This week I've been in some terrific "people watching" places. A couple of airports (I'm writing from one now), buses, trains, mono-rails and amusement parks. A plethora of characters have passed by me. All of them insanely interesting and incredibly compelling, crazy wardrobes, interesting walking styles, funny faces, incredibly engaging (sometimes hostile) attitudes.
Apparently, I'm a character myself. There was a family in line with us for a ride at the amusement park. The line was an over two hour wait. That's not hyperbole. It was two hours and fifteen minutes of slow walking, needing to use the restroom, needing water, waiting in line. While waiting I chatted with the cute couple from Mississippi next to us. Just little chitter chatter to do something. We never really met, just joked about the line mostly. Today, I'm getting a coffee at the airport and up comes the mom from the cute couple to flirt. Made my day! Apparently I'm a memorable character to her.
But that's not the point of this post.
Today as I was walking throught the security line on Thanksgiving day, I took out my clearly metal money clip and put it in the dog bowl that the screeners use to put loose things through the x-ray device.
The TSA screener stopped me and said, "You shouldn't put you money through the x-ray. You should hang onto that."
"But it's metal," I replied.
"Then just hold it in your hand and don't let them see you do it."
Cracked me up. Here is a TSA security screener telling me to hold some metal in my hand and hide it from her co-workers. Not only that she told me to take some metal through the metal detector. It was absurd on so many levels. What did I do? I put it in the dog bowl and put my hat over it so no one could see it. Better than being dinged at the walk through screener and having to tell the security agent why I was holding a piece of metal in my hand.
That lady would be a perfect character for a thriller novel.
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