Seattle, Part 1

Note: this is the first of the Seattle posts I wrote back in May. Pretend it’s not in present tense.

For once in my life, I managed to get packed up beforehand, get a good night’s sleep, and actually have time to eat something before heading for the airport at a reasonable time. That sounds good, but I’d like to never do it again. You see, this incredible feat has already shown me its downside: here I sit in the A concourse at Eppley, fully cleared and ready to roll, 90 minutes before my flight departs. Well, that’s what time it was when I got here anyhow. I’ve managed to pass 20 minutes or so between video podcasts and trying to get into the “Free Public WiFi” network that my AirPort card claims exists. I’m sure there is a delightfully ironic joke I could make about using AirPort in an actual airport, but I am going to let that slide by.

On the bright side, everything has gone very smoothly so far. I got to use the “self check-in” kiosk to get my boarding pass—something I’ve never seen before (although I don’t exactly fly often). I’m normally a fan of, um, kiosk technology, but I was skeptical this time. I didn’t have my passport on me, nor any sort of fancy frequent flier card, and my driver’s license is too old to have any sort of computer-readable information (my antique license will probably be fodder for another post). So I defaulted to the final option, and it verified my identity using my credit card. How in the world is that a safe practice? I guess folks who choose to travel sans plastic are the only ones who actually have to talk to real people anymore.

Now I’m getting really bored, and still have 50 minutes to go. This is the last time I try to be on time! Punctuality is for suckers!