Upon reading this (courtesy of my surrogate big brother and part time viking Brian), I thought I might want to tell the story of flying from Ontario International Airport to LAX. (It was a 15 minute flight and a waste of gas. There is a reason why United is going bankrupt.)
After spending a few days with my in-laws, I was flying up to San Jose ahead of my then-fiancé Jon to work on some wedding prep with my mom. We got to the Ontario airport about 90 minutes before my flight (which was almost too late) and when I went to the ticket counter, they informed me that I was going to be the one to have my suitcase randomly checked. This alarmed me somewhat because I had the following in my suitcase:
-2 vaccuum-sealed packages of Turkish coffee with the writing being about 75% Arabic and 25% French. (It was from a Lebanese shop.)
-my hijab from the Islam class I’d taken with the pins in place for easy fastening
-a few copies of the Qur’an
-some Arabic picture books that they gave us at one of the mosques
-a few other books from my Islam class
This is of course post-9/11 and I was mentally trying to figure out how to explain all of it since saying “I am a seminary student” could easily be misinterpreted. Thankfully my screener was from a Muslim country in Africa and had a sense of humor, teasing me about all of it as he was going through my suitcase. (“Ohhh… is this Turkish coffee any good?” “Nope… haven’t tried it but it smells weird.” “You know… you can get a better version of the Qur’an than this.” “Yeah… but my Arabic isn’t that great.” “If you’re a seminary student, shouldn’t you be a nun?” “NOOOOOO!!!!! I’m Lutheran.”)
When I got upstairs, the metal detector went off and they wanded me and put my shoes through the machine. (Oooooooh… steel-toed hiking boots from Lands’ End…) Then, they informed me that they would have to wand me, pat me down, and search my carry-on bags at the gate. When I got to the gate, my checker was the one-armed gate agent who had checked me in. Getting patted down by him was an interesting experience though I would have preferred a woman do it. (It’s kind of strange to feel someone’s stump [in place of an arm and hand] patting down your chest.) I got on my nice little 15 minute flight to LAX and had an easy time once I got there.