(linda, this is for you)

i'd like to go on a little flashback to may 25th, 2011.

i entered one of my favorite types of contests... linda's {gimme gimme}

i had already won one contest, but i guess greed got the best of me, so i entered another contest. and won! the best prize ever. and beat out 3 other people to win it!!

i told linda to wait until the smith wedding to give it to me since it wasn't that far off, and to my surprise, she remembered to pack it along with alll of the other wedding stuff, and presented it to me before we parted ways.

i packed it up, took it to minnesota... and quite honestly forgot about it. then charlie and i started our trip home. all of our stuff was kind of mixed up between our two carry-ons, so charlie claimed one and i claimed the other. i breezed through security and was waiting on charlie when i heard the dreaded "BAG CHECK!" call for security. it was directed at charlie. so i headed over to see what the commotion was about while charlie got his shoes back on.

"Ma'am, is there anything in here that could potentially harm me?"

My brain overthought this question and was thinking about how razors or high heeled shoes could potentially hurt someone, but he snapped me out of my thought process by making big, serious, "be careful here" eyes at me and said "MAAM... is there ANYTHING in here that could HAAAARM me?"

"Ummm... noooo?"

"Good." He unzipped the back, ran some sort of strip around the edges, and started digging. "Is there some sort of trophy in here?"

*light bulb* "Woooooow. ACTually... there IS. Please don't laugh at me...."

"Sometimes trophies are filled with something heavy and it can set the alarm off."

"No, really... PLEEEEASE don't laugh at me when you find it... it was a joke!" Mr. TSA kept digging until he found said trophy. And he laughed. A very hearty laugh. He even bobbled the owl's head. He then placed the owl in his own little bowl, and ran that and the suitcase back through the x-ray machine. He brought them both back, still grinning, and said, "Yep! That was it! Enjoy your flight!"

Crisis averted. My owl is now happy at home until he makes the long voyage back to Minnesota. Thanks, Linda! :)