Not really the last.

Okay, so maybe that wasn't really my last blog post. bleh.


So, 2 months ago I lost my passport. It was in my lap in the car and fell out into the parking lot without me realizing it. I assumed it'd just fallen in the car somewhere and didn't worry about it too much...but it turns out it had been mailed to the consulate in Sydney. Sooo I call the consulate. They tell me that, since I am married now, I need to travel in my new name... okay cool. That was October 27th.

November 9th we applied for our marriage certificate and received it back November 26th. I tried to contact the consulate to figure out what to do from there but I assume they closed for Thanksgiving because I heard nothing back. It was a busy weekend what with Chris's bday and all that coming Monday....on that Monday Chris told me we should apply for my new passport. So I filled out the form that the consulate told me to....but then I realized that I had to include 2 U.S. passport sized photo (.5" bigger than Aussie photos) and the post office only takes aussie sized photos....so. We hold a photo shoot in the bathroom, I edit the photos to be the correct size and meet all their specifications, we go to print it and NOOOO the printer is printing at a super low res. We couldn't be sure but we assumed it was because of the generic ink and paper we'd bought to save money during wedding planning...and the only shop that carried the right ink and paper was closed now (at 4 pm. gotta love rural towns.) So, I jokingly said "Look, I don't think 1 day is going to make that much of a difference here, let's just go out and enjoy your bday." But, Chris had to work until 6:30 the next 2 days so it was actually 3 days before we got our photo printed, our money order ordered and everything in the mail by next-day express post....We get a call the following Tuesday the our money order is in the wrong ammount, it is $7 too much and we need to correct it according to the current exchange rate rather than the one on their website. WHAT?! UGH! He did assure us that everything should be taken care of in time for my flight on the 21st if we mailed it that day though, so, we fill out a new money order, express post THAT to the consulate and don't hear anything from them again...that was last week on the 8th. They didn't mail my passport until the 14th. (WHY? Why.) Annnd because we live in a rural area it takes 3-4 business days to arrive here....only the damn post workers union decided to strike in the middle of the week throwing all the letters off by a day or so which means 4-5 business days.....or Monday-ish. When I was supposed to be flying home.

::sigh::

So, here we sit.... it feels like that part of Benjamen Button when he's saying "if that shoelace hadn't broken; or that delivery truck had moved moments earlier; or that package had been wrapped and ready, because the girl hadn't broken up with her boyfriend; or that man had set his alarm and got up five minutes earlier; or that taxi driver hadn't stopped for a cup of coffee; or that woman had remembered her coat, and got into an earlier cab, Daisy and her friend would've crossed the street, and the taxi would've driven by...." If it hadn't been Thanksgiving, if we'd had the canon ink for the printer, if it hadn't been Chris's birthday that day, or the shop had been open later than 4pm, if the union hadn't gone on strike or if I'd used the current exchange rate....I would have had my passport as early as Tuesday this week, we'd be $1600 richer and I'd be on that flight Monday morning. "But life being what it is - a series of intersecting lives and incidents, out of anyone's control" it all happened exactly how it did and there's nothing we can do about that now.... but it's interesting to see how all the different variables come together. Okay okay, so at the end of the day "If I had not lost my passport" tops the list, and I probably shouldn't be comparing missing my flights to a person having their leg crushed....I mean, it's not THAT bad. But it was hella expensive and totally unneccessary.

So I'm now leaving Wednesday morning instead of Monday morning. The great part is that I get to travel with my Beebs now!! We are on the same plane from Mackay to Brisbane, only I had to book into first class because it's all there was left. lol I would have just booked a diff. flight but it's the ONLY one that leaves early enough for us to make our VAustralia flight. Oh well! It's only an hour flight. We get to sit by each other on the VAustralia flight, but once we get to Los Angeles we're on separate flights altogether. Mine has a layover in Austin and doesn't get into DFW until two hour after Chris's does. BOOOO! So less than ideal. It would have cost like $600 to change his flight to be the same as mine though and I'm not so rediculous to insist on that.

Ah well. I'm still going shopping on Christmas Eve. I don't even curr!