Hi from Salt Lake City

Sitting in the SLC airport recharging my laptop and waiting for my flight to Philadelphia, which is currently delayed 25 minutes. I'm so glad the airports have gotten with the program and provided power for people and their portable electronics! I remember days when you'd have to hunt around and finally find an outlet hidden in the floor somewhere. And the free Wi-Fi is nice too.

The morning went okay, I was glad I stayed up and got all of my packing done last night. And made a list of all the things I couldn't pack until the last minute. Eric's dad picked me and Seth up and dropped me off at the airport. I thought for sure Seth would be fine with me leaving him at the airport. But when I opened the door and kissed him and said bye-bye he burst into tears. Dangit!! I did make a point to explain to him this morning that I was leaving for a few days and then both Eric and I would be home on Sunday. I never really know how much of that information he absorbs but I'm guessing it's a lot based on his reaction when I got out of the car today. I have to wonder what he thinks when Eric leaves for a few days and he's wondering where he went, and then all of a sudden I disappear too. Poor little guy.

Anyway, so going through security sucked as usual. I got in the wrong line so had to specifically opt out of the virtual strip search, er, body scanner. And as usual the security guy running the show was a total jerk about it. I never understand this, since there are signs all around telling you that use of the "technology" is optional! I know, I know, they are "safe" and the radiation is way less than I'm getting while I'm on the plane in the air, blah blah blah. So my refusal to go through that silly machine is partly just in protest of the ridiculousness of it in general. I'm with Ron Paul, seriously, abolish the TSA completely. Here in Salt Lake the Starbucks is right next to the security checkpoint so I got the opportunity to stand and watch the goings on for awhile. First of all the body scanners take at least 3 or 4 times longer than the regular metal detectors. Plus it seems like there are quite a few of those TSA people just standing around doing nothing. Maybe they're on stand by for a possible pat down for a skeptic like me, I don't know. Either way, it's just really annoying to watch. And there are a few scientist types out there who are concerned about those machines and I'm just not going to take any chances. At least not until they've been using them for oh, about another 50 years or so.