Beer and backstage at the airport

I’m waiting at the gate before my flight east, to both visit my parents and experience (albeit briefly) my first Professional Conference of my Professional Association.  I’ve been complaining about airline travel recently (I did, after all, have quite a trip back to England the last time), but honestly, this iteration has been positively lovely.  I’m on the last flight of the evening, at least from this terminal, so everything has been quiet and easy.  I’ve had the pleasure of dealing with nothing but friendly folks: the woman at security chatted to me about how it was finally calm, but for the staff earlier that day, it was “everything but snakes on a plane;” the man at the security checkpoint apologized to me for making me take off my shoes, and another insisted on hoisting my suitcase onto the X-Ray conveyor belt for me; my waitress at the bar chatted to me about vegetarianism, and the bartender made sure I wasn’t in need of more beer.  The people and people-watching have been most enjoyable.

I once wrote about my desire to do a study of an airport; that post is lost on servers past, but the sentiment is still there.  I’m not sure what, exactly, would the academic, intellectual point would be, but these places are fascinating.  At any rate, I got one vote of validation for my project today whilst chatting on the phone over my beer (y, Kyle, I said whilst).  For now, though, I’m just hoping everything continues to go smoothly.