for my carry-on bag. They were apparently alarmed by brownie mix. After a closer look at it, the let me though and all was well.

I got to the gate with approximately 30 minutes to spare. So far, so good.