One foot in the door

Got fingerprinted for my new job at the airport today. Quite an odd setup. I chase down a future boss where she signs my paperwork and gives me a check, which was given to her, so I can give it to the security people. Seems like an extra step or two are involved.

Then I go through security (the worst part about being in an airport no matter what the circumstances) and take off for the security office. I show my ID for a third time and take the elevator up and wait in line to check in. I'm in luck, there's nobody in line ahead of me. But, bad luck, everyone at the counter apparently hates their job and life. After seeing nobody else was going to, he flags me over and checks me in. He checks me in for a solid three or four minutes without saying a word to me. Finally, he tells me to take a seat and wait for my name to be called.

The hallway has four chairs, a sign reading "Fingerprint waiting area" with an arrow and four more chairs. Not wanting to miss anything, I assume the arrow was posted for directional purposes. I was wrong and ended up wandering through offices and around copy machines. Turns out, the arrow indicates I was supposed to sit in the second group of chairs. There's no telling what would have happened if I'd sat in one from the other group.

The lady who does the fingerprinting is quite nice and knows what she's doing. It's easiest if I just let my hand go limp and let her dow whatever she wants. She's rolling it and turning it and twisting. She'll email my boss once they double check to make sure I'm not a terrorist. Then I'll get the call to come in for badging and THEN I might actually be able to start work. I suppose it could be more difficult, but right now I don't know how.