Hazmat, part the-ree

Me and co-student Mustached-T went to the city today to register with the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA). Smooth drive, easy in-n-out. Not bad. ... but ohhh, the weird comedy of the whole big-brother thing.

I began the TSA background check process with a phone call. "Have you been convicted of a felony?" No. "Have you been found innocent of a felony due to insanity?" Excuse me?

Today, was the 2 id's, money order and fingerprint part-o-the-process. Apparently, my skin is dry. The poor woman was smoothing grapefruit lotion into my fingertips and pressing them again and again onto a glass plate, hoping they'd take. ... Success. Maybe. We'll see in 20 working days.

I appreciate the government's effort to ensure that anyone carrying hazardous materials is the kind of person you'd want to carry hazardous materials ... so I feel nothing but good will for the process. Still, I'm allowing myself to enjoy the humor in it, too.

I still have a few weeks of training, but I'm going to start applying for jobs, too. I got brave today and went into a local office. As a first effort, it was relatively painless. They were cordial and welcoming, plus invited me to fill out an application for future consideration. Wow. Yay. I had expected them to say, "We only look at drivers with 2 years' experience." I'm just happy they didn't dismiss me, right off.

A good week, by any standard.