TheBanyanTree: (no subject)

[Julie Anna Teague]

We live a somewhat crazy life, sometimes, without necessarily trying.  
For instance, we were supposed to be in Belize last week, a trip 
planned months and months ago, but here's what happened instead--

The day before we were to leave, the BF was packing and pulled out his 
passport. He says, aloud, "Hey, I wonder when this thing expires?"  A 
very apropos question, since we discovered at that moment that it had 
expired a month ago. After a few moments of utter panic, we launched 
into motion.  We googled for expired passport information (not 
especially promising).  We called the superfast, overnight passport 
places (not enough time).  We called the airline, the travel agency, 
and some people in Belize.  By afternoon on Friday (we were to leave at 
4am on Saturday) we had in our hands some additional documentation, 
certified and bonafide, from the County Clerk's office, stating that 
the BF is who he says he is and is a legal, voting citizen of these 
United States. We also had a letter from the Belize Travel Board that 
said that with these documents, a birth certificate, and an expired 
passport, he could, indeed, get into the country of Belize.  We began 
to have a glimmer of hope.

Saturday morning, 4am, we were at the ticket counter, checking in, 
praying, and sweating profusely.  Everything seemed to be going 
smoothly until the airline dude called passenger Schmid, and we knew it 
was most likely not to offer him a First Class upgrade.  Much 
information was presented back and forth, but the bottom line was, due 
to Homeland Security laws, he was not allowed to board the plane to 
Belize.  Period.  End of discussion.  I almost cried and BF was on the 
verge of a minor freakout.  But instead, we pulled ourselves together.  
I said to him, "Plan A is dead.  Plan A is not going to happen.  We 
cannot waste another second of energy on Plan A.  We must move on to 
Plan B."  We were at the airport, our bags were packed, and we were in 
as desparate need for a vacation as two people can be, so we worked 
rather cooperatively, for us, and put together Plan B right there and 
then.  After visits to several ticket counters and some phone calls, we 
were on a plane to Mexico within a couple of hours, with hotel 
reservations on the island of Cozumel.  And that's the beginning of the 
story of our vacation. What can I say--the best laid plans, etc., etc.  
We gave ourselves credit for resiliency and resourcefullness, and moved 
on.

Julie