I was in SoCal last week, and was scheduled to return on Friday. Before I left the hotel, I checked and both flights were on as scheduled. Arrived at SNA 2 hours before flight time - lines were fairly long for check-in, but thanks to status only 6 in FC line. I didn't see any difference in the check-in procedure, with the exception of signs for "No Knives". I did have to show ID and Boarding Pass to go thru the metal detectors - but I took a glass bottle thru without question, and did not have to turn on my laptop, as has been the case in the past. The flight was only about 60% full, with a deadheading crew (who were taken off and put back on within 10 minutes). It did take 20 minutes or so to depart after everyone was boarded - the pilot reported that this was due to "weight & balance" calculations being done on the ground and not by the pilots now, but I suspect that they may have been running passenger manifests through a name match. The overall mood of the passengers seemed normal until we learned that a couple in the row in front of me was heading to NY to find their son who worked in the WTC. As I was in 10F and didn't have storage in front, I put my computer bag in the overhead - I was almost afraid to retrieve it after takeoff, as I didn't want to panic everyone! Upon arrival in ORD, found that my connecting flight to ORH was cancelled. Had to go out to Ticket Counter, where lines were not bad at all. FC had only 1 or 2 in line. First TA was not very helpful, said he rebooked me on the same flight the next day and I could try to fly standby to PVD the next AM if I wanted. He didn't even offer help with hotels until I asked "Is that all?", and then he offered a $50 rate at a Holiday Inn. Luckily, I checked the monitors and found a flight to BDL 2 hours later. I went back (to a different agent) who put me on the standby list (which was at 40, but it appears that Gold status moved me up to 7th). I had to go and retrieve my luggage and recheck it. Again, nothing special noted - ID and boarding pass to go thru metal detectors, no check of the computer...but there were police and SWAT sitting just inside the metal detectors. Same delay after boarding with the "...waiting for paperwork..." reason. All in all, it seemed fairly normal, but I did notice myself checking out the other passengers a bit more. I do think for flights in the near future I will go for the inconvience of shorter connecting flights vs the non-stop transcon flights.