A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Daytona

I think we can all agree that, since 9/11, the face of terrorism has changed...I just failed to realize how much! 

Husband and I have just returned from the family's annual trip to Daytona.  People say "getting there is half the fun."  And that's generally true...as long as you upgrade, of course.  This time, forget "getting there"...just getting to our seats was about all the fun I could handle.

We had an uneventful drive to the airport...but for the fact that we had to fly out of McCarran (LAS) not Ontario (ONT)...as there were no upgrades available for ONT.  I always check ONT first because it is easy to get to, easy to navigate, and closer to my home.  Also, because I know that if terrorists ever try to take it over, Jack Bauer will rescue me...and the other people there, too, I guess...but, whatever, not my problem.  The drive to Vegas isn't that much longer and...thank you nice people at Sirius...I have 80s on 8.  

We park, easy peasy, unload the car, and, as we head from parking garage to airport, J began to question the wisdom of not having called ahead for a wheelchair.  It was too late at that point, so as a friend would tell me, I Rangered Up, and continued.  At the ticketing counter, no one was manning the First Class line, so we waited far too long.  But...onward.

At this point, we reach the TSA Agent before the metal detectors, who compares your ID to your ticket.  J and I presented our military IDs and tickets.  He compares DH's ID picture to his face and name to ticket and hands it back to him.  My turn.  He stared!!!  Used different angles and lighting!  He finally asks for a second form of ID...dude...are you kidding me?  I hand him my driver's license.  UH-OH...it's expired.  He lets the expiration slide with a stern warning and then starts the comparison dance again...both IDs and me...back and forth...squinting, staring, doing the hokey f*cking pokey.  With a dirty look he returns my documents and sends us to the metal detector line.  Again...this was the First Class line!!!  Seasoned travelers, everything is neatly in bins, all computers out, quart size bag of anything even semi-liquid, shoes and sweater off...let's roll. Then we get pulled out of THAT line to go thru the body scanner thingy. 

Don't get me wrong...I am a safety nut.  I have been since I worked with a wonderfully security conscious (read: paranoid lunatic) officer for 2 years at the Sheriff's Dept. back home.  J is also a bit hyper-aware (read: slightly obsessed) of Force Protection.  I'm all for any safety measures necessary to keep our nation safe...at the airport...or anywhere else.  I understand and support the need for our Govt. not to lay everything bare to the masses.  Though I disagree with the way most gun nuts interpret the 2nd Amendment, I AM a gun nut!

HOWEVER...am I the new face of terrorism?

Let me set the scene...
All 5'1 (if I stand up really straight and the nurse is nice, I'm 5'1, damn it) of me...chin length, ginger hair, pink, monogrammed, polo dress, matching monogrammed cardigan, pearls, and my new Marley Lilly Monogrammed Penny Clutch.  Really?  There's a rosary in my bag!  The only person I look like I could terrorize is a Protestant midget in Ireland!!!

From the front?  A basic, flat, clutch that is deceptively large enough to fit the current issues of Town & Country and Vanity Fair

 and still look flat with loads of room for your essentials.

 This back pocket?

Fits your favourite E-reader with room to spare!

Just to make more versatile, 

There are wristlet and cross-body straps included!

When traveling, the cross-body strap makes life SO much easier!

I love the bag so much...that Marley Lilly is letting me give one away!!!

So here are the rules:

1:  Follow Marley Lilly on Twitter

2:  Follow me on Twitter

@PrincssPrepPink

3:  Like Marley Lilly on Facebook

4:  Share your "favourite" travel story here

And because Marley Lilly is so generous

5:  Like The Queen of Hearts on Facebook

6:  Follow The Queen of Hearts on Twitter
7:  Tweet about the giveaway
8:  Blog about the giveaway

Good Luck!

XOXO

~CAT

Is Nothing Sacred?!?

I know I promised to finally do my "Getting to Know Me" post today...and last week...but things got crazy with Husband's work...thus the absence of posts...and today, well, I will write it, but first, I really just need to rant for a minute...I figure I'm entitled (apparently I have "entitlement issues,' but that is best saved for another post) since it's my blog and I can do whatever I damn well please here...evidently to include behaving so childishly as to say "it's my blog and I can!"  I'm such a charmer...HA!

