Sometimes change isn’t for the better

TSA version of Cut and paste.

It was a last minute decision to change my booking to the last evening flight instead of the intended first morning flight. I had figured that I was being too optimistic to land at 7:15 am to get all day meeting that starts at 8:00.

On all my last trips, I have in checked luggage and as such, I completely forgot about the limitations on toiletries. So there I was, at an empty Houston Hobby airport – which looks very nice by the way – with my bag put to one side of the X-ray machine, waiting for a TSA supervisor to come to tell me off and confiscate offending items.

It took a while for a supervisor as the airport was nearly closed and I was wondering if I was going to miss my flight over this. Eventually I got to the gate only to find my flight was delayed. ‘Great’ I thought, ‘that means I have time to get something to eat’. The one minor point to that brilliant plan was all the food vendors had closed.’Oh well, plan B- get something in Dallas’.

When the flight did take off, the Southwest pilot made up for lost time so by the time they gave out drinks, it was ready to prepare for landing and my Heineken turned out to be free.

After finally getting my rental car, I check into the hotel. Toiletries? :”Sir, the shop has them but they are closed”.Uhm ok, let’s order some food. “Sir the Kitchen closed 5 minutes ago”.

So the next day, I drive to my meeting unshaven, hair untamed and teeth feeling a bit furry, only to be stuck in rush hour traffic due to a wreck and arrive late. If I had taken the morning flight as intended, I would have driven a different route that would likely have got me here earlier, clean shaven, clean teeth, and non-wild hair.

Fate, I curse you !