i left my stomach in puerto nuevo
i finally got to knock off another item from my summer to-do list, except it's no longer summer. but that's okay. yesterday, silvi and a i and a whole navigator full of people headed down south to eat lobsters and, as it turns out, apple soda, since the particular place we had chosen in puerto nuevo turned out to have no margaritas (wha??). we'll know better next time ;) we had a pretty painless trip until, on the way home again, it dawned on me that a new law was recently passed regarding american citizens needing a passport to travel between the US and mexico or canada. it dawned on me only because the people in the back were comparing travel stories and passport stamps. at the same time as the lightbulb went off in my head, my stomach did a somersault...
the conversation turned to "so, what do you suppose are the consequences if you DON'T have your passport?" as it turns out that *i*, of course, was the only fool who forgot hers. we spent the next hour or so sitting in border traffic, trying to figure out which product i would be most lucrative at hawking on the streets of TJ, as i'm sure the border patrol wasn't about to take my "oops! my bad!" excuse of forgetfulness. my fears were calmed a little after i convinced my mom to drop what she was doing (at home, safely within the US borders) and find out exactly what i would be facing. turns out that the passport is currently required for air travel only, with the ground passage rule going into effect next year... WHEW! i managed to eek by rather unscathed, save for the border patrol guy checking IDs calling me "mister brittan". i swear, i can't get away from that, can i?!
current mood: whew, that was close