You may remember my prior Joke Is On Me posts, where I recount something dumb I have done in my life. I mean, really, there are endless things, but I have only posted about a couple of them so far, like the time I forgot my ATM card when traveling abroad to a place where I needed cash. Or the time I found some super old travelers checks and the bank did not want to cash them. Well I am back to deliver yet another story of stupidity and how I got out of it in one piece.
Let me set the backstory. It was 2005. I was working in Gainesville, Florida as a contractor to the federal government. For those of you who don't already know this, I am from California. I have a California Driver License. Okay, so now back to the story. I flew from Orlando to Ireland to meet up with a San Francisco friend and have a wonderful time exploring Ireland. As we often do, we also met up with a local friend, who lived near the Shannon airport where we were flying out of. This was the last night that we were in Ireland, and we had a blast going to bars in his little town, using the men's restroom because the line for the ladies was too long (you've all done this, right?) and visiting with him.
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| Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin |
At the end of the night, we responsibly took a cab home, I paid for the cab and we went to bed. The next morning, our friend took us to the airport and dropped us off and we went up to the counter to check in. At this point, I realized that I did not have my wallet. This wallet was one of those ones that is about the size of a passport and holds your passport, money and credit cards. I had ALL OF MY THINGS in this wallet, including my passport, money, license, and credit cards. Luckily, this was in the days of cell phones, but they were not smart! However, I did have my Irish friend's number and I called him and he came back and picked us back up and took us back home to search for the wallet.
We searched everywhere, even behind and under the bed, in the sheets, in the couch cushion, even in the trash. I was frantic. In my mind I was thinking a few things. First, I am pretty religious in putting things back exactly where they belong. I am not a person who loses their keys. I am NOT a person who forgets their credit card at the bar. I am organized. Where could it be!? Second, I was already thinking of plan B. My Irish friend had to leave for work, and he did not live in a town with a consulate, and if I remember correctly, it may even have been a Sunday. I was frantically thinking about how I would get to the consulate and how I would have to rebook my flight and call work and also how at the very least, we needed to get my San Francisco friend back to the airport so she could get on the flight.
After mulling it over, I decided to go with her and try one last ditch thing. First, she gave me some cash and one of her credit cards so I would be able to get back to the Irish friend's house, and could use the card later if needed. Second, I pulled out my plan B, which was a paper color copy document of all of my important documents. It had a copy of my passport, my driver license and all of the credit cards I had been carrying. I sent my friend off to go through security and I went up to the counter and gave the check in lady my sob story. After some hemming and hawing, she told me that she would give me my ticket, but she did not know if I would get through security or customs with no documents.
Of course I decided to give it a shot. I went to security, got a lot of push back, but ultimately they let me through, but cautioned that I probably would not get through customs. I got to the customs desk and they also gave me pushback, and even brought in their superior, but I pleaded and finally they said that since I was leaving their country, not entering, that they would let me through and it would be up to the US whether or not they wanted to deny me entry. I was overjoyed. My armpits were sweating nervous sweat as I ran, not walked, through the airport, because, to top it all off, I could hear them announcing the doors were closing on my flight.
I made it in the nick of time, as the doors were actually already closed, but they opened them again and let me on the flight. I sat down next to my friend and boy was she surprised!! I don't think I have ever been so thirsty in my life though, as I felt like I had run a marathon to get there.
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| Cliffs of Moher (I think) |
But wait, this story is not yet over! I still had to get back into the US! We got to the US and went our separate ways, and when I got to the customs desk, they said that they could not accept the paper copy. However, luckily I had my federal work ID, which I had not put in my wallet because it has a plastic protective case on it and it wouldn't fit. So I whipped that out and pleaded once again (I did a LOT of groveling over a 24 hour period), and they said yes. I had never been so happy in my life. In my mind I was wondering what would happen if they said no. Would they send me back to Ireland? And if so, would they let me in? The other thing I did while on my layover was to cancel all my credit cards. However, and I don't know how this happened, I had the foresight to keep one open so I could use it for my car rental and hotel payments. Go me!
I arrived in Orlando and went to Avis to get my rental car. You are probably seeing where this is going. They would not accept neither the copy of my ID nor the copy of my credit card for payment. However, they said there was a smaller rental company around the corner that may take it. I went around the corner to Ma and Pa car rentals, and sure enough, they did use the copy to type in my credit card details. WHEW! I had the same issue when I checked back into my hotel for work, but luckily we had been working out of this hotel for a few months by this point and they knew me by face, so could wait until I got my new card to pay.
So now I am in Florida with no ID, I do not live there permanently and I cannot get a new CA drivers license without being there in person. So now I am driving a rental car with no license, I cannot get a FL license without a residence, and I cannot get a CA license without going back to CA, but I don't have an ID to get on a plane with. So I thought I would go to the post office and get a new passport, because on the website it says that you can get one with a copy of your birth certificate and a government issued ID. Luckily I have my government badge for work!
I go to the post office a week later with my items and she denies that my ID is a government issued ID, and I say to her, "lady, this is the EXACT definition of a government issued ID! I work for the government and they issued it to me" Actually I do not say that to her, I just mutter and turn red and try not to cry, but seriously, I had to go through an extensive background check, get fingerprinted and promise to give them my first born child to get this ID, and you are now telling me that it is not as good as a driver license that any monkey can get!!? And she says, "Exactly. NEXT!!"
I am pretty much stuck at this point and I go back to my hotel to stew. A couple of weeks later, I get a call from my mother saying that she just received a package for me from Ireland. When she opens it, it is MY WALLET, fully intact, with a nice note from the cab driver telling us that he found it in the back seat. She ships it to me in Florida and all is well. Luckily I hadn't yet reported my CA driver license or passport as stolen, or that would have been another whole rigmarole.
Okay, your turn!! What scrapes have you gotten yourself into, either while traveling or just in life, and how did you get out of them?
If you haven't already, you can fill out this form with any questions you want answered for my next ask me anything post!!
This post is part of NaBloPoMo. You can find the rest of my posts for this challenge here. You can find the list of participants and their information here.
