So about a week and half ago we found out we were going on a cruise with Jasons Family (Mom, Dad, Amy and Amber). This is very exciting, a week get away all expense paid trip (Thanks Mom and Dad Curry :) ). Well there has some very last minute planning, and three of the six have passports, so this means that Jason, Tonya and Rodney do not. Whats the plan? Well we found a place online that is based in Dallas and will expediate the process of a passport from 24hrs to 14 days. So you wanna know how it went? Here is the story of Jason, Tonya and Rodney getting Passports on a Saturday morning.
7:30 a.m. Jason and Tonya hear a knock on their bedroom door (which is ok since Lynn and Rodney (Jasons Mom and Dad stayed the night). It is Rodney saying we need to wake up. Which we did, we had planned to possibly leave at 7:30 ..... ooops.
8:15 On the Road, Have Mapquest directions ready to go. JAson is driving, Rodney and I are Riding.
8:45 I freak out, how much gas do we have? Are we ok? You see our gauge is broke, so right now we are guessing and going by mileage. Jason says yes we are ok.
8:53 Me in my mind still freaking out.
8:54 We get on George Bush Turnpike, $1.00 charge FYI.
9:00 We get off main highways and start on the street for the place, stop get gas, which yes we needed. So thank you Lord we made it!
9:05 Arrive at building, but do not know where the heck the place is. There is no advertisement, so we get worried. No fear, we go in the building which a very nice gentleman opened for us. He must of seen the look of "lost" in our face. HE started upstairs, and as I was looking at the list of Businesses and what floors they're on. JAson is walking and looking. I read it AA Passports and I say Office 429A, the guy is walking slowly up the stairs and says Follow Me. We say OK. Jason mumbles that he walked andlooked and I read... :).
9:10 we arrive in the office, nothing fancy at all. A desk and a couch for a waiting area. Then we go to his office. We walk down a 3 foot hallway take a sharp left and we're in his office. Again nothing fancy, 3 chairs, a desk, a folding table behind our chairs, and a few shevles. WHITE WHITE walls.
9:11 We find out the nice gentlemen is Sunny. Sunny is Indian and has an accent and speaks fast, he knows English theres no problem, but he has 3 people who are not quite familiar with the Indian Accent.
Now Jason and I are starting to understand him. A few times we have to look at eachother and go "ok ... um yes we have this and yes we have our Photo ID's. But Rodney on the other hand is just sitting there. If you have ever seen Father of the Bride and the scene where they are meeting Franc for the first time, and he says Cake, and the Dad says "huh"? This is Rodney.
So we try to "translate" for him. Sunny is very nice, but he is all business. He got a phone call from a potential client and while he was on the phone, he said just come here and we'll talk, I have customers in my office and I'm being rude talking on the phone to you. Ok, note #1 do not irriate Sunny. Sunny was tired as well he told us, he was out to 1 or 2 a.m., usually goes to bed much earlier because he gets up at 4:30 a.m. for FedEx to get the 24 hour passports. So we then take photos, it goes well. He then ask us how we're going to pay, we all stand up and start looking through our wallets and start to hand him a check and two credit cards. He says not now, just sit. (he had to tell us twice b/c we didn't hear him the first time evidently). So then while we are finishing up our stuff, Rodney ask about Lynn, her passport we knew would expire in June, he said you can't not use a passport within 6 months of expiring, we all look at eachother and think "Great." You see Lynn decided to stay home and work on her paper, which we all didn't think was a big deal. Sunny explained to Rodney about 3 times :) how to do Lynns stuff, he said Do Not Worry, I will take care of it. We smiled and said OK. :) Well it is now, so this will be the adventure to do after ours. Sunny in the process of this ask us about any felonies, Jason-DUI? Prison sentence? Anything?, Me-anything you need to tell me Tonya, b/c it will soon be known if you want to hide it from me, I tell him no we are boring people. He seems disappointed. Sunny then sends us to the Post Office, and tells us that they are the nicest Post Office around and had told a previous customer while we there to tell them "Sunnys says Hi.". Well in case you didn't get the Memo, you missed out. It was come get your Passport Day :).
