1.12.2009

Blog the Third

In which I pass through my first security point:

I was more curious than concerned when the security guard pulled my carry-on over to the side for a visual check.
“Anything sharp in here?” she asked, unzipping the bag.
Huh, I thought. How sharp? Do knitting needles count?
Not wanting to be mistaken for a wiseacre, I said no.
She rifled through my suspicious-looking electronic cords & attachments bag. Then headed to my toiletries – and found the culprit: a small bottle of mouthwash. It was legal & all, but they couldn't ID it on the X-ray – next time, it gets checked.
She was very pleasant as she explained this, all the while attempting to zip the bag. But the balls and skeins of yarn I'd tucked around the edges kept spilling out. She'd push one in and another would edge out.
She giggled.
“Yeah, I travel with a lot of yarn,” I said. "I'm editor of Interweave Crochet magazine." (It's really fortunate that I can say that now, because before I'd just have to confess to being a lunatic.)
"Really?" she exclaimed. "My mother crochets! I want to, but I haven't learned. Did you make that sweater?"
And so we chatted yarnstuff while folks shuffled into their shoes and made their way through the scan.
Yarn is a great leveler.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's a good one to mention to border guards, too. It warms even the coldest chip on a shoulder. I once had a border guard forget his gruffness and ask me in all sincerity if I knew where he could find the same kind of crocheted slippers he'd bought his mom thirty years ago. No joke. I wanted so badly to hook him up, but I had no idea what he was talking about.