ignorance is bliss

Greetings from Newark.

I should be home by now. I should have already eaten my first meal at a mexican restaurant by now. But I am in Newark.

I can tell you, with complete certainty, yesterday was NOT a good day to fly from the United Kingdom to the States. In fact, it was probably the worst day ever. If you took all the times I have ever flown in my life, and added up the length of time all of those flights took, that number would probably still be less than the length of time I sat in an airplane yesterday.

That's how it seemed anyway.

The Pastor and I went to the Manchester airport yesterday morning, not having seen a television. When we got there, we were faced with rather long lines. A security agent inquired if we had seen the news. Uhhhh, no. Then he informed us there had been some threats. OK, what else is new? Pretty much everyone at the airport was as ignorant as us.

We were told we could not take any carry-ons, which was all we had with our backpacks, and we were given a list of about 8 items we could carry on in a clear plastic bag. We could not take our books. Fortunately, the list of items we could take included women's sanitary products. We could take our eyeglasses, but the Pastor and I had to give up our eyeglass containers. Still not sure what someone could do with an eyeglass container, but hey, I'm happy to follow the rules if it means I get to go home.

After we went through two pat-downs, we boarded our plane. There's nothing like multiple security officials knowing 1. you seriously need a pedicure. They look at your heels! Ick! and 2. you have your period. We sat in our plane before it took off for nearly 7 hours. We watched 2 entire movies. They kept telling us they had to wait for clearance from Homeland Security in the U.S. before they could take off. I'm sure they were checking to see if anyone was on the "do not fly" list. They couldn't even feed us until we got up in the air. I was never so glad to see a plate of airplane food in my life. Sitting on an airplane without your hairbrush and your stuff is not very much fun.

It wasn't until we finally made it to Newark (by the way, we got to sit on the ground there for more than an hour before we finally got off the plane) that we realized how serious it was. Somehow, the Pastor and I had managed to take in our meager carry-on items, a bottle of saline solution. That made it through multiple security checks. Hmmmm.

We are suppossed to fly out of here later today. We did have a direct flight from here to home, but now we are going to stop off in Houston, Texas. I sure will be glad to get there, whatever the route! And as far as hanging out in the airport today, I'll be ok. I'm back in the States baby! There's a Starbucks in the Newark airport, and quality entertainment like US Magazine!