Friday, August 28, 2009

Please tell me this is a Dream

As I write this from the familiar comfort of my mother's kitchen table in Manhattan, I am thinking to myself that surely this must be a dream. I think I'm supposed to be in Shanghai right now, eating street noodles. What happened?

Well, my voyage with Mimi got off to the rockiest of starts yesterday morning. We got up at 5:00 AM and took the M60 bus to La Guardia Airport. When we got there, we realized we weren't sure which terminal to get off at. We made a quick decision to hop off at one of the terminals and ask someone where to go. No less than two minutes after we got off, Mimi realized that she left her purse on the bus. Too bad it had her passport in it. After 30 seconds of delirious inaction and rage, I decided to hop in a cab and chase after the bus. We took a wrong turn however and couldn't track down the bus. As we looped back around, the anxiety and despair truly began to sink in.

Will I go on the trip without Mimi? Will she be able to catch up with me in a few days? Is the whole thing over? Should I just give up now and go apply for a job as a baggage handler? We spent the next few hours repeatedly calling the MTA lost and found, checking M60 buses as they looped around, and talking with the "check in" lady at Air Canada to figure out our options. We also began figuring out if it would be possible to get both a new passport and Chinese Visa within the next day or two. All of this was of course inter spliced with heavy doses of freaking out, sadness, and anger.

But guess what?! It is looking like everything is going to work out. No, the purse never turned up. But, I was successfully able to postpone both tickets until Saturday morning. Mimi was also able to get a new passport in one day (I didn't know this was possible) and today she is getting her Chinese Visa. We're scrambling to get it all figured out but it looks like it just may work.

This was a pretty big blow and I'm still mentally and physically recovering from it. But things could have ended a lot, lot worse. And you might say these things happen for a reason. I've been periodically checking CNN waiting for the breaking news of an Air Canada flight crash landing over the Pacific Ocean. Nothing yet though. Plus, now I get to go see Final Destination 3D today. There is always a silver lining I suppose.

So tomorrow morning, we will try again. Think we'll make it? Ugggh.

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