Loss, panic, nausea, relief, anxiety, insomnia ... just another day
I lost my passport. We want to leave Monday night, and I couldn't find my passport. Understand, this passport wasn't just a passport. It was a passport with a visa, obtained from the Consulate of India in New York. You can replace a passport with a trip to Boston. The visa is another matter altogether.
Nan was trying to make our flight reservations for Monday (yes! Monday! Oh joy!) and called to ask me for my passport number. That's when I realized I couldn't find it, and near-panic set it. My usual spot for it is in a certain desk in a certain spot, very safe, very easy to see ... when it's there. It wasn't there.
Thus commenced a search in all the likely places, double-quick, run here, run there, NO! nowhere! Do it again more slowly. NO!! Where else? Oh my word, did it get tossed into the recycling bin? I remember seeing it on top of the desk waiting to be "filed" in its normal place, but didn't I also see it on the table? Could it have been cleared from the table into the recycling bin with other papers by mistake??? If so, it's probably gone, run downstairs, look at recycling bin, the thought is so dreadful I can't even bring myself to look.
Stop, call T. Has he seen it? Leave voicemail. Pray.
An hour has gone by, I need to call Nan back and tell her. I don't want to. I don't want to admit I've lost track of my passport, and I don't want her to be burdened with the worry. But I need another person to pray. Call Nan. Nice, calm suggestions, confidence that we'll find it from that direction, and the promise to pray. Back to looking.
Increasing panic, close to nausea. It's just not turning up. Get on the web to research what I would have to do to replace it. Drive to Boston Friday (first appointment available) and hope they'll issue a passport in one day. Come home. Fly to NYC to go to the Consulate of India for a visa in their "emergency hours" of 11 to 2 Sat & Sun, and hope they'll consider a lost passport a good enough reason for expedited service, since their website lists more dire reasons (like death!) as an acceptable reason. This is NOT looking good.
There are definitely days when I hate being me, and this is DEFINITELY one of them.
Call T, ask him to skip his men's bible study to come home and help me. Go through every. piece. of. paper. in. the. house. Find the passport between notecards in a box. Remember. Passport on desk waiting to be put away, notecards placed on top, notecards put away.
Breathe. Again. Spend the rest of the night trying to flush the adrenaline out of the system. Good NIGHT! Fall asleep, wake up at 4:30 with brain spinning.
Just another day in the life!
Nan was trying to make our flight reservations for Monday (yes! Monday! Oh joy!) and called to ask me for my passport number. That's when I realized I couldn't find it, and near-panic set it. My usual spot for it is in a certain desk in a certain spot, very safe, very easy to see ... when it's there. It wasn't there.
Thus commenced a search in all the likely places, double-quick, run here, run there, NO! nowhere! Do it again more slowly. NO!! Where else? Oh my word, did it get tossed into the recycling bin? I remember seeing it on top of the desk waiting to be "filed" in its normal place, but didn't I also see it on the table? Could it have been cleared from the table into the recycling bin with other papers by mistake??? If so, it's probably gone, run downstairs, look at recycling bin, the thought is so dreadful I can't even bring myself to look.
Stop, call T. Has he seen it? Leave voicemail. Pray.
An hour has gone by, I need to call Nan back and tell her. I don't want to. I don't want to admit I've lost track of my passport, and I don't want her to be burdened with the worry. But I need another person to pray. Call Nan. Nice, calm suggestions, confidence that we'll find it from that direction, and the promise to pray. Back to looking.
Increasing panic, close to nausea. It's just not turning up. Get on the web to research what I would have to do to replace it. Drive to Boston Friday (first appointment available) and hope they'll issue a passport in one day. Come home. Fly to NYC to go to the Consulate of India for a visa in their "emergency hours" of 11 to 2 Sat & Sun, and hope they'll consider a lost passport a good enough reason for expedited service, since their website lists more dire reasons (like death!) as an acceptable reason. This is NOT looking good.
There are definitely days when I hate being me, and this is DEFINITELY one of them.
Call T, ask him to skip his men's bible study to come home and help me. Go through every. piece. of. paper. in. the. house. Find the passport between notecards in a box. Remember. Passport on desk waiting to be put away, notecards placed on top, notecards put away.
Breathe. Again. Spend the rest of the night trying to flush the adrenaline out of the system. Good NIGHT! Fall asleep, wake up at 4:30 with brain spinning.
Just another day in the life!
posted by PatL at 8:43 AM
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