there is no safe place

well perhaps it existed at one point in time but that doesn't matter anymore. a safe place for what, you might ask? my passport. that all important document that proves you are a US citizen. that document the border workers scrutinize to an extent that's downright scary sometimes and yet still you take comfort in it because you know that little blue book proves that you do live here and that they should let you in and out accordingly. that essential collection of pages that will get me on the plane to Jamaica in less than ten days time… that is, unless you put that passport in a place for safe keeping and that place no longer exists. perhaps it got lost in the move… or perhaps it never made it to the 'safe place' at all and disappeared in a pile of unimportant papers… I have literally no idea.

dan and I have been searching since Monday night. Tuesday I didn't look all that hard. no it wasn't in the file box where I keep all the important papers, but it had to be in the house somewhere. so Wednesday we started in earnest. searching through every bin in the cellar. the contents of our lives… rifled through. no passport. panic starts setting in. Wednesday morning I looked up the information about getting a passport and quick. people assure me that their friends, neighbors, co-workers (otherwise known as my fellow unorganized, brainless moron peers) have been able to get a passport in just a few short days… don't worry about it. but Wednesday night the search began again. every paper in the spare room, every bin in the basement. nothing. dan searched again after I went to get new passport photos taken and printed then headed to zumba. when I got home he declared "that passport is not in the basement." I know its not. I have no idea where it is. but I know where its not. and that's in our house. {I did find lots of other goodies in the basement. three handsome sweaters dan hasn't worn all winter. a new bottle of nyquil. a puzzle book for dan to use on the plane. a book I can lend to my friend sheri and a couple others I'd like to read again. my clear scrapbooking ruler. and of course my old passport! but nothing I needed}

so today at noon, I head to the passport office. to show them my plane ticket to Jamaica with a 1/24 date on it. to plead my case and ask that somehow it does not get lost in the mail because I need this vacation and I'm sorry that I'm far more unorganized that I ever realized…

moral of the story- don't put important documents in a super safe place. put them where you have no doubt you'll remember them. pick the only logical place your brain would ever think to look and stash it there, because the likelyhood that it needs to be safe from "others" is slim. the likelihood that you'll need to actually get your hands on it is far more possible. and when that time comes, who has time to remember where that safe place is?

Edited: I am back from the passport office. I can pick up my new passport on Tuesday! Alleluia!! {Originally she told me I'd receive it by mail on the 23rd, or 24th at latest. Apparently she read my ticket wrong and thought I was flying out on the 29th! Nope! The 24th! So thankfully I can pick it up and not worry that the USPS loses it like I did}