Bitter

That's what I am. For Luc's birthday party he REALLY wanted to have it at a skating rink. Our good friends, Carri and Brock, helped us book the rink on the Army base and were nice enough to sponsor us so we could have it there. I printed and gave out the invitations, ordered an awesome dinosaur cake, put together the goodie bags, ordered the pizzas, bought drinks, plates, etc., etc., etc. We were all very excited, but then....Thursday morning while I was in the shower it hit me....I don't have my passport. It's at the Chinese Embassy in Berlin getting my visa. You HAVE to have your passport to get on a military base if you don't have a military ID.

I put out the word to everyone I knew who might know a way around it, called all the base agencies, even contemplated hiding in someone's trunk if I didn't think that would get them in a heap of trouble. Brock found someone at the Air Force base that said they would accept my driver's license, but that wasn't the case on the Army base where I'm told security is contracted out to a German company.

There was really no changing the venue since we had a snow day Friday and I didn't know how to get in touch with everyone, besides Luc's heart was set on a skating party.

We all brainstormed like crazy and finally decided we'd give it a try with my old passport. We also had my official birth certificate and every driver's license I've ever had going back to the 80's. As you can see I even threw in my CSU library card. Wow - I just noticed the ironic juxtaposition of the photo of my 19-year-old happy, carefree self with the hardened, pissed off, sick of all these German rules picture on my German driver's license.

Which brings me back to being bitter, here alone at home, missing my own kid's birthday party. I'm bitter at the German guard who wouldn't let me on a US base, I'm bitter at the US base my tax dollars helped build that I can't access, I'm bitter at terrorists that caused this increase in security, I'm bitter at the paranoid, communist government that makes me get a visa and I'm bitter at Kenny's company's HR department for not getting the whole visa process going earlier so that I would have had my passport back by now. As you can see my bitterness runs deep, but more than that I'm just really, really sad.