Oregon papers
I've been forty for about two and half weeks now, and it hasn't been too awful. So, I've decided to quit whining about it.
Two weeks ago I was in L.A. for a work related conference. Though I spent most of the time in the hotel and in hotel conferences there were a few outings- One to the Queen Mary a turn of the century cruise ship converted into kind of a touristy attraction. It was nice. People in the those days knew how to kick back on a journey. I particularly reflected on this as I was crammed into a tiny plane eating my miniscule bag of pretzels between LAX and PDX.
Also on my way home I was flagged by the TSA and had my luggage searched and I was patted down by a very nice TSA lady with limited English speaking skills, so I kept saying "What?" and she kept answering me in a louder, yet no more coherent tone of voice. We did chat about the little trinkets and tchotkies I brought back from L.A. for Allie and J. from my outing to Universal Studios. She seemed almost apologetic about having to pat me down, especially when the underwire on my bra set off the wand thingy and she had feel me up under my boobs. I could tell she felt kind of bad about that. I felt like, hey, anything for America's safety. Besides that's her job, what can you do?
Lest you think I've grown more terrorist looking in my 40s, I think I know why I was flagged (and when they do that you get to at first stand in a glass box while all the safe looking passengers pass by either side) I'm pretty sure why I got stopped- my license was due to expire on my birthday, so of course the day before my birthday I renewed my license, but Oregon gives you this stupid paper temporary license and then mails you the real one. However, I had to go to L.A. with my paper license. I breezed through security at PDX, obviously these people have seen this before, but in L.A. the young kid in the first screening area looked at it and said "what!?" I explained the ways of my people in Oregon, but he called over his supervisor. I had to explain the "Oregon Way" to this guy with a line of fidgety people getting increasingly annoyed with my paper license story. Anyway the supervisor guy looked at the pissed people behind me and then eyed me like I was trying to pull a fast one, so he put a red stamp on my boarding pass and then when I walked through the x ray thing and handed my boarding pass to this guy, I was made to stand shoeless in the glass box, looking at my shoes and carry on bag through the glass as the TSA people put it in a plastic bin. I stood there for a while then the nice lady took me to the inspection area, and went through all of my stuff.
I was a little irritated, it wasn't as if I came to the airport in my "Death to America" t-shirt with my "I heart Osama bin Laden" button and a carry-on full of plastic explosives! Dang!
And what's with Oregon and the stupid paper license and mailing the real one? They say it is to prevent ID theft, but it actually encourages it. I personally know some reformed ID thieves and do you know where they stole people's ID from? THE MAILBOX.
So not only does it increase the chances your ID will get stolen, it gets you the full search treatment at the airport as well for those crazy paper Oregon ways.
Two weeks ago I was in L.A. for a work related conference. Though I spent most of the time in the hotel and in hotel conferences there were a few outings- One to the Queen Mary a turn of the century cruise ship converted into kind of a touristy attraction. It was nice. People in the those days knew how to kick back on a journey. I particularly reflected on this as I was crammed into a tiny plane eating my miniscule bag of pretzels between LAX and PDX.
Also on my way home I was flagged by the TSA and had my luggage searched and I was patted down by a very nice TSA lady with limited English speaking skills, so I kept saying "What?" and she kept answering me in a louder, yet no more coherent tone of voice. We did chat about the little trinkets and tchotkies I brought back from L.A. for Allie and J. from my outing to Universal Studios. She seemed almost apologetic about having to pat me down, especially when the underwire on my bra set off the wand thingy and she had feel me up under my boobs. I could tell she felt kind of bad about that. I felt like, hey, anything for America's safety. Besides that's her job, what can you do?
Lest you think I've grown more terrorist looking in my 40s, I think I know why I was flagged (and when they do that you get to at first stand in a glass box while all the safe looking passengers pass by either side) I'm pretty sure why I got stopped- my license was due to expire on my birthday, so of course the day before my birthday I renewed my license, but Oregon gives you this stupid paper temporary license and then mails you the real one. However, I had to go to L.A. with my paper license. I breezed through security at PDX, obviously these people have seen this before, but in L.A. the young kid in the first screening area looked at it and said "what!?" I explained the ways of my people in Oregon, but he called over his supervisor. I had to explain the "Oregon Way" to this guy with a line of fidgety people getting increasingly annoyed with my paper license story. Anyway the supervisor guy looked at the pissed people behind me and then eyed me like I was trying to pull a fast one, so he put a red stamp on my boarding pass and then when I walked through the x ray thing and handed my boarding pass to this guy, I was made to stand shoeless in the glass box, looking at my shoes and carry on bag through the glass as the TSA people put it in a plastic bin. I stood there for a while then the nice lady took me to the inspection area, and went through all of my stuff.
I was a little irritated, it wasn't as if I came to the airport in my "Death to America" t-shirt with my "I heart Osama bin Laden" button and a carry-on full of plastic explosives! Dang!
And what's with Oregon and the stupid paper license and mailing the real one? They say it is to prevent ID theft, but it actually encourages it. I personally know some reformed ID thieves and do you know where they stole people's ID from? THE MAILBOX.
So not only does it increase the chances your ID will get stolen, it gets you the full search treatment at the airport as well for those crazy paper Oregon ways.
posted by moegirl at
9:26 PM
2 Comments:
Oy, what a horror story! You seem to have a good attitude about it all... I'd be all pissed and bitter and stuff... (but then, I hate flying, anyway.)
By
Coffee-Drinking Woman, At
7:49 PM
That's freakin' crazy. You know, in Wisconsin, not only do they hand over your shiny, new license, but they also give you back your old one. Dunno why, as you could sell it to a teen for nefarious purposes if you went in and renewed it early.
I had no idea the underwire would set off the metal detector, but I guess that makes sense. I'll never wear one again (not that I own one in the first place--to diggy and uncomfortable for me).
By
Diana, At
6:24 AM
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home