There's A First Time For Everything

This morning my alarm went off at 6:15 and although I was wide awake, I tried very hard to stay in bed the next 30 minutes while I waited for the water to heat.  After turning the alarm off, I went to lie back down and hit my head rather hard against the wall...strike one.  I tried to roll over and get comfortable again, but I couldn't seem to doze back off like I normally do, so I pulled myself out of bed. 

I had packed everything last night as I always do, but I knew I needed to get showered and pack my toiletries, etc. as well as pull two things out from safe keeping here in my flat.  The first thing I needed was my passport and the second thing was my wallet with British pounds.  Now, this flat is small, extremely small, and being that I'm a bit OCD about things anyway, there isn't much room for error here when it comes to finding items in the place.  I grabbed the purse from the same place it normally rests, and I went to get my passport from the cubby by my bed, but it wasn't there.  Sometimes, after just using it, I place it in another cubby on the other side of the bed, so I checked, but had no luck.  I remembered pulling it out a few weeks ago to teach a lesson to my tutoring student, so I looked with my lesson plans, but it wasn't there either.  After I emptied every purse and cubby in the place and checked both my suitcases, I texted Allan letting him know I was freaking out.  My flight was at 10:00 this am, but at almost 7, I hadn't showered and didn't really see the point as no passport meant no travel.

Allan called and I asked him to check his bookbag since he was here a few weeks ago and we had discussed taking my passport with us when we visited Northern Ireland.  I didn't think we took it with us that day, but low and behold, Allan found my passport in his bag, in Cardiff!  I was quite stressed at this point but Allan said to get to the airport with my id and the copy of my passport Mrs. Poole always said to keep when traveling.  I took a quick shower but didn't do hair or makeup, just ran out the door and took a 25 euro cab to the airport. 

I asked the guy at Aer Aran if I could use what I had to travel to immigration at Cardiff airport and get my passport, but surprise surprise, he said no.  If I were an Irish citizen then I wouldn't need a passport, but as a US citizen I couldn't go anywhere without it. 

Over at the Aer Lingus desk (that's who my flight was booked with originally) I had two options, cancel and get about 66 euro back or change my flight for an additional 100 euro.  I stepped aside and called Allan back to get his opinion and so we decided to change my flight to next weekend.  This means I'll fly to Cardiff on November 10 and return to Dublin on the 14 (the anniversary of Daddy's death).  Then I'll be in Dublin for a week and the following Thursday, November 24th, fly back to Cardiff for Thanksgiving. 

I feel pretty good about having a copy of my passport should anything happen with the mail since Allan's sending my actual passport to me via post, but it's still rather stressful.  I guess it is also a great comfort that Beth works for passport services and if I need anything, she could more than likely take care of it for me.  It's just disappointing that I'll be here in Dublin this weekend when I planned to visit Allan.  There is a first time for everything and other than losing luggage, wallets, cameras, etc, I've not had this travel experience so I suppose I'll now just scratch this one of the list and hope it doesn't happen again!