It's official!

I'm done traveling this month! I have no more planned trips until October, and then it gets crazy again. How do people do it who travel all the time? Like flight attendants? Or train conductors? Or air marshals?

I looked for the air marshals on my last few flights (like the three I took in 36 hours of Tuesday/Wednesday). It's like an adult version of Where's Waldo. I couldn't find them. And on my flight last night, there were probably only 15 people on the whole flight. You'd think that they'd be sitting somewhere up front, and on the aisle. I still didn't see anyone who looked awake enough to care.

Yesterday morning, some guy got on the plane with a cup of coffee. I didn't say anything, but I wish I'd been able to take my coffee on. So he walked by security, he walked by the person taking the boarding passes, and he walked by the flight attendants who say hello as you get on the plane. And he sat down in the row behind me. Right before we pushed back, a flight attendant said to him "you're not supposed to bring drinks on the plane". He said, "really?" She said, "Where have you been the last three weeks?"

It could be because I've been on 6 flights in the last two weeks, or just because I watch the news, but who didn't know you couldn't bring drinks on a plane?! And why did it take a fourth set of eyes to see it (not including mine)? I did bring toothpaste in my carry-on the other day and no one noticed.

The whole security thing is ridiculous. What can you hid in flip flops? And the floors walking through the metal detectors are gross. But yesterday morning I got to walk through one of the machines that puffs air at you to detect drug residue. I had been having such a good hair day before that....

And just for the record, the Southwest Airlines magazine is excellent. The USAir magazine, not so much. And I like the XM radio that ATA has. It means you don't have to talk to the people next to you unless you really, really want to, which is not so often.