The One With the Passport Drama

Naturally both my passport and driver's license expired this past August, just before my flight back to DC. Somehow I was able to get to our nation's capital without the TSA agents noticing that I did not have any valid form of ID.  I therefore blame my bad government identification karma for the nightmare that was obtaining a renewed passport for this trip.

My old passport. 

Mid-November I made a trip to my local post office in DC to ensure that I would be able to get my renewed passport in time to get an Indian Visa and buy plane tickets. Of course it was pouring rain that day and I had decided to wear my Toms instead of the clearly needed rainboots.  The guy working at the post office commented "Those aren't really shoes for the rain are they?" no they are not.... 

Anyways, I get to the post office with all of my forms filled out, drivers license copied, and cash ready to pay for the photos I could conveniently take there as well.  According to my bad karma, the camera for the photo was broken, so I had to then make a trip to this private travel agency to take my photos followed  by another 30 minute wait at the post office to finish up my passport application.  The guy reassured me that I would receive my new passport by  mid-December, and that I would be able to track the application status online.

Georgetown Post Office.

Three weeks later, I still could not log on to the application tracker online, so I finally made a call to the State Department. The guy on the phone informed me that my application was no where to be found and recommended that I make a trip to the post office to figure out what was going on. The next Monday I make my way over to the post office, and I am quite positive that the lady working there could tell that it was finals week because she let me cut the line of impatient people hoping to mail holiday packages.  She reassured me that the application was sent out of the post office to the state department, and said that I may just have to resubmit it if they could not locate it in their office.  

After a very necessary trip to T-Sweets I made my last phone call to the State Department to ask them what my next steps were.  The cheery guy on the phone asks for my social security number and then lets me know that my passport will be arriving in a week, and asks what all the stress is about. I decided to spare him my passport saga, and thank him for his help.  I do not think I will ever know why my passport disappeared, but at this point I am just grateful that I didn't have to super-expedite a new one.  Thankfully this seemed to mark the end of my bad ID karma, and my Indian Visa application has been submitted and sent to the consulate.  Hopefully I will be getting that in the next few days so that I am confident that I will be able to board my next flight without any sketch breeches of security.