A trip to the airport

I took Alex and Cyan to the airport to drop Alex off at his flight to FL the other day. Despite it being the crack of dawn we were all in a great mood, chatting about our Christmas gifts, and what we were grateful for this year, etc....

We got to the airport with two hours to spare and I was feeling glad because I hadn't had a chance to get the kids breakfast yet and we could sit and have breakfast at an overpriced cafe in the airport together.

In the end, all we had time for was a cocoa and scone at Starbucks as we rushed through.

Here is what happened:

We got to the ticket counter and got rushed through (which still takes a while because there is lots of paperwork with putting a minor on a plane alone). But she gave us the wrong paperwork, so had to run us down on the way to security to give us the right paperwork to get us through. When we got to the security counter (after waiting in line for 20 minutes) he said that because Cyan didn't have her name on the entrance slip she couldn't get through. I have done this 6 times a year since Alex was 5 years old and have never had a problem getting her through, not to mention how they would possibly verify her name if we DID get it put on there. (Um... She's 7. What are you going to do? Ask her for ID?)

So, I decided that we had time, and didn't argue. Went back to the ticket counter, waited in line again, and asked the lady to put Cyan on there. She did... she added "Accompanied by 7 year old sister" on the bottom of my security slip.

Sweet. We were set. We went through the fast lane when we got back to security, which still took 10 minutes, just to have the security guard ask me if she was my '7 year old sister'.

"No, she isn't. She is my daughter. She is the 7 year old sister of the person who has the ticket to get on the airplane."

"Well it isn't on his security slip. It's on yours. She is not your sister."

"You have to be kidding me." Now I start to get snide; "How exactly were you going to verify that she isn't my sister? Do you think she has ID on her? We have the same last name. That ok for you? Related. Good enough?"

"Well mam........"

"Seriously?"

"I'll let you through this time, but next time you have to have her name put on there." He puts the blessed stamp on my pass.

"Whatever. Like you could verify it anyhow." I snatch my pass and head through taking my shoes off for the walk through the metal detector.

I would not have thought about it again after this.... but for all of this, Alex and his suitcase are next in line. The security guard checks the suitcase, puts it on the rail and says "What's your name buddy?"

"Alex." No last name, nothing.

Moronic guard looks at Alex's security pass, and says "Yep." Stamp "Ok, head through."

It took EVERYTHING I had not to make remarks behind his back about something involving his mother and birth control. I just snickered at how mean I can get and thought horrible thoughts for the next 10 minutes.

End of story, we ran through the Starbucks in the terminal for breakfast, and got to the gate just as the plane was boarding the unaccompanied minors and all was well despite the few grey hairs it gave me.