transgender tsa story – Ariana Danielle

Ariana Invades San Francisco – 01/19/2018

Part 1

I may have spoiled the full story a little with some teasers in earlier posts both here and on twitter (http://twitter.com/ariana_T_G). However, over the next couple of days I am going to post about my trip to San Francisco that took place last weekend.

The pic above was taken just before I left. I planned to park at the Wallypark off site garage near O’hare. I found a Groupon that was only $9.95 per day for parking so that was perfect. On top of that, a good friend offered me a chance to enjoy a two day stay (free airfare and hotel)! Now, you may know from reading my blog that money is extremely tight right now with medical bills that I need to pay. Knowing this was an amazing chance to go somewhere I have always wanted to go.. I went ahead and took that chance. I would have had to pay for meals that weekend anyway.. why not do so in San Francisco!

I was almost looking forward to going through the TSA scanner with nothing to worry about since I have now had my surgery. Of course, I am referring to the body scanner detecting an anomaly in the crotch area for a female traveler. Well.. it turns out I still set off the scanner, but it was because I wore a metallic top. The female TSA agent said.. “Oh honey you are going to glow!” She was right, and she showed me the monitor glowing all over my belly and upper body. At least it wasn’t ‘down there’!

A quick but painless pat down ensued and I stepped over to get my luggage after she gave me the all clear.

So, for future reference.. do not wear a top like this to the airport..

But wait, that was not the end of my TSA fun! Ready for this? My dilator bag somehow set of an alarm in baggage scanner. I had my bags searched, swabbed, & was asked if I wanted to have a private room for my full pat down, or I could elect to have it done right there. I was like.. no lets do this right here. I just wanted it over quickly and being in the open for some reason made me feel less worried! I do not like being in enclosed rooms with people I don’t know!

With the pat down finished I stood by while they searched my carry-on bag and eventually unzipped the dilator bag. She only partially pulled out one of the dilators before shoving them back in 😉 After testing several swabs from it and various other items in my carry-on, she was done. She indicated that it was the “green bag” (my dilators) that set off the alarm. I asked, “was it the material or what?” She said she had no idea but told me I was good to go. No one was rude, and while my heart was pumping a little fast, I really was not too horribly embarassed (definitely a little). I was all prepared to explain exactly what they were and why I needed to fly with them, but there was no need for any of that.

Apparently those dilators are dangerous weapons y’all.. so much for stress free post-op flying! I was left wondering how the flight home was going to go once my trip was over considering I had a metallic top to stash somewhere and dilator super weapons to smuggle home..

Moving along..

The flight out was uneventful. I watched part of a training video for work on Pluralsight (which helped me promptly catch a good nap). Then, I watched a couple of episodes of Atypical that I previously downloaded to the Netflix app on my phone (it’s a good show!). I picked a window seat (always my preference). There were two other women in my row and they were quiet and doing their own thing the whole flight. I only spoke to them when I needed to use the restroom and they were polite about having to move their stuff and stand up 🙂

After waiting for a while I met up with my lovely flight delayed friend Jo (also a transgender woman) at the airport and we rode an Uber to the hotel.

^^ Enjoying a hard cider and fries while waiting for Jo ^^

During the Uber ride to the hotel there was a rainbow.. those tend to follow me and show up when I arrive somewhere new (see my post about Birmingham).. 😉 well.. and rain.. they follow rain.

We freshened up at the hotel and then went out for sushi. It was delicious!

After dinner we basically started just walking North. We were walking up STEEP inclines on Mason Street, reached a high point, then we turned and walked toward china town. I was wearing my tall black boots and wow did I feel it in my calves later!

As we got into china town we may have inadvertently ended up in a movie! A motorcycle cop went by us as we stood on a corner and it was closely followed by an amazing looking camera car. We caught up to it later. It was a Mercedes with tons of gear on it. It looked like it could survive a zombie apocalypse. As I snapped a pic, I heard the driver talking to a pedestrian and he said “Yeah, we film a LOT of high speed chases with this.” After seeing tons of rental trucks with other gear and food truck employees telling passers by the food was for “crew only,” we knew we stumbled onto some major movie production site. I said to Jo that we should search for movies being filmed in SF and she found it in two seconds or so. It was most likely for the movie Venom!

