Blunder of extreme proportion

I am a planner, an organizer. I make things happen because I think about things days, weeks, even months in advance. It's a gift. Or a curse, depending on how you look at it or if you are involved in my planning.

Yesterday I had some time to think about our trip to Paris. I've been gone every day from early until late and just haven't been able to pull things together regarding the trip - it all can't just fall into place the day before we go, I have to plan.

So I got the toiletry bag out and went through it, making mental notes of what I need to buy, well ahead of time. Went online, read up about Paris, how to use their bathrooms, the Euros exchange rate, what the weather is like. My friend Jera is here and we were talking about France. She mentioned she doesn't have a passport. I told her to get one and she could go with. Passport, hmmm. Maybe I should get those out. Riley's - good til 2017. Kaye's - good til 2010, wait, what - Jan 25, 2010. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! My heart fell into my socks. I stared at the numbers trying to make it be 2012 which is what I thought it was. No amount of staring at the 0 made it a 2. I yelled for Amy - she was the only one in the house so of course I had to yell for/at someone. I held out the evil passport, the betrayer, my hopes dashed. She said not to worry, she'd find out how to expedite it since she'd had to do that before.

The phone call she made left me feeling like a baby, an onlooker. I should have been making the call, taking care of my own problem yet my 23-year-old daughter was calmly handling the woman on the other end who told Amy I NEEDED TO SHOW UP IN AURORA, COLORADO, SAN FRANCISCO OR TUCSON to get my new passport. THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING - ARRRRGGGHHHHH! I explain through tears to her I can't leave the state - it's end of semester, I'm interviewing and hiring new students in the newsroom and doing final grades, I'm moving grandma from Stonehenge to home next week - I can't take a day trip!

I called Riley and wailed, we can't go to France - my passport is expired. Even as I'm saying it I'm planning how to get it renewed in time but the swell of improbability swallows me up and I have to be dramatic. It's ridiculous. He is sympathetic and says to call Lorie, our travel agent at BYU. I call her, knowing she won't answer because she NEVER answers - I always have to leave a message.

She answers.

I explain my dilemma. Oh, she says, there's this great place in Salt Lake. You just have to take your old passport and two passport photos to them. It's a bit expensive, she says. Anything - I'll pay whatever, I tell her. I think aloud - I'll need to get those photos somewhere. She says, just come in to my office, we take them here. I am silently thanking my lucky stars for her, for my calm daughter who got the ball rolling, for the company in SL that's going to charge me a bundle and for a Heavenly Father who planted a tiny seed in my head to GO LOOK AT THE PASSPORTS! Imagine if I hadn't looked until the day of our trip. Horrors.

So, on Monday I will drive to Salt Lake, pay Travel Brokers several hundred dollars, and hopefully have my renewed passport before April 14 when we hopefully leave for Paris.

It was a harrowing experience. Amy commented, well mom, if you didn't have 40,000 people's lives to look after right now (OK, she exaggerated a bit), you might have thought to look at your passport. It's true. I am overextended a bit. I really need this getaway, if for nothing else than to clear my mind and come home to take it all on again.