September 1998

It had been a good summer, but me and my friends had all been working throughout it, without any real holidays. While summer was nearing its end, we decided — rather impulsively — to check if there were any last-minute holidays left.
We went to the traveling-agency and after some help from the lady there we found a very interesting and very cheap trip to the US; Florida to be precise, including a week's car rent. We didn't need to think long about it, and booked the trip. Just before we went, I went to the hairdresser and had my hair cut short.
The flight itself was 9 hours and when we arrived in Orlando we were far from fresh anymore. When we came to customs it started already with that two of us had to open our suitcases to be thoroughly examined. We patiently waited for the officers to do their thing and after that we continued to passport check.
My three friends passed without any problem, but when it was my turn to go through, the guy in the booth took a good look at my passport, and then to me. I was completely dumbstruck when he asked me:
"Do you have a criminal record?"
I was like: "EXCUSE me?!"
"Yeah," the guy continued, "with your hair cut short like that you look just like a criminal."
The insinuation!! In the land of lawsuits for every small stupid thing you can imagine, I thought people would be a lot more careful with what they say. I should've sued the guy for everything he had!