Ok, so my last post was a tad bitchy. And to come clean, I didn’t handle the situation in an optimal way. In fact, I failed miserably at this particular instance of anger management. Our couples therapist Linda surely would have been disappointed. And John is now totally traumatized. When he first saw the live post, he called for doom. And now he says I’ve got him embroiled in a scandal. Such the drama queen.

So first, apologies to my dear friend and her fiance (who definitely thinks I’m loony now). Yes, I should have broached my issues directly and before posting my scathing tirade of an entry. Somehow the visit pushed my Johnny buttons and well, enough said. I’m not proud.

In other, less dramatic news, I turned 32 on Sunday. John and I spent the weekend in Vancouver, BC. Omg, what a beautiful city… I’m in love. Totally reminded me a bit of Seattle, Portland, Hong Kong, and Shanghai all in one. The weather was a cold and misty, but I just loved Vancity: lush and green, peaceful yet bustling, and tons of good food from all over. Gotta love a place with Bubble tea, sushi, and Thai.

Public transportation was pretty good too. The elevated rail (SkyTrain) was somewhat limited, but there were lots of Prius taxis (hurray!) and the electric public buses were ultra clean. And the Canadians are so frickin’ laid back. We didn’t have exact change (coins only) for the bus, and the driver just told us to have it next time. No big deal. In the US, we would’ve gotten kicked to the curb for sure.

This was a mini-vacation, but I was all stressed out. You see, two nights before departure, I discovered that my passport had expired on April 1. Yes, I know. How could I let something like this slip through the cracks? Don’t worry, it’s on the Google calendar now: once every ten years, renew the f-ing passport.

Apparently, the US had recently implemented some new policy (Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative) requiring passports even for travel to Canada and Mexico. Long story short, after researching all this crap online, I nearly canceled my trip. I had it all planned out with Bubs. If they denied me access, he was to proceed and leave me behind. Birthday or no birthday: after all, the hotel was fully paid via Priceline. Thankfully, I had the nerve to just try to get through at the ticket counter. No one fucking cared. Yeah, I had to get into a separate line for international documents check but whatev: the agents checked my license and birth certificate, I went through additional security, and that was it.

Bottom line? All this urgent expedited same-day passport processing bullshit is a total scam. Well for travel to Canada at least. On the trip back home, the Canadian United airlines agent, Tony Scott (I’m sending him a letter of kudos, btw) was the sweetest gem of a guy. Bumped us up to an earlier flight and even gave us Economy Plus seating… free. Now that is class and service. I’ve fully returned to United’s corner.

Of course, the US Customs and Borders agent was not so pleasant. She chastised me for knowingly traveling with an expired passport. Thankfully, the agent standing next to her tempered her irritation saying, “Well, we can’t keep someone who is a citizen from entering, so just advise her to renew the passport, and off she goes.” Yes, I got lucky. But you know what? The WHTI is so lame. Doesn’t make me feel any safer. And seriously, it’s yet another paperwork hassle. Current processing times for passports is 4 weeks. Rush service is 3 weeks. Either way, my shit is in the mail as we speak. Getting that crap renewed ASAP.