On our trip without the kids the hubby and I were in St. Louis and decided to take the tour of the Arch. During the tour, guests get to travel all the way to the top of the arch and see the city from a birds eye view. It’s a really great way to see St. Louis.
The first part of this adventure meant going through security. This is normally never a problem for us.
We follow Jesus. We try to do what’s right. We have nothing to hide.
We went through security like normal. I put my behemoth of a purse in the plastic container to be scanned through the X-ray machine.
My purse isn’t just a normal purse. It’s a purse/diaper bag/camera bag/dumping ground for all sorts of junk. In this picture, I left a standard-size coffee mug on the side for a size comparison.
My giant purse went through the scanner but before I could pick it up at the other end, the security guards took it back and scanned it again.
The two guards looked at my purse through the X-ray machine for what seemed to be a long time. Then they called in a third guard to take a look at the screen.
That’s when I knew something was up.
At this point I’m chuckling to myself thinking what could they be looking at? The most dangerous thing I could have in there is a messy diaper.
Then one of the guards asked me to come to a separate area and started questioning me.
{Gulp} Now I’m getting nervous.
I know I didn’t put anything dangerous in there, but what if someone on the street slipped something in there?
The questioning went like this:
Guard: “Is this your purse?”
Me: “Yes”
Guard: “Do you have a grinder in here?”
Me : A what?!?
Guard: “A marijuana grinder”
Me (flabbergasted) “No!”
At this point I was thinking what in the world would make this guard think I have a marijuana grinder in my purse? I’m a stay-at-home mom for crying out loud. I don’t have time to mess around with that!
At this point the guard asked to search through my purse. {Awkward moment}
Sometimes when I’m nervous I start talking. And saying stupid things.
In efforts to break up the awkward moment, I said “I usually just have diapers and wipes in here! {Nervous laugh}
He didn’t think it was that funny.
Then he opens the front pocket and pulls out my 40mm pancake lens and says “Ah…this is what they’re looking at.”
Yep. It’s a camera lens.
Not a marijuana grinder.
Knowing there was no threat, the kind security guard gave me my purse and marijuana grinder lens back.
So the lesson today is this: you may have to spend a little extra time going through security if you take a small camera lens.
The hubby and I spend the next couple hours laughing and joking about how ironic/stupid this situation was. Let’s say I was dumb enough to bring drug paraphernalia through security. Could you imagine the newspaper headlines?
STAY-AT-HOME MOM CHARGED WITH POSSESSION OF DRUG PARAPHERNALIA
Although getting questioned in security gave us plenty of nervous moments, it also gave us a lot of joking material.
Over the years we’ve learned to laugh through our struggles and awkward moments. What about you?
What’s something you’ve laughed about lately?