NaBloPoMo Day 6 : News of the Decade! New Passport Arrives!

Of course I've been fully aware for many moons that my passport was to expire in November. I endeavored to address the passport renewal process I'm going to say starting last March when I went to Sweden. You can't travel internationally if your passport is going to expire in the next six months or something and I was in under the wire.

Mostly I did a whole lot of nothing.

Then we went to Canada in August. Passport control raised an eyebrow when he saw the impending date. "I know, I know," I said.

Places I have been lately.

I continued to do nothing.

Occasionally I would think about putting a note in my calendar to start figuring out what I needed to do, but really, how daunting. First, I'd have to locate the form to use. I vaguely recalled last time I got a passport, I think I went to an office building somewhere. Or maybe Bruce went to an office or Shanna went to an office and I'm projecting their actual experiences into my memory.

But if I didn't go to an office, then I'd assuredly be required to place my passport in an envelope and mail it off with a kiss and a prayer to some bureaucrat somewhere. I'd be stuck in the country until my new passport arrived. Hashtag claustrophobia. I like the option to flee at a moments notice. Plus I'd have to go to the post office.

Anyway, finally October rolled around and Tom sent me the link to the passport form online. Which really was very easy to fill out until I encountered the next massive hurdle: the photo.

There was talk about trying to print it out myself with this little photo printer that we got for my Pop for Christmas two years ago but he gave it back to us because he couldn't figure out how to work it. We couldn't figure out how to work it either.

One Saturday I was on a power walk and promised myself I'd stop if I saw a "Passport Photos" sign in any window anywhere. I did not see any such sign.

Fast forward to the middle of October and we're down in Atlanta at a CVS shopping for umbrellas and salted nuts when all of a sudden I see the sign: Passport Photos! Truthfully, Tom saw the sign and mentioned that we had plenty of time for a snap.

Who knew CVS does passport photos? In fact, they have a whole "Biometric Photo" thing going on. It's all very fancy. First, the cashier/photographer pulls down a white screen from the drop ceiling and then hunts around in a drawer for a tiny little digital camera.

He takes a whole bunch of photos that don't work so he gets another cashier/photographer who has more experience. When finally success is achieved, she takes the chip out of the camera and inserts it in this contraption that looks like an old school mainframe computer. It's that big.

This giant box wheezes and churns and uses artificial intelligence to make sure both your ears are showing and other critical passport photo requirements. Then the machine prints out two official passport photos.

Anyway, I'm all set for ten years.

Whew.