I'm absolutely kicking myself for allowing the dilemma I'm currently in to come to pass. Two years ago when my passport came and looked odd to me, I should have contacted the State Dept right away. The fact that I travelled to and from Canada made me believe that my passport was correct. It didn't even dawn on me that it could have been due to the fact that the passport rules were not yet in full effect.

So... my day today...

7:30am...
On the phone (in queue) with State Department. Queue time 15 minutes. Conversation time about 15 minutes. Explained the situation -- all appeared fine on their end. She did tell me that I can't fly into Mexico w/ just a drivers license and birth certificate. If I were driving, that would work, but flying requires a passport. She gave me a number to call to get further advisement. She led me to believe that I'd be OK with my current (expired) passport.

10:00am...
Trip to the local Post Office. This freaked me out a bit. The woman there unfortunately couldn't help me (which didn't surprise me, but I wanted to see a live person rather than talk to a voice through a phone). She did say that my passport is in fact the old one, and is technically a "tampered with" document, therefore not legal. She also said that since I never received my new passport, it's technically lost or stolen, and must therefore be reported as such.

PANIC! Yes, this is when I really started to panic. I knew I didn't have time to do the report, get a new one, etc -- all before my flight on Friday morning. Especially since our intentions were to drive Wednesday afternoon to drop off the kids. Oy. Stress, stress, stress.

10:15am...
Phone to State Department... again. Over and over and over. They're experiencing a higher than normal call volume and can't take my call right now. What's up with that -- it's an emergency! And the number given to me earlier this morning won't allow me to talk with a live person. Not helpful! Voice prompts and automated info will not get me my answers, or my correct passport.

11:15am...
Finally get through to the State Department again. New lady. This one said that it appears my new passport was never mailed. WHAT!?! She went on to correct herself and give me a Fed Ex tracking number, but added that it doesn't show that it was received by me or returned to them. (Duh -- I knew I hadn't received it). She suggested that since it had been 2 years, it was unlikely to still be sitting in the "lost mail" section, so I should schedule an appointment at my nearest Passport Agency (i.e. one of the few regional offices), as that was the only way I could get my expedited passport. Nearest office: Houston. Yes, that's 9.5 hours away. Thankfully, it's only 2 hours out of the way from where we're going Wed/Thurs. Ugh.

11:30...
Call Fed Ex. Give them the tracking number. They don't have record of it. I asked if it's because it's too old. They said, "No, we'd still have record of it in billing. It's because the sheet was printed, but it was never handed over to a Fed Ex representative." They never mailed it!!!! ARGH!!!

12:00...
Call another State Dept person -- a direct line given to me by my wonderful brother who has a few inside connections. Unfortunately, this person only handles government workers, not citizens, so really couldn't help me. She did, however, press my breaking point button. She asked the simple question, "Can I ask why it took you 2 years to report that you hadn't received your new passport?" And I just broke down -- the stress, frustration, and stupidity of it all got to me. My answer: because I've never received a passport renewal, didn't know what it SHOULD look like, and assumed that what I received was correct! *sigh*

12:15...
On the phone again with the State Department to let them know that Fed Ex never received the package. This person also said, "It looks like it was never sent," but then went on to kind of cover for herself and checked the tracking number. She then was able to send an urgent request to the processing department (who of course have no direct lines to follow up). I told them the urgency is huge, because if I have to go to Houston, I have to also leave earlier than originally planned. So she basically needed to have them return the call today (they didn't). I also told her that I'd prefer NOT to pay again, since it wasn't my fault that I didn't have the documents. I asked for a copy of all the stuff we'd talked about for my meeting in Houston.... but she refused, saying that they'd be able to see it all when I get there. Yes... but *I* would like to have a copy of all the mistakes that were made!

So we've now booked a hotel for Houston on Wednesday night. I have an appointment on Thursday morning at 8am at the Passport Agency. I can only pray that they can turn it around immediately (I was told they should be able to). Should is NOT a good word today. Then we head on to Jon's brother's house, because they're watching the kids for us. And then we fly out on Friday.

Please, oh please, oh please let us fly out on Friday.