Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Grounded?!

Phone call with Elisabeth last night at 10 PM:

Me: (Blah, blah, yadda, yadda...) You have your passport, right?

Elisabeth: Um, yeah. It's somewhere.

Me: But you know where... right?

Elisabeth: I know about where.

Me: So, where?

Elisabeth: I think in a box.

Me: What box?

Elisabeth: Um... maybe one with my stuff from 2005? (When she was an au pair for my niece's three kids in Dillenburg.)

Me: Which is... where?

Elisabeth: Um... in my closet at home?

Me: Is that a question?

Elisabeth: Mom, I know I have it! Somewhere. I think.

Me: This is so NOT good!

Elisabeth (clearly beginning to panic): Mom, don't panic!

Me: I'll look in your closet here while you look there, OK?

20 minutes later, after no passport has been found:

Elisabeth: You want me to come home and find it, don't you? It'd make you feel better, right? I mean, I know it's somewhere... Fine. I'm leaving now.

40 minutes later, Elisabeth arrives at home and together we rummage through her many neatly-packed bins full of memories, clothes and other things she leaves here (partly to make sure she still has a physical claim staked at home, partly because she doesn't need these things now).

10 minutes into rummaging -- which has become rifling... and digging (and panicking):

Me: I'll be really sad if you can't go. I'm going online to find out how to get an emergency re-issued passport.

Elisabeth: Sorry, Mom. I really thought...

5 minutes later, Elisabeth calls from her room: No worries!!!

She found it in the most logical of places (pfffffft!): in the bottom box, in the furthest corner of her closet, with her doo-dads, memories and photos from her 2005 trip to Germany.

Some of us keep these things in manila folders, filed under "P" and clearly marked "Passports" because clearly that makes the most sense. Others keep them filed with knick-knacks and do-dads from abroad because clearly that makes the most sense.

And those two people will definitely have an absolute blast traveling together!

But the passports will stay with me.

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11 comments:

EuroTrippen said...

Oh to be young & laissez-faire...

Goofball said...

oh oh I'd totally would have freaked out and panicked during that search!

Betsy said...

At least she found it! I was sure this post wouldn't have a happy ending... (whew!)

Anonymous said...

I'm so happy you found the passport. Two years ago, my brother, his wife and 10 year old grandson were coming for a visit. The grandson was not allowed to board the plane because he didn't have a passport that could be read by the computer, so he had to go back home. You can imagine how traumatic that was for him.

Jen said...

lol... our German exchange "daughter" has misplaced her passport 2 or 3 times when she's come back to visit - I tease her that she does this because she doesn't want to leave. I'm relieved for both of you.

vailian said...

I have so been there, so done that! And that phrase, "I know ABOUT where it is" is very common in my vocabulary too.
My (ex) mother-in-law says, "Oh I never have trouble losing things, when I think I have lost something I just pray to St Christopher". St. Christopher is evidently the patron saint of Lost Things.
My theory is that Lost Things are always just where they should be. You simply have to work out where that is.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely do not agree.....she is now a young woman......and for all actions there is an equal and opposite reaction. Passports are VALUABLE. Losing one is a real problem.

Maybe a good lesson.

She should look after her own, not you, afterall she is no longer a baby!

BBC said...

My traveling days are done and I have no intention of getting a passport to lose track of.

It's not likely I will ever venture out of the states again, let alone this state.

Seattle was okay when I lived there in the middle sixty's, but I'm not into big towns. Shoot, Port Angeles is too big as far as I'm concerned.

anno said...

Scary! So glad she found hers. I used to keep mine in a shoebox, along with my favorite photos and postcards. Made sense then, but now I keep it in a file, labeled Passport. Does that mean I've grown up?

Rositta said...

That sounds like something my offspring would do, me I kept ours in the safe until it was time to leave...ciao

Dixie said...

I misplaced mine a couple years ago which is very bad because:

1. It's illegal for me to drive in Germany without it.
2. It has my German residency visa in it.
3. It's my only legal ID in Germany.

After about 24 hours of having a s**t hemorrhage panic I finally found it in the bottom of a purse I only carry in winter. Now I'm very careful to make sure it's always transferred to whatever purse I'm using.

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