back in boston

nc said goodbye with a full body patdown; boston welcomed me with a spectacular sunset

i'm home (Boston) and i'm feeling fine.

overall, my trip home was fine - no major incidents, some bonding with the family over photography (the one thing they seem to give approval, at least for now) and a lot of gaming (level 22 in two days in diablo 2).

i made it to the airport with the usual rush - a hastily cooked and eaten lunch, followed by the dawdling driving of my dad and my mom telling him to go left or right and to step on the gas.

when i got to the airport security line, the first person checking tickets stamped my ticket and yelled, "We need an escort." so i looked around but there were no wheelchairs or handicapped people around...then a smiling TSA agent came and said, "hello, you're one of the lucky ones selected by your airline for a SPECIAL screening. please come with me."

oh great. they showed me the ticket that had a serial number that indicated i was randomly selected. notice how, since it's the hoidays, there are little friendly christmas tree hole punches to make the whole process jolly.



fortunately i had changed my flight to a later delta direct flight rather than the continental flight that, despite being delayed, was leaving in 15 minutes. and luckily it was only a full body patdown and thorough bag search and not a body cavity check. the agent commented on my camera and asked if i was a professional photographer, while he put my camera upside down on the table, and almost tore the lens cap cover off trying to look through the lens to verify it was actually a lens, and not a grenade. but he was friendly and even got down on his hands and feet to find a quarter that had fallen out of my wallet.

well, the direct flight was nice because i could just sleep the whole trip. when i woke up near the end of the flight, it was dark outside except for some beautiful streaks of red from the setting sun, and i realized that i had a camera that would actually be able to capture a bit of the essence of that beauty.

the remaining sunlight over our wing	the moon over boston