So, if they just happen to use that ONE SPECIFIC take.. we may end up in a movie! I just hope between my black trench coat and black boots that I don’t look like I am on the street corner for a specific reason…

Anyway.. I also found the perfect selfie spot for myself (notice the street name)

Maiden Ariana has come to San Fran and they already named a street after me! (http://twitch.tv/maidenariana)

We walked back to the hotel thankfully finding a more flat route to walk. Along the way we were pulled into a beauty store and coaxed into trying some samples. They tried to sell me a $1600 eye cream.. no joke! We left!

Once back at the hotel, Jo was kind enough to step out for a while as I needed to dilate (can’t skip a day you know!).

It was surprisingly comfortable to dilate in a hotel!

With that accomplished.. day one was in the books. Day Two, which I will write about in my next post, was even more exciting! Time for bed!

-Ariana

http://youcaring.com/helparianaout (only if you can! Still many medical bills to pay)

http://maidenariana.com

http://twitch.tv/maidenariana

http://arianadanielle.com

* RE-BLOGS OKAY ONLY IF YOU ARE NOT A PORN, CROSS-DRESSER OR ‘SISSY’ BLOG – I am a proud transgender woman and do not take kindly to having my images posted on those types of blogs – I am also post-op, so chasers who are only interested in pre-op transgender people .. please move along *

Ari Invades the South … Again (Day One)

This week was my trip to Birmingham, AL for work. Which of course, is also why I was not streaming on my Twitch channel (http://twitch.tv/maidenariana) at all yet this week. On Monday night, before my trip, I meant to be done packing by 10 pm but I had a busy few days leading up to this. As a result, I was still trying on outfits and packing at close to 1 am. I usually don’t sleep well before a trip because quieting my mind with all of the “don’t forget this!” reminders takes a ton of effort. So, in the pics above and below, I was at one point doing some stretching while wearing one of the dresses I was going to bring with me. Did I invent a yoga pose? I know nothing of actual yoga..

Despite getting to bed late, I felt fairly energetic in the morning. I was going to be flying out with several co-workers so the first step was to drive into the office.

We all carpooled to the airport and I cleared my TSA scan with a huge green “OK” screen. All transgender people know the intense stress this can bring to any trip and I made it through without incident.

Soon, we began the flight to Birmingham. The flight attendant was a sweet older gentlemen who was a bit of a character. As he did his pre-flight seat-belt check, he came over and stopped by my seat, leaned in slightly, and said in a jovial tone, “I can already tell that you’re trouble”. He said there was a mark plain as day on my forehead. I smiled an innocent smile and he continued on his way. Later he saw me adjusting my window then told me there was a fee for every time i changed my mind on where to leave the window. $50 for down, $60 for up and $45 for half-way. I put my hand to my chin as if I was considering my options and he laughed. Shortly after that I was able to snap a photo of the small town where I grew up. It had only 2800 people in it when I moved there and there are not a lot more there now. The subdivision at the top of the image was expanded some after I moved out, but not by much. It is a conservative little town that seems to like staying just the way it is!

As we were nearing Birmingham, the flight attendant came by and tossed a package of gluten-free gummi bears in my lap. The normal snack was a pretzel mix that I could not eat and had declined (I didn’t say why). I think it took him a while to dig around and find those for me so it was really nice of him 🙂 I was blushing a lot from him making a fuss over me and I know the woman to my right noticed. Oh well 🙂 The gummi bears were the perfect snack at that time as I was feeling a little tired.

Once I finished the snack, the plane was beginning to descend to Birmingham. After a mostly clear flight there was a brief storm in the area and there was a beautiful rainbow out my window. The pictures below do not do it justice. Was the rainbow announcing my arrival? Only mother nature knows for certain..

We made it to our hotel and I snapped a quick picture before getting changed to go for a drink and out to dinner..

The hotel gave us all complimentary drink cards so we stopped for a drink at the hotel bar. I chose Mermaid Water. It was Coconut Rum, Vodka, Blue Cara-something and pineapple juice. It was so good, I had one the next night too 🙂

After finishing these drinks we went out to an Italian restaurant and I was able to get a gluten free pizza.

My only complaint for the flight out was that the plane was sweltering as we boarded and waited for clearance to taxi to the runway (usually the air conditioning helps more than it did – I think it was kind of faulty on this particular plane). Otherwise, the trip out was great and so was the evening that followed.

I will write up the story from day 2 and 3 later 😉

-Ari

If you can, please consider helping me partially cover my upcoming surgery costs. Even small amounts are a huge help with the power of re-blogs and the number of followers out there. Time is starting to run out to help as I need to put money down soon and also I have a couple of specific preparation appointments coming up that I need to pay for .. http://youcaring.com/helparianaout

Thank you in advance if you can help at all