Friday, April 29, 2011

The Nori Incedent. (FBI Follies with Kat Lady)

So you're probably wondering how I'm posting this when I don't have a laptop and I am out and about in that city, doing that thing. Well, I won't even try to hide it...I actually wrote this post on Thursday night. Also tomorrow's and Shirley Sunday.

I hope you don't feel cheated, but I really didn't want y'all to have to go without me for a whole 3 DAYS!  So yeah, I have spent the greater part of Thursday and today packing for our trip. I discovered Mr. Kat Lady and I have obviously different packing styles.

Mr. Kat Lady likes to shove it all in the bag haphazardly and hope for the best. Having learned my lesson while packing for a month in Korea, I tend toward the roll it or fold it method.That's how I packed 31 days of clothing, toiletries and shoes into the 2 bags that came with me to Korea. It's also how I have managed to get all of our clothes into one large bag and 2 back packs.

You know, thinking of Korea and packing, I have a funny story...

My host mother was nothing if not efficient. She carefully took note of those things she cooked that I liked, and those I did not. I may have been a little overzealous about my love for her homemade nori. (the seaweed wrap around sushi) She also was not shy. She had no problem going through my things while I was off teaching or sight seeing. I imagine it was a curiousity of America or some such thing. I had nothing to hide. The night before we left, the American teachers went out for one last night on the town. I had packed before leaving the house, so when I got home, I laid down and rested until it was time to go. I really REALLY should have looked in my bags, because there was a slight problem. (On a side note, I had been treated for thyroid problems with Radioactive Iodine just 2 weeks before we left, and had been stopped by the FBI in Minneapolis on the way there because I set off their detectors. I got to go on only when I showed the doctor's note and they called him.) When we got to Minneapolis on the way back, I was once again accosted by the men in suits and sunglasses and taken aside. "You are setting off our radioactivity meters, and we need to find out why." I told them about the treatment, and being stopped on the way to Korea also. Once again they called my doctor and got the okay.  Right as they were moving me on, they decided to search my bag.  Suddenly there was a commotion. They pulled two freezer bags of an unknown leafy green substance from my luggage. I knew right away what had happened, and hurried over to explain myself. It seems my host mother had seen how much I loved here nori, and wanted me to have some to take home with me.  Because it was in my checked luggage until Minneapolis it had taken a beating, reducing it to green shreds. Very Mary Jane looking green shreds. They confiscated it, and I was not allowed to move on until it had been tested. I ended up barely making the next flight, and could not get out of there fast enough. I'm probably on a no fly list somewhere...

To checking your luggage before you check your luggage,

Love and Laughter,
-Kat Lady