Remember when you could enter any store and NOT have to go through any kind of security detectors?

That memory seems very distant to me now.

What happened to people? Did we all turn into thiefs and terrorists over night? And if you aren't one, you certainly are made to FEEL like one no matter where you go.

Especially at the airport.

The first time I flew after 911 I set off the "BEEP". Off came my coat, my sweatshirt hood got poked and prodded and peeked into. Shoes had to be removed and I was hand-wanded. The culprit was in my coat pocket, my prescription sunglasses. You would have thought I had a machine gun strapped to my chest!

Of course I understand and accept the precautions and am very glad these safety procedures are in place. On the other hand, I can't help admitting it leaves a sour taste in my mouth when you know you are innocent and just there to fly to PoDunk to visit Uncle Bertrum. But what can you do? Chuck it up to this "new world" we live in.

You probably don't think about this but everyone's a Movie Star nowadays. You are constantly being watched and taped everywhere you go. There are quite a lot of managers wanting to know just what you are up to. I guess the only good thing for us Average Joe Movie Star's, is that we don't have to pay these managers 20% of our earnings!

No longer is the "eye in sky" only at the casino watching how we spend our money, now it's even watching when we drive! And taking pictures when we run those red lights or our other boo boos on the road. Why is it never watching when I get a flat or my battery gives out? 

We are surrounded by cameras--filming, shooting, flashing. Why, there are more pictures and footage of me out there in stranger's hands then in my own photo albums!

And doing God knows what!! I don't even want to know. All of my bad hair, wrinkly clothed, no makeup days all on display chugging 24 hours a day on someone's machine somewhere. Black and White, Technicolor, Infrared, Digital, Analog.....and we don't even get to choose! Oh, to think what I looked like in those white pants that day. Everyone knows black is more slimming! 

There is no such thing as privacy anymore. That word will be obselete one of these days. 

Today I set off the "BEEP" again, this time at WalMart. I knew it, I just knew it! When I was purchasing my item upstairs I had a feeling that by the time I walked downstairs and out the door something would go wrong. 

Did my "desensitized" item get sensitive again? Or like they warn you at the airport, did someone slip something in my bag when my head was turned on the escalator?

Either way, my heart did a little skip, it caught me off guard. I know I had paid with REAL money! 

A lady with very dark rimmed glasses whisked me over to the side.

"Over here,over here!" 

She dug around in the bag, grabbed the receipt, went through the detectors herself with the item and set it off again. Then she wrote some numbers down in her binder next to the door, handed it back to me and said, "Thank You."

How many other innocent "Beeple" will get alarmed today? I wonder!

I just shook my head and slid my sunglasses on.

Put on a big smile.

After all, the world is watching, dahling! And thank God I was wearing my hip slimming pants! It's going to be a good day after all!