Finally, here I am... I've been busy settling back in at home.

All of the comments so far has been amazing... it really is nice seeing so many different viewpoints on this.

Yes, I bailed. I should have been more brave and assertive, but I guess I just chickened out. Why? I don't know. Just the vibes I got, and I didn't want to get further into a black hole. I had a flight to make, a home to go to, and a delayed flight I had to deal with. I didn't realize I could have been fined if they saw me as lying - I just thought if they saw that you had an ID after claiming you didn't, you'd be given a retaliatory SSSS and that would be it. I guess I got lucky.

Wally Bird - out of curiosity, how was I being a prick? Yes, maybe I was being kind of a jerk for making it harder on myself, and making TSA do more work... but I wanted to see what it would be like on the other side of the coin, and put myself into someone else's shoes. Also, there was nobody behind me, so I wasn't holding up a line. I promise you, if there was a line, I would have done it my usual way without drawing it out.

Maybe I was being kind of a smart a$$, but I wanted to put myself into new shoes and "test" TSA. Whether or not that's a bad thing is up to your opinion.

As for me "testing" their laptop/shoes thing, I think I learned my lesson. Next time, if I have time and the patience, I'll test the ID thing, but do the other security procedures normally. Any suggestions on how I can test them with ID? I'm not sure I'd feel comfortable going through a verification system, and I'm not even sure there's anything in those systems, since I'm still young (in college) so I don't know if there's data on me out there that TSA can see.