So here's a fun travel story... while my least favorite flying experiences are still the ones about being aggressively patted down (or the moment like right now when people are loudly having a conversation across 5 chairs....JUST SIT NEXT TO EACH OTHER!)...anyway, today will be a travel story I remember as well.
I don't travel light. I always have so many electronics (laptop (or two, external drive, tablet, sometimes an interface). But I take them all out of my backpack (along with my bag of liquids for makeup and another bag full of essential oils). I left my tablet in my bag this time, sometimes this is ok, but OF COURSE by bag was pulled aside and I went to the little "Examining table." I still didn't realize my oops until the TSA agent pulled my multi tool AND my new knife from my dad out... OOPS. At least my pepper spray wasn't in there, or anything else!!
So no big deal. I'll go back out and mail it or whatever. BUT THEN... there was another problem. This wasn't a regular pocket knife. The blade has a spring. And since I had "tried to board a flight with a switch blade," they had to call local law enforcement. I kept looking at the TSA guy and saying, "You are totally lying!!!" But he wasn't. I had to sit and wait. They called law enforcement. But I'm guessing that since I don't have a record I wasn't even worth them coming down to talk to.
TSA was actually super sweet. He walked me out of security and suggested I asked Southwest if there was a box I could borrow to check. AND THEY DID!! And I'm thankful. So it's a MAJOR rarity that I have thanks to say when I travel. But today I'm thankful for the thoughtful TSA agent and the very accommodating Southwest agent.
I'll save my rant about how you have zero rights when you travel publicly for another day. #armedanddangerous