Airline Travel in the month of September is different these days.

As an Adjunct Professor at Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing, Michigan, I have the honor of teaching Advanced Research and Writing to third year law students. This semester, my classes are scheduled for Monday afternoon. This year, Labor Day fell on a Monday, so there was no class the first week of school.

That meant that my first class fell on Monday, September 11.

Of course, I flew out of Washington Reagan National Airport. It's a mere twenty minute ride on the Blue Line Metro. Because of the timing, I chose to fly out on Sunday.

Boy, was I nervous. It felt eerie, almost surreal. The presence of so many TSA officials strolling around the airport was both unnerving and yet comforting at the same time. Of course, the flight to Detroit was seriously delayed. And of course, the airline lost my luggage. (Again.)

What made this flight quite interesting was the new regulations and restrictions. No liquids, no gels, no toothpaste, no mouthwash, not even lip gloss in the purse. Ugh. That translated into a long flight in dry air with no bottled water in my briefcase.

How did I accommodate the new regs? I carried a small empty water bottle in my briefcase, and filled it from the water fountain when I landed. For my personal stuff, I put my real purse in my checked luggage, used a tiny purse for the flight, and carried only the bare minimum. This plan would have worked nicely if my luggage had arrived in Lansing with me, but it didn't.

The ticket agent was so sympathetic: she gave me a really nifty flight bag with a toothbrush, toothpaste, a shaving kit, and some other stuff that included a really cool extra-large white tee shirt. The airline finally sent my luggage on to my hotel when it arrived in Lansing, and it was delivered to my hotel at two in the morning.

All my handouts for the first day of class were in that lost luggage.
Fifty million pounds of paper ...

So you see, it all turned out OK. Gary wisely booked my return flight on Tuesday, which was September 12. The return flight was uneventful, thank God. And I am getting ready to do it all again tomorrow. Back to Lansing to teach again.