Here I go again. When I heard that Kat, Sandy and Catherine would be sailing, I had to find a way to tag along.

So, my truly great weekend worked like this . First, Friday was Marilee's birthday. Dinner with her and friends followed by the symphony. Sublime. Next, Saturday was time for Miles and Elliot and Megan and Eric followed by The Heartland Men's Chorus production of "I am Harvey Milk" at The Folly with Marti. Again, sublime.

Four wonderful hours of sleep led to a 5:00am alarm and a 6:30am 5 Guys Transportation pickup to make an 8:05am Southwest flight to Fort Lauderdale. I've got a smile on my face but I am dragging.

I am becoming addicted to finding the code "TSA PRE" printed on my boarding passes. Not available on Frontier, the designation has become expected with I fly on Delta or American or Southwest. What does it mean? It means a return to travel civility.

The designation means expedited security screening. I do not have to remove my laptop from my carry on bag. I don't have to remove my "liquids" either. I don't have to take off my shoes or my jacket or my belt. All I have to do is throw my carry-on up onto the belt and walk through an old-fashioned magnetometer rather than the new "see-everything" backscatter machine and, voila, I am done.

I qualify to "TSA PRE" because of multiple factors. My frequent flyer status on American (3 million miler) and on Delta (one million miler) and, maybe most significantly, my "Global Pass" status with the United States Immigration Service (I had to pass a criminal background check and sit for an in-person interview).

Ursula Terrasi was aboard with her husband and mom as was an old friend of Betsy Sears, Barb Zigler (sp?).

Had I not drawn the taxi driver from hell for my short ride from the airport to the hotel, the trip would have been nearly perfect.

I changed into my walking stuff and went to the beach; eight miles later I am back in my room cleaning up for dinner with "the girls" from Istanbul. More on them later.