A PASSPORT DILEMMA: The Susan Chronicles
when two people spontaneously plan a trip to a foreign country both parties generally consider the necessity of border crossing documentation. i say generally because that is what normal people do. they think "hmm. since i'm driving over an international border, i should maybe consider packing my travel and identification papers. a passport perhaps." what does one Susan Kay think? "hey! be i'm going to Canada!" aaand...crickets. so, Claire sets the plan in motion.
i booked our hotel, i found our route, i looked up attractions to visit in Vancouver. i made a kick-ass itinerary. i knew where MY passport was, so i assumed that Susan would too. she wouldn't possibly have me book a non-refundable hotel stay without first locating the ONE thing she needed to get into and back out of Canada. would she? oh. apparently she would. aaand she did. after much frantic searching and chastising of her silliness, Susan decided that her passport "must" be in the safe deposit box. really? who has those anymore? get yourself a good fire-proof personal house safe and lock yo shit up, foo. regardless, we packed the rest of our belongings, placed all of our hopes on the passport being safely stowed away at our friendly neighborhood Chase bank, and went to bed.
let me explain my hesitance to believe in the safe deposit box scenario. first of all, Susan is a notorious misplacer of items. important items - credit cards, keys, driver's license. so trusting her instinct as to where she may or may not have last put something is never a sure bet. but secondly, and more to the point, the last time Susan visited the safe deposit box she did what no other person in the illustrious history of our bank branch had every done. she broke the key in the lock. yep. no one knew what to do. locksmiths were called, we were instructed to empty the contents of the box while they serviced it. new keys had to be made. the whole box had to be replaced. she's amazing, that woman. no one is sure how it happened, but Susan managed to do it. so when she said the words "safe deposit box" to me, i envisioned a long, frustrating, disaster-filled morning impeding on my Canadian odyssey.
i threatened to leave Susan in the good ole' U.S. of A if the passport was not quickly found in the safe deposit box that morning. thank goodness i did not have to follow through on those threats, because the rest of our trip (stories to follow) would have been SO VERY BORING without Susan along for amusement and incredible company.
coming tomorrow, part two in the Canada series...
SHUNNING THE YELLOW PONCHO: A First-Nations Story Pole
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