Some traveling stories

Apologies for not posting in a while, but I do have 2 good stories to post. I debated on if I should make 2 posts out of them, but I've decided to let you double dip into my most exciting life.

Let me set the stage for both stories....

Last week I was in New Jersey for supervisor training (yes, one day they may let me supervise... scary, I know) and both of these stories revolve around this trip.

Story #1
On the first night of the training, a small crew of us trainees decided to venture out into the Big Apple (you know, the "First City"). There was much debating on whether or not we should drive into the city, or take some sort of public transportation. Following in the spirit of urbanists, we opted for the bus... Actually, I think it was the fact that it picked us up right outside the hotel and the fact that we weren't actually planning on coming back sober that made the decision for us.
At any rate, we had a fabulous time but had to catch the last bus out of the Port Authority at 1 am. So we leave the last bar at 12:30, walk to the Port Authority, find our gate and sit and wait. Buses come and go, and at 1:02 am, I decide to go read the message board below our gate number. In tiny letters at the very bottom it read,"Buses leaving after 10pm will depart from gate B401 and B402" Good thing we were waiting at B405! So we go down to B401 and B402 with no dice. Then an employee yells to us that we have to leave because they are closing. We tell him our story and he says he can help us out. He then took us on an unofficial behind the scenes tour of the Port Authority. Back staircases, freight elevators, the works, and finally deposited us at the Greyhound station. After much debating, confusion, and sign reading, we left the Port Authority, and hailed a cab.

Story #2
After my return flight, as I was passing the ticketing counter, I went to reach for my car keys only to realize that I had left my purse on the plane. My hands were full, so I guess I had just assumed that my purse was with me. So I leave my bag with someone I was driving home, and I went up to the NWA ticketing counter and talked to Pete. I told him, "I left my purse on the plane." He told me to go to the other side of the security check-point and ask someone over there. So I go to the other counter and tell the lady at the first class check-in my story. She told me to talk to the first lady "over there". Well, there were two women working... was the first one the one closest to her or furthest away. I went to the closest one, explained my situation and she calls to a guy behind me for assistance, which, wouldn't you know, is Pete! He replies with, "I told her to come over to you." Lazy bastard. So this lady sends me to the next lady where I tell her, "I left my purse on the plane." The lady says to me, "Well, you can't get through the security check without ID." She said it in an "end of story, you're shit out of luck" sort of way. And I know I can't be the first person to have left my purse on a plane. But, as everyone knows, I don't keep anything where it's supposed to go, and my ID was actually in my pocket. I whipped it out and she didn't know what to say, but then she came back with "You can't go through the security check without a boarding pass." Well DUH! That's the whole reason why I was there in the first place. If I could just walk back through security, I wouldn't be messing with her. She then asked me where I left it on the plane, and I explained to her that I left it under the seat in front of me. "On the floor?" she replied, and when I said "yes" she rolled her eyes at me! And I thought I was supposed to "Store smaller articles under the seat in front of you to leave room for larger items in the overhead compartments" So I finally get a temporary boarding pass, go through security (including stripping down to a hospital robe they gave me), run to the gate, claim my purse and get back to my fellow passenger. What I don't understand is why, when I explained my situation to Pete, that he just didn't call down to the gate, ask one of the gate assistants to get the purse, hop on a golf cart and bring it out. That would have been a lot more customer service friendly