Passport to Crazy Town
Wednesday, June 12, 2013 at 10:43PM When we found out about our upcoming trip, there were about four weeks until the day of departure. My old passport expired in 2005, and I did not have time to apply for a new one without expediting the process. I discovered that Dallas has an office for just such a purpose, however, in order to get an expedited passport, your travel must be in two weeks or less. I had to, on purpose, wait a little longer to go to the office.
I called and through a painless experience with an automated service I set up my appointment for 9:30am, Monday, June 10. Things were looking good.
Sunday evening it struck me that Monday morning I had an appointment downtown to apply for a new passport. I should clarify: evening =11pm. (See my previous post on forgetting things, please.) I began printing the information pages from the website so that I could read through them, and collect every important document I would need, and also fill out the application. I checked and double-checked to make sure I had the correct form, and I enlisted Mike's help in order to find my birth certificate and old passport. We both had a good idea about where they were.
In the meantime, the printer ran out of paper. Annoyed, I went up to the bedroom, which is where the big box with computer paper presently lives. I asked about the paper and he went to the cabinet where the box is. When he reached in to get a new package, he found a folder resting in the box. Would you like to guess what was in the folder?
If you said,"Christina's birth certificate and old passport," you would be right! Along with those things were also my Social Security cards indicating my name change.
We looked at each other and grinned goofily, grateful that he didn't have to go digging through a four-foot box of papers.
I finished printing my instructions, filled out the form, and made sure I had all that I needed, including proof of travel in less than two weeks and a photocopy of my driver's license. The one thing I was missing was a passport picture, and I planned on leaving early and going to CVS; I even had a coupon. Once everything was in an organized, triple-checked stack, I went to bed. It was so late that I tried not to look at the time. I went to sleep soundly.
I woke up at 9:44am.
Reader Comments (2)
Oh no! Do you have a new appointment?
Ack! Well, the good news is that you've had practice at these situations and so I'm sure it will get squared away. It's like how I am so geographically challenged that I get lost ALL THE TIME and so I am quite good at getting un-lost whereas people who always know where they are and which way is north get QUITE flustered when they find themselves in unknown territory.
I almost feel sorry for them. ;)