My Airport Experience From Hell
Before you read this story, I advise you to click on the link below. Yes it is a long video, but it’ll explain to you in detail how emotionally and physically drained I was days prior to this day:
Recap/Backstory
Okay, so I’m assuming that you've watched the video. Well then, let me tell you about the time when TSA almost caught these hands. In the video, I left off on how I was eliminated from the last round of American Idol’s Hollywood Week. They booked all of the American Idol “rejects” flights to wherever we needed to go. I had to go to Dallas, Texas for my best friend’s wedding.
There I was lying down next to my mother, bawling my eyes out, as she tried to comfort me to sleep. All I wanted to do was sleep my life away but I was so paranoid that I was going to wake up late AGAIN and miss my flight the next morning. Of course they had us leave super early in the morning, so that added to my sleep deprivation. The bus ride to the airport was kind of depressing but I was low key happy to finally get the hell out of there and “escape” for a week and a half.
San Diego, CA
To be honest, I really don’t remember much of what happened at LAX. All I remember is getting to my seat on the plane and then waking up to everyone getting off the plane because we landed in San Diego. I was that far gone. This was a short flight and it wasn’t your typical plane where you get off at a gate/terminal. We had to walk down the stairs off the plane and walk outside into the San Diego airport. I've never been to San Diego at the time so I had no idea how this airport worked. I’m not going to lie, I found it annoying that we had to go through another TSA screening when we had to go through that back in LAX. I was standing inside of what I thought was the only airport building. I legit thought is was a very small airport with only like 5 gates. I’ve been to airports like that before so I just assumed it was one of those. However, I wanted to be 100% sure. I had an almost 3 hour delay, so none of my flight information was on a screen there yet. I walked over to a gate agent, showed him my boarding pass, and asked if I was at the right place. This fool took one good look at my pass, looked me dead in the eyes and told me “yes”. Cool. I set my alarm to wake me up 20 minutes before boarding, since I was right by the gate, and decided to catch up on some sleep.
I woke up to my alarm ringing through my headphones and saw passengers boarding the plane. As I began to gather my stuff, I looked up at the screen of that gate and froze. The screen read “Now Boarding: Las Vegas”………
NOW. BOARDING. LAS. VEGAS.
Me:
I tried to find that stupid gate agent but he was nowhere to be found. So I ran over to another one and asked her where the hell was I supposed to be. She reviewed my ticket and told me that I had to get on a bUS TO TAKE ME TO THE MAIN BUILDING OF THE AIRPORT. So as I ran out the door, I saw the bus slowly pulling out of the stop. I’m pretty sure the image of me running, yelling, and flailing my arms around like a deranged animal was a sight to see for that bus driver. Luckily, he actually stopped the bus. I briefly told him my situation, how I was about to miss my flight, and asked him if he could drive a little faster since I was one of only 3 people on that bus. I will never forget that bus driver. Home dawg drove hella fast! So as the driver was trying to get me to my destination asap, I was sitting next to a chick who was staring at me. “Are you okay?” she slowly asked me. Oh, did I mention that I looked like a hot ass mess at this point? Because I did. I straight up told her “No, I am not okay. I’ve had a rough week, a rough day, and I’m about to miss my flight”. I didn’t want to get into details with her, because everything didn’t process in my mind fully at that point in time. She asked me what my gate number was and I showed her my ticket. Coincidently, she worked at the spa right next to that gate.
“I can totally take you there, since I’m literally right next to it.” I swear, the moment she said that, I looked at her as if she was an angel. You know, the whole light beaming down at her from Heaven as a choir of angels begin to sing. The bus stopped and the girl and I sprinted out of that bus, into the building and I halted to a complete stop.
TSA SCREENING #3
Yes, you read that correctly. I had to go through ANOTHER TSA screening. I quickly said bye to the girl on the bus, who totally forgot about the screening, and ran to where the pre-check line was where they first check your ID and boarding pass. I am not exaggerating when I say that I was the ONLY traveler there. The guy that was suppose to check my ID and another worker were chatting up a storm having a good ole funky time. I have been standing there for a few seconds and they never acknowledged me. So I had no choice but to politely cut them off and let them know that my flight was about to leave. Wanna to know what Mr. ID man said to me?
“Ma’am, you can wait a minute.”
My exact reaction:
And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I was 978.92% completely FINISHED with this planet.
I do not like confrontations. In fact, I go out of my way to avoid them. Not this time, though. I don’t even remember what I said to Mr. ID man, but he sure did check my stuff REAL quick.
