Hello! Audrey here!
This is MY first post... I've been so lazy (teaching and moving and being sick) lately so I figured I would take a minute (or hour, with the way my students visit me) to drop a line.
First, the explanation for the side note on Josh's previous entries.

Airplane security is strict these days, right? Noooooooope. Before we flew, Josh and I read all about how strict airplane security is, with restrictions galore and many hoops to jump through just to get through the gate.
We went to some lengths to make sure the checking-in process would go smoothly, putting all of our liquid-it-could-be-explosive-but-we-don't-care-as-long-as-it's-in-a-3 oz.-container items in their 3 oz containers, and putting said containers in the proper-sized Ziplock baggie. We weighed and balanced, carefully chose our outfits for the best comfort and professionalism (except for my huuuuge boots which were a pain to take on and off, which they made me do) and made sure that there wasn't anything else that could hold us up.
The morning of our flight we met with some friends at a Starbucks by our old house in Daly City. I had brought along my former roomate's key to return it to her but with all the last goodbyes I forgot to give it to her. Later, safe in the knowledge that I had, in fact, returned it to her, we were sitting on the plane just about to take off when I looked in my backpack and there that key was--connected to its keychain, the little can of Mace.
Suffice to say, I almost wet myself. Josh and I decided to give it to one of the attendants nearby and apologize profusely. Steeling myself for a "You're going to have to come with me, 34B" I did like a salmon and swam upstream against all of the other passengers who were very intent on getting to their seats behind me. Eventually I got to the attendant and he was surprisingly cool about it; he just took my seat number and said, "I'll give it to the head attendant," and sent me back to my seat.
Crisis averted.

You know, that backpack went through the scanner thingy.. and the Mace was in an outside pocket that isn't hard to peek through. But those boots? You betcha!
Secure?