The cutest bottle ever?
Miami, FL, January 2011
Once upon a time, backpacks came with meshy things on the outside that allowed me to tote along my stainless steel water bottle wherever I went. Flying is kinda bad for the whole hydration thing - airplane air is notoriously stale and dry - so being able to drink my way (come on, stop with the drinking jokes!) through my travels was an important means of arriving in somewhat decent shape.
Thanks to the usual band of ubiquitous cave-dwelling fundamentalist doofii (that's right, Osama, I'm coming for you, man) that luxury is yet another distant memory. Security being what it is, carrying fluids through the checkpoint has become the equivalent of holding a live grenade in your hand. Okay, maybe not so much. But it's enough to get the offending bottle tossed - and you pulled out of line and strip-searched down to your skivvies by Eudora the TSA Security Queen. Not so much fun. For me, anyway.
So no more water bottle. The meshy thing on my backpack is now empty. We buy our fluids now. After we get through security. At prices that approach the GDP of an emerging nation.
But I'm willing to overlook the captive-audience ripoff - "you'll turn into a prune if you don't buy our overpriced drinks" - if all bottles are as cute as this one.
Your turn: How do you cope with ever-tightening airport security? I'm back in the air in the not-too-distant future, so I'm all ears.
One more thing: New Thematic launches at 7:00 Eastern tonight. The theme: Please be seated. No, you don't have to be seated - not if you don't want to, that is - but that's the theme. It'll be fun. Really.
Times have changed since I was last in a plane... granted it was Feb/March 2001.
ReplyDeleteHow do I cope...
ReplyDeleteWell, I've always hated flying. Actually, I've always hated taking off and landing. The flying part isn't so bad.
But I don't like the security step up. I consider it an invasion of my privacy, so I'm no longer flying. There are trains, buses, cars, and boats that can get me where I need to go, and they don't insist on touching me or viewing my entire body.
That's an adorable little bottle. It almost takes away the pain of flying, just looking at it.
ReplyDeleteI actually have to work pretty hard to cope with the nonsense at airports. I have serious issues with people being in my personal space and it takes a lot of focused effort for me to not truly wig out when they touch me. The last time I flew commercial airlines for personal reasons, the TSA patted down my ten year old daughter and humiliated her badly. We were on our way to the funeral of my husband's father and it was almost more than I could handle.
I travel for work, so I don't have the option of alternative transportation.
I guess my coping mechanism could be best described as 'minimalist'. I pack lightly, travel quickly, dress efficiently and carry a Nalgene bottle and a Steri-pen so I can treat (and drink) straight tapwater.
But you can carry an empty water bottle and then fill it up at a drinking fountain once you've passed security. I've done that many times.
ReplyDeleteAnd I've long been the one selected at random for pat down or just for setting off an alarm anyway (once it was my ponytail holder that set it off). I've just never gotten too worked up about it. As one of my (rather plump) friends said about the new imaging, "If they use my body as porn, well, then bless them."
I take an empty drinking bottle through security, then fill it in the rest room before getting on the plane. It works find in most places, as long as the tap water is drinkable.
ReplyDeleteAlso, most airlines I have flown on bring round drinks fairly often, and seem to be quite amenable to requests for extra water.
I bring empty sport bottles on board and ask the flight attendants to fill them up once I'm on the plane :).
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