I snatched my ID and boarding pass from him and stormed off to the screening. I had one small backpack with me, that went through TWO screenings already. Remember, folks, I was the only traveler there. The woman operating the screening machine was taking FOREVER to screen my one small bag to the point where I honestly thought they did it on purpose just to mess with me, guessing that they heard my loud altercation with Mr. ID man. When my bag finally went through and as I tried to put on my combat boots as quickly as possible, a scrawny TSA worker had a stupid, cheeky grin on his face and began to (slowly) put on some gloves. Here’s how it went down:
TSA worker: “Ma’am I am going to check inside your bag because there is an item that is not allowed on the plane.”
Me: “Take it out, I don’t care, sorry I just need to hurry so I can run and catch my flight.”
TSA worker: “Ma’am, this is a standard proceeder.” slowly opens my bag and begins to look inside as if it’s Mary Poppin’s magic bag of stuff
There was literally a notebook, magazine, a small plastic bag of toiletries that were TSA approved, and a full sized lotion I forgot to put in my suitcase because that was the least of my worries at the time. That lotion went through security screenings 2 times prior to this moment. So WTF.
Me: “Listen, whatever it is, just take it out.”
TSA worker: slowly pulls out my Bed Bath and Body Works Lotion while still holding my bag “Ma’am, this is the reason why I was searching your bag. I will now let you know why. The reason why you cannot bring items more that 3 ounc-“
Me: screams on the inside “I know, my mistake. Take it, give it to your mom, girlfriend, whatever-“
TSA worker: “Ma’am, I just want you to understand why this isn’t allowe-“
Me: “I ALREADY KNOW WHY IT’S NOT ALLOWED. NOW GIVE ME MY BAG, I NEED TO CATCH MY FLIGHT!”
TSA worker: hands me my bag
Me: runs
TSA worker: “Your shoes are untied!”
I seriously wish I was making this up, guys.
FINALLY PAST THE FINAL SCREENING
So I’m sprinting like an Olympian towards my gate, dodging people left and right. My heart sank when I saw no one sitting in the waiting area but I was totally in denial. I went up to the 3 gate agents working the gate and asked if I missed my flight. One of them told me that they left the gate 5 minutes ago. All I remember were the tears of frustration rolling down my cheeks as I tried so hard to keep in (I hate crying in front of people). My anxiety level was at an all time high, I had to deal with TSA’s spawns of Satan, I was beyond exhausted, and I didn’t know what to do at that point. But they were very sweet and comforting to me and let me know that I can get on the next flight to Dallas, I just had to wait an hour and a half.
I sat down in the waiting area, trying to process everything that had happened all in a span of 20 minutes. I called my best friend to let her know what happened and then decided to try to get some rest because that was literally all I could do. But then I realized that I left my neck pillow at the TSA screening. I knew very well that if I went back, you probably would of saw my mugshot on the news for fighting the TSA workers.
I was NOT going back. I didn’t really like that neck pillow anyways. It was one of those cheap kinds with the beads inside. So I decided to treat myself. I freaking deserved it.
Angel from Heaven
I walked around to see if I can find a store that sold neck pillows and saw a display of them at a spa right next to my gate. As I looked through them, I hear a “Hey!”, looked up, and saw that is was the chick from the bus that tried to help me out earlier. She was the manager there. I walked over to her and explained the TSA situation (which she agreed that they are assholes. Not generalizing all TSA workers by the way. I’m talking about the ones I encountered.) and how I missed my flight. We then had a small conversation about neck pillows and I wanted to find one with memory foam. She picked one out for me and gave me a discount on it! While she was processing my card, she asked me about what happened about my rough week and I gave her a short summary of my American Idol experience. After paying, I said my thank you’s and goodbye’s and turned around to walk away.
Angel from Heaven: “Wait, where are you going?”
Me: “Oh…just back to my gate to wait for my flight.”
Angel from Heaven: points to massage chair
Me: “Oh, thank you! But I really can’t spend anymore money.”
Angel from Heaven: “Oh no girl, it’s on the house. You can stay here until you have to board your flight.” smiles as she takes my stuff out of my hand and guides me to the massage chair because I was just too shocked to move on my own
LIGHTS BEAM DOWN AT HER FROM HEAVEN WHILE A CHOIR OF ANGELS SING IN THE BACKGROUND
I started to cry. But this time, they were happy tears.
Even though I was a living zombie, I ended up having the most relaxing flight of my life. You know, I almost gave up hope on all humanity. Like, I was so done. However, that girl’s simple act of kindness restored it back to me. I will NEVER forget her for the rest of my life. I wish I could of gotten her name. On that note, when I finally arrived in Dallas, I think I slept for the majority of the first 2 days there...
and it was the best sleep I've ever had in my life.