10:00 a.m.ish We get to the Post Office. You see while we were there at Sunny's a very nice lady came in to finish her passport documents. Well that was about 9:30? She was still in line and not even in the Office of the Passport Place. She is waiting outside the door of the waiting room. So I tell Jason, you and Rodney go and get some breakfast. They go and I stand in line waiting. The line doesn't move much for awhile and then it does move. Woo-Hoo :). There is a fun mom and daughter who are in front of me having fun. So they were fun to watch interact. Then Rodney and Jason come in, they have the food, I say go Eat, then swap with me. They do and then Rodney comes and swaps with me, I then know that once I swapped with Rodney this line would not be the same. I go out to eat and when Jason and I return, my instincts were right. The thing that is great about Rodney is he's going to talk to you and usually make you laugh. He will talk to you as if you know all about him. :) So we get in there and he has the Mom and Daughter duo laughing and has been talking w/them you can tell. He also has a number for our place in line. #290. So now you have Jason and Rodney in there, you know it will not be the same. While waiting Rodney informs anyone who listens of Lynns situation and how Sunny is going to help us get the passport for her in 10 days as well.
11:25 a.m. (?) We have made it! We are now in the waiting area... woo-hoo! We all cheer and the mom of the duo (her husband has now arrived, he got them Starbucks :) ) says it doesn't feel like you made it until you get to sit down, so soon I will feel the achievement of making it in the Waiting area. We get to sit down and then the mom/dad/daughter trio go and get to get her passport! We are next. While we are waiting there is family where the little boy has a hockey game at 12:00,why do we know this? Well because the mom very nicely announced that they needed to go in front of us because he had a game at 12:00, what did we do and the nice lady who is after us (who tried to get her passport yesterday is back today(two different post offices)), we didn't say anything and went on talking :). Then the Dad of the son and Rodney joked around about being bald. Then we tell the young boy to ignore Rodney, and then they tell us, he knows, he has one at home :).. haha. Jason looks at the little boy and says sorry kid, it doesn't get better even when you move 3 hours away. Then Rodney very politely and loud says, but you want to know how to get them to like you again? Ask them to go on a cruise and they're your bestfriends again, thanks Rodney :). So we then get into the actual office where we talk to the gentlemen to get our Forms signed and sealed for the government. He is very nice, he and Rodney talk about retirement, he retires this year after 31 years. Whoa. So he ask us, "do you swear this is all true" (the information on the forms). We say yes. Jason and I do. Then Jason says to Rodney I dare you to say NO, Rodney is like no, I don't think so. So the guy laughs with us,and then switches to Post Office Worker and with the most serious face ask the question to Rodney. And of course he says Yes. So are we done? Almost! He seals all of the forms in one envelope to save us money. Which we still do not know how much this is going to cost, we think since we told Sunny that we only need the passports in 10 days, thinking it may save us some. Because a 5 day one would cost $35. We tell the employee Good Luck on retirment and say Adios. Back to Sunnys.
12:20 p.m. ish We make it to Sunny's, we hand him the envelope, he hands me stuff for Lynn's passport renewal and we head off with the bill in my hand.
You want to know how much, well Hefy if you are reading this, lets just say you could of joined us for the cost of the 4 passports we will be getting from Sunny.
We got home around 1:30 and then off to get Lynns. When we showed Lynn the bill, she almost passed out. Good times, good times. Her and Jason did not take it well, Rodney and I? We had a fun time laughing about it and making jokes.
All to say we will have passports before our cruise. (Including Lynns which involved Walgreens and FedEx :) want to know more? maybe another blog :) )Hope you enjoyed our experience, and to save yourself the trouble... go and get a passport now, unless you wish to meet Sunny........... he says Hi :).
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