i got married yesterday...yay! so why on earth am i blogging? good question. we're supposed to be in boston right now, but thanks to the continual degradation of customer service and real freedom in america we're stuck in the kansas city airport. i hate this airport because the security team is always terribly rude and anal (way beyond the norm--and i've been in a lot of airports), today it surpassed anything i've experienced before.

due to the craziness of the wedding i accidentally misplaced my driver's license.
i decided to use my passport instead since it's a valid id and i've used it a million times before both in america and overseas. i was stopped at security so they could examine my passport. jared and i stood over to the side while more and more 'officials' came to check it out. then they came over to me and said that since my passport has tape in it they were concerned it wasn't valid. by tape i don't mean masking tape or duct tape--i mean a clear seal placed in the passport by the united states government. i got my passport amended a couple of years ago. there are two different stamps stating the official amendement, as well as the date it occurred. i informed security of all this, but they continued to call more people, including the police, to check it out. at that point i started to get frustrated. i'm a very calm person, but i was slightly annoyed at being accused of passport tampering. i am not proud to say my demeanor became a little disagreeable. you see, i usually fail to be assertive in situations like this and i'm later mad at myself for not taking a stand. however, when i do express my anger i get emotional and cry, which later makes me feel bad too.

after awhile another guy came and told me i should get a new passport because mine is a little worn on the top edge. i was like, 'hello, you looked through it. can you not see how much it has been used? it's amazing it looks as good as it does. it isn't damaged or anything.' then a police officer came over and told me that everyone was just doing their jobs. he said that i should be glad that the airport cared enough to look into a passport with tape on it. i told him that this was anything but courteous and the real problem was that they didn't have a clue what an amended passport looks like. he replied 'we know what an amended passport is. if we didn't know the passport had been amended we'd be hauling you off in handcuffs.' i almost laughed. seriously? handcuffs? you would think it was an episode of law and order. but the main thing is that he was lying--if they knew what an amended passport looked like, heck, if they could READ the official stamp inside the passport, then none of this would have been an issue. by this point i was in tears (lovely, jules) and i know everyone felt bad for jared because he was stuck with a crazy woman. we were both subjected to a full search and so was all of our stuff. meanwhile, the gate was calling our name but the security team made no effort to help us make our flight. we missed it. after it was all over and they decided that i was actually a law abiding citizen with a valid id they told us, 'i hope this doesn't ruin your honeymoon.' No--public humiliation, being accused of passport tampering, and being delayed four additional hours should just roll right off my back.

my personal opinion is that a passport is much more valid than other kinds of id. it's a federal document, belong to the us of a--not me or pompous kci airline security. the problem is that airline security can treat people however they want and say , 'we're just trying to keep people safe.' safe from what? i've flown all over the world. it used to be easy. in this day and age, however, i have to throw away water bottles and sunscreen, have my body shot with air pockets to check for chemical residue, strip down to my last layer of clothing, and be publicly accused of illegal tampering all in the name of safety. it's completely ridiculous. i want airlines to take precautionary measures, but i think we're going way too far. if someone wants to commit a terrorist act they always find a way to do it. in the meantime, law abiding and paying customers are being subjected to terrible violations and customer service.

ok--i am finished now. i think we just may be headed to boston soon...assuming they let me on the plane.

***disclaimer
i've used my passport in a lot of us airports and kci is the only one that gave me trouble. but it's only because they're an airport that 'cares.'