Odd-yssey, Part II: The Return

*Cheesy announcer voice*:

In our last episode…

Anyway. Did I mention it was pouring rain in Charlotte? I got back to my car in the long term parking lot, having walked through the deluge, and drove around in circles until I found my way out of said long term lot…three hours after I parked in it.

This is all happening around rush hour, by the way.

But, whatever. I’m on vacation!

My drive home was just like a Navy Recruiting video. The only differences being: 1) Instead of a group of Navy Seals in wetsuits it was me in my rain soaked jacket, 2) instead of a tactical combat raft crashing through the surf (heh…I typed “serf” the first time) it was my explorer crashing through the rain and wet pavement on I-85, and 3) Instead of a Godsmack tune (“Awake”) dubbed over as a non-diagetic soundtrack element, I was singing along to the CD. So…really it was nothing like a Navy Recruiting video.

But, if you have the necessary Fortitude (DC: 35), you can imagine me singing along at the top of my lungs:

“I’m aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive, for yooooooou, I’m awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaake…”

Had to swing by the CVS for some contact lens stuff (my kit was in my bag…still is, incidentally) and a frozen pizza, and then headed on home.

Didn’t do much, really…had some DiGiorno and played a bit of Jade Empire…because I’m only on my fourth play-through.

And then…

Got to the airport and MY GOD the line for security was long…finally, I was up to the front and…YES! Specialized screening! They put me in this…thing...which looked like a cross between an upright Jacuzzi and some kind of Star Trek transporter thing…and it…uh…blew jets of air on me. I think this was to analyze the air for explosives or such materials. (Apparently it's called a Trace Portal Machine, or a Puffer...)

That was odd. And then through the metal detector, and then stopped in the big glass box until they were ready to…*gulp*…oh, never mind, just going to take samples from your shoes and bag. Okay, you’re good.

I wonder about that, though. I mean, you take the little wipe thing and rub on the inside of someone’s shoe and find nothing "bomb" related, but does it check for other things too?

“Okay, Mr. Smith…no explosives in the conventional sense, but you might want to pick up a tube of tough acting Tinactin! BOOM! Ha ha!! …now get out of here before we kill you.”

And everything was smooth after that. Until I got to GJ…