Saturday, June 30, 2007
...and this is why..
these girls, cousins, having wild and crazy fun is the reason that all tuesday's insanity is worthwhile...
and this is what makes it worthwhile for curtis... :) (he asked me to mention that this is a meager pike, shameful really, unworthy of a picture, and that he'll do much better next time. woe is him.)
and this is what makes it worthwhile for curtis... :) (he asked me to mention that this is a meager pike, shameful really, unworthy of a picture, and that he'll do much better next time. woe is him.)
Friday, June 29, 2007
memory lane
this is the alley behind my old house where i rode my bike, first got flashed by a 10 yr old boy, caught fuzzy caterpillars and played indians with my friends...we even had full headdresses of magpie & bluejay feathers. ahhhh - those were the days. out in the morning, back for supper - lunch wherever we landed in between. mom didn't have to worry about not seeing me all day, because small prairie towns were safe, and neighbors kept an eye out.
this is the house of my childhood - 19 glory hills road. of course, my parents never put a fridge on the front porch, or used a sheet for a curtian...and mom did her standard lovely yard puttering... i remember it much bigger, of course, and the street much longer, but this is where i used to live. it was even the same color.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
ghosts
i don't think i've mentioned before that the small town curtis' parents live in is the town i grew up in. in fact, their backyard fence runs along my elementary school yard. this is the town where i was a wild girl in a wonder woman swimsuit riding a bxm bike at full speed. this place is full of the ghosts of my childhood. it's interesting to come back here ... but it's not my home anymore. i love to walk past my childhood home (maybe i'll post a picture tomorrow) and the fields i played in, but this isn't where my heart lives anymore.
and now i am going to bed. :)
and now i am going to bed. :)
..and if it doesn't warm up, i won't have a thing to wear!
OH. MY. GOSH.
You know, really, it’s a lesson in prayer. We, and our peeps, have all been praying so hard for our return to the US & our visa renewal, that everyone forgot to pray that we’d get OUT of the dang country!!
So… first of all, in all of our vast and varied conversations with the department of state, customs and border patrol, and USCIS, no one mentioned that The Girls would need passports. So we were turned away at the ticket counter, because they didn’t have them. Then, we had to call our friend John back to the airport, and while he returned, Curtis got directions to the closest postal office, where we could apply for passports for them – having been told that a receipt for said passport would be sufficient. That would be the first $200. Beautiful.
Obviously, we missed our first flight. So Curtis called the airline to rebook, only to be told that because it was so close to the flight time, we would have to go the airport. So we returned to the airport. Only to be told that the airport couldn’t do it, because it wasn’t a “real” Air Canada counter, and we needed to do it over the phone. Beautiful.
So, we went home. And Curtis talked to the airline the whole way home. They said there were NO flights for 4 days, and that our return flights were now invalid, because we had missed the first leg of the trip. After begging and pleading with a supervisor, he got our return flights reinstated, and a later flight for our first leg (Raleigh to Toronto), but was told there were no available “airmiles” flights from Toronto to Edmonton so we would have to find our own flights. That would the second purchase of the morning (needfully & thankfully sponsored by my mother-in-law!) … $1524. Beautiful.
At the post office, we were told that along with our passport receipts, The Girls would need birth certificates. I happened to have them, since I assumed that’s what they would need to cross the border, but they were mailed off with the applications. So at home, I found the duplicate of Meg’s, but not Kyra’s. Of course. So, we requested a duplicate online from the Florida Vital Statistics webpage, with a rush, delivered to our “vacation” address…for the low, low price of $52. Beautiful.
But, with a photocopied birth certificate (that we stopped on the way back to the airport to get notarized, in an effort to make it look less like we forged the damn thing), 2 receipts of passport, 2 expired visa’s stapled to valid passports, and more “e-tinerary” copies than I could possibly describe, here I sit, in the Toronto airport…through customs safely, waiting for our last flight, which will get us in 6 hours late, but get us there none the less.
There was one single, shining moment in my day:
They needed a volunteer to switch seats on our flight out of Raleigh, and they offered a free alcoholic beverage in return. Needless to say, I volunteered.
You know, really, it’s a lesson in prayer. We, and our peeps, have all been praying so hard for our return to the US & our visa renewal, that everyone forgot to pray that we’d get OUT of the dang country!!
So… first of all, in all of our vast and varied conversations with the department of state, customs and border patrol, and USCIS, no one mentioned that The Girls would need passports. So we were turned away at the ticket counter, because they didn’t have them. Then, we had to call our friend John back to the airport, and while he returned, Curtis got directions to the closest postal office, where we could apply for passports for them – having been told that a receipt for said passport would be sufficient. That would be the first $200. Beautiful.
Obviously, we missed our first flight. So Curtis called the airline to rebook, only to be told that because it was so close to the flight time, we would have to go the airport. So we returned to the airport. Only to be told that the airport couldn’t do it, because it wasn’t a “real” Air Canada counter, and we needed to do it over the phone. Beautiful.
So, we went home. And Curtis talked to the airline the whole way home. They said there were NO flights for 4 days, and that our return flights were now invalid, because we had missed the first leg of the trip. After begging and pleading with a supervisor, he got our return flights reinstated, and a later flight for our first leg (Raleigh to Toronto), but was told there were no available “airmiles” flights from Toronto to Edmonton so we would have to find our own flights. That would the second purchase of the morning (needfully & thankfully sponsored by my mother-in-law!) … $1524. Beautiful.
At the post office, we were told that along with our passport receipts, The Girls would need birth certificates. I happened to have them, since I assumed that’s what they would need to cross the border, but they were mailed off with the applications. So at home, I found the duplicate of Meg’s, but not Kyra’s. Of course. So, we requested a duplicate online from the Florida Vital Statistics webpage, with a rush, delivered to our “vacation” address…for the low, low price of $52. Beautiful.
But, with a photocopied birth certificate (that we stopped on the way back to the airport to get notarized, in an effort to make it look less like we forged the damn thing), 2 receipts of passport, 2 expired visa’s stapled to valid passports, and more “e-tinerary” copies than I could possibly describe, here I sit, in the Toronto airport…through customs safely, waiting for our last flight, which will get us in 6 hours late, but get us there none the less.
There was one single, shining moment in my day:
They needed a volunteer to switch seats on our flight out of Raleigh, and they offered a free alcoholic beverage in return. Needless to say, I volunteered.
Monday, June 25, 2007
it's finally here
well, here i am. it's "canada eve". we are (mostly) packed, and have 3 packets of paperwork squirreled away in our luggage (in case a piece gets lost), and so - on a wing and a prayer, literally, we are going on "vacation". our friends came over tonight to get 'cat care' directions, and jaya said, "this better be the best vacation you've ever had!" and then she laughed. :)
i will posting our canadian adventures (is that an oxymoron?), and have even packed my digicamera for pics! i know you can't wait! ha!
adios!
i will posting our canadian adventures (is that an oxymoron?), and have even packed my digicamera for pics! i know you can't wait! ha!
adios!
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