Big City Mishaps

About a week ago I was talking with my friend Haley and she (totally out of nowhere) asked me to go with her to Peru. I'm such a bad friend that I didn't even know she and Shad were going to Peru in the first place! Anyway, to make a long story short, I'm going to Peru in two weeks on a mission trip. Did you catch that? I learned about an opportunity to go to Peru (on another continent) and would have to leave all within a 3-week time period. Crazy!

An important part of any international trip is a passport. I went to Australia ten years ago so I already have a passport. Unfortunately, they expire and mine did just that in May. So now I was in need of a new passport and I needed it pronto! I could take the risk of having it take exactly 3 weeks through the mail or I could wait until I was two weeks out and head on over to Dallas and apply for one in person. I chose the latter and today was the day. After struggling with the automated appointment scheduler I finally got an appointment. Today was the first day I could get one (has to be within two weeks) and since my schedule is so amazingly open right now I thought I'd just get it over with. So I left my house at about 12:15 to make in time for my 2:00 appointment. I know, I know, Dallas isn't that far away but I wanted to have plenty of time to make sure I was in the right place. I think I've talked before about how much I like downtown environments so I was excited about navigating my way through this process. Unfortunately, downtown environments don't like me! The whole experience was one comical error after another.

I make it to a parking lot directly across the street from the Federal Building in plenty of time. I'm sitting in my car, reading emails, listening to music, talking on the phone...all good. Then at 1:40 I decide I should probably head in, just in case I have trouble finding the right place. As I'm walking I totally forgot I had to pay for parking, but I'm proud of myself for planning ahead and having cash. So I go to the little machine, punch in my number, give it $10, wait for my receipt and change. Mishap #1: Machine clearly states...NO CHANGE GIVEN. Of course I see that AFTER I put my money in. I laugh the whole way back to the car to put my receipt in the window. There goes a couple days worth of Sonic Diet Coke!

I walk a good ways up to the building and as I'm ready to enter the revolving door...Mishap #2: Another sign, this entrance is for employees only! So maybe my parking spot wasn't so good after all. I had to walk all the way around the building to the entrance on the other side...and it's a big building...and it's like 130 degrees outside...and I was wearing jeans. By now it's about 1:50 and I'm starting to get anxious...not knowing exactly what I was in for I was afraid something bad would happen if I was late...you never know with the government in charge. I make my way through security and head straight for the elevator.

I stepped into the elevator with some guy...he immediately presses 4 and I press 9. Mishap #3: I needed to go to the 11th floor. I knew that the whole time but the highest the elevator went to was 9 and not wanting to look like an idiot I just pressed a number and waited til he got off and then pressed 1. So, the elevator goes all the way to the 9th floor and then it begins it's descent. Lucky me got to stop on every floor on the way down. I walk in the lobby and walk straight over to the other set of elevators that goes from the 10th floor to the 16th floor. So tricky!

Now, I'm on the right floor and I see the glass doors to the Passport office directly in front of me with two nice-looking security guards on the other side. Mishap #4: I tried to push the doors in and they only go out! Nice! I could tell the security guard wanted to laugh really hard but he did a nice job of controlling himself.

The rest of the visit to the Dallas Passport Office went much better. Unfortunately, I had to turn my phone off upon entering or else I may have had some pictures to document all the craziness. Just think Driver's License experience, except on the Federal level. I had to wait about 10 minutes despite being right on time for my appointment (good thing I left so early), only to learn that my passport wouldn't be ready until Thursday. The nice man said I could either come back or they could just mail it to me. Again, I chose the latter.