So anyway...I'm at the gym this morning and the news ticker at the bottom of the screen flashes "Mickey & Minnie arrested in front of Disney HQ."  I was taking a drink at the time whilst on the runny thingie and listening to my Kindle...this is FAR MORE than I have any business attempting at one time, BTW, and when I see this on the ticker, I end up covered in smartwater!  Speaking of smartwater...I miss fruitwater, back before they tried to sweeten it and then did away with it all together in favour of vitaminwater...especially the watermelon...OMG...soooo good!  Great, now I've made myself sad :(  Back to the gym...no, I don't know what the runny thingie is called, I believe "runny thingie" is, in fact, the technical term.  So I stare at the muted TV as if I can read lips, and have totally convinced myself that I will know when they start talking about it and be able to ask the trainers to turn it up.  This did not happen.  I'm pretty sure it was because they never commented on it, and not because I can't read lips.  Naturally the second I got off the runny thingie, I'm sprinting for my iPhone to google Mickey & Minnie.  And here's where it all sort of goes off the rails in my beautiful mind.

I don't know which group of crazies think the Rapture starts on Saturday, but I'm betting on not so much!  What?  Calling them "crazies" is insensitive?  I'll draw your attention to the "it's my blog" rule.  Rest assured that unless I happen to BE the crazy with Doomsday Prophecy and bunker, I will always side with the FBI, ATF, and any other sets of initials I deem appropriate.On that note, for anyone looking to join, "Cult Leader," totally on my bucket list, but I digress...so I hear people talking about the world ending in 5 months while I'm googling Mickey & Minnie's arrest, and to be helpful, "'cause that's how I roll," I offer that they shouldn't worry if nothing happens Saturday because there's always that 2012 silliness.  I'm nothing if not helpful, you see.  When I see the article about why Mickey Mouse was arrested whilst hearing people blather on about the end of the world...one can only take so much stupid at one time!!!

I get that going green is "in"...yes, yes, it's the responsible thing to do, save the planet...blah, blah, blah...but seriously?  It's trendy...at the end of the day, lots of people are all about "saving the earth" because some celeb somewhere is driving a dumbass Prius!  Why do the celebs care?  Because it's a cause they can take up that makes them look caring and sensitive that's not too icky.  Some of you may think I'm wrong, you're entitled, but I'm right...and some of you have never really given the matter any thought and are thinking I make an interesting point.  It's a whole new world in my head, people...buckle up!  Ha!  As it happens, Mr & Mrs Treehugger found out that...horrors...ONE of the fibers that goes into the making of SOME of the paper for SOME of the children's books Disney publishes is made from a tree in an endangered Indonesian rain forest.  The very BEST way Sir and Ma'am Genius could come up with to stop this appalling travesty RIGHT. THIS. MINUTE. was to chain themselves to the front gates of Disney's Headquarters!  Look...I don't mean to sound cavalier...yes, I do...I'm all for saving the planet...within reason.  I buy organic, use the weird looking light bulbs, try to use my refillable water bottles most of the time, recycle (mostly), sort of care about gas mileage...you know...and stuff...but dress as Minnie Mouse and chain myself to a gate to take a stand for a tree halfway around the world?  Who are we kidding?!?  You got your 15 minutes...go home.  Your little stunt in no way helped your tree...but it got you on the news and in the papers and we all know that's what you really wanted.   


And that brings us here...with my grasp on reality becoming ever more tenuous...as I try to make sense of this.  The Rapture is Saturday...IF you believe the crazy guy, who, BTW, made the same prediction 15-20 years ago and I guess we can all see how accurate he was that time...and for those expecting to be saved on Saturday, I hear there are a bunch of atheist's groups that are offering pet sitting...you can not make this stuff up...and if you're not saved on Saturday then the End of the World is in 5 months.  Or...the End of the World is December of 2012.  This is assuming, of course, that the end is coming and God has chosen to communicate this to us through a series of raving lunatics.  I don't know about you, but I like my odds.  Still...if it is coming...and it seems to me, that on some level, a nut is nut, and under a different set of circumstances the tree people could just as easily have ended up the Doomsday people, and perhaps it's a predisposition to that sort of belief/blind faith/obsession that drives them all...maybe it's just a matter of which leader or cause gets to them first.  So if it is...WOW...this has been a LOT of blather to come to a point...for what are we saving the world?!?


Seriously!!!  If it's the End of the World anyway, who gives a damn about a tree? 


Reasonable question, isn't it?


Free Mickey Mouse!


XOXO
~CAT