C’est La Vie
So Paris is off. At least for me, for now. Serene will still be going, and living it up in the City of Light for a week, while I stay home in Seattle.
So what happened?
I sent in a Canadian passport application ages ago, since my old one had expired. Time went by. It got closer and closer to my travel date, and my passport charge had yet to show up on my bank record. So I called the passport agency. I knew they were backed up a few weeks, due to sudden high demand spurred by new US travel regulations, but I was expecting to receive the passport with plenty of time to spare. But when I called them, they were only starting to process applications they had received on January 12th. The 4 week delay they claimed to be experiencing was more like 8 weeks.
I ran over all the possibilities in my head. Luckily, I had a second copy of my birth certificate on hand, and if necessary, I was willing to camp out at the Canadian consulate in Seattle, or make a trek into Vancouver to apply in person. But after calling the consulate, I found out that even their rush service was close to 3 weeks at this point, and the only rushes they were approving were for the death of a family member in a foreign country, or urgent nonrefundable business travel. And they required supporting documentation for either one. The soonest I will see a passport, in any case, is early April. I was supposed to fly on March 20th.
There’s some small silver lining. Not going to France eases up my financial situation, though I had to eat $230 to cancel my flight. But I will get to go to APE in San Francisco in April, and probably take some other trip later on in the year.
Anyways. Paris isn’t going anywhere. I could use the cash I was forfeiting by skipping a week of work, and Serene will be an experienced Parisian navigator when we finally get to go together.
But this still sucks.
3 Comments
Oh, we’ll make it there. It’s definitely on the list of things to do as soon as possible. We need to hit up Albuquerque later this year, but maybe around the end of the year or early next year if you guys will be there still.
I just signed a renewal contract. We’ll be here! We’ll also be in CA in July.
You could still come to Japan. The lodging expenses would be cheaper, at least while staying with us.
March 16, 2007 at 7:42 pm