Wednesday, January 24, 2007

New Passport Policy

How many of you heard about this?

Beginning January 23, 2007, ALL persons, including U.S. citizens, traveling by air between the United States and Canada, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Bermuda will be required to present a valid passport, Air NEXUS card, or U.S. Coast Guard Merchant Mariner Document, or an Alien Registration Card, Form I-551, if applicable.

I realized that my current passport expired this year and needed to be renewed, especially in light of some of the new laws. If you meet certain criteria, you can renew online or by printing out the online forms and mailing them in. I decided to do the latter.

This meant that I needed to go and have two passport pictures made, so I headed to Kinko's yesterday.

A young man greeted me at the passport photo area and guided me to a stool where I was to sit and pose for my picture. Now, I must stop here and mention that, knowing that this picture would be with me for the next ten years, I did "gussie" up a bit before heading out. I knew that this wasn't going to be a "Glamour Shot", but I wanted to try to give it every chance to be somewhat decent.

So, back to the posing stool at Kinko's....

The "photographer" was obviously not real familiar with the special digital camera that he held in his hands. He must have worked on focusing it on me for at least 5-6 minutes before finally saying: "Ready? One, two, three.."

I smiled and got ready for the flash which never occurred.

"Ooops, he said. Let's try that again."

Another 5 minutes went by as he did some more adjusting. He began singing while he was doing this, making me laugh inside as his voice sounded like one of the American Idol rejects who doesn't realize that they are tone-deaf.

"Okay," he said, "I think that I've got it now."

Again, I put on my best paparazzi smile and prepared for the countdown.

"One, two, three,...flash!"

Ah, success, I thought to myself. Unfortunately, he came back a minute later to let me know that the picture didn't come out right and would have to be done again. It seems that these passport photos have to measure the correct amount from the top of your hair to the bottom of you chin...and mine did not meet those exacting qualifications.

This time he went and discussed the camera with another employee and then came back to try again several minutes later.

Sitting there trying to keep a smile on my face, I am wearily wondering if I am going to be able to get off of this stool and leave Kinko's before the day ends.

"Ready? One, two, three...flash!"...he tries again.

This time he sighs and says that I am tilting my head slightly to the right and that is making the photo off balance! Could I tilt my head a little to the left and we can try again...?

You know how your mouth begins to quiver when you are trying to hold a smile for too long? Well, that is what was beginning to happen to me, but I slightly tilted my head to the left and did the best that I could.

"One, two, three, flash!". He attempted the shot again. This time he smiled and said, "Just one more time...we are almost there."

"There?" I thought to myself.

Well, the next take "took" and my picture was successful captured. I paid for it while he was doing the developing and waited to see this masterpiece.

Well, the end result of this experience was not what I had hoped for as I had put myself together in preparation for this photo shoot. Let's put it this way, the only people who will ever get to see this "one hour photo" of me will be the one person who is checking me out before leaving the country!

Now, that I will have a new passport in a few weeks, I probably need to use it to go on a little vacation.... : )

*sigh*

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