Disappointment, sadness and tears...

In the past 5 years, I clearly remember the occassions I have broken down and cried my heart out. On both occassions, I cried because an important person in my life was not going to be a part of it anymore. One passed away, another moved on and got married...

And then, I cried last night... I can't find my passport on the eve of my flight to Bombay. I was to fly tomorrow evening, the 26th of Dec, at 7:25pm. It's an event I've been preparing for since the middle of August. Plans were finalized to go to Goa for the New Year's; all the shopping was complete; the adrenalin had just started surging through my system and I was getting emotionally ready to meet my parents and brother. They might be thousands of miles away but I realized yesterday that they are the most important people in my life. I couldn't stop crying while I relayed the dismal news to my mom and true to her nature, she cried too. My dad and brother calmed my frayed nerves, I'd been searching for eight hours straight before I caved in, and made me resort to reason and logic. It's time for the fire-fighting crews to step in and take care of the damage. It's going to be an expensive and elaborate operation, getting a duplicate passport will be. I need to get my US Visa re-stamped, I-94 card number (it's required for everything in the states) and that's only the tip of the ice-berg. I am also going to have to go to SFO to apply for the passport in person - how tough can they make this process!

I'm going to continue searching but I know myself - I'm organized and pay too much attention to detail - if I haven't found it after a thorough search last night, I have little hope of finding it today. But I have nothing to lose and only to gain so contrary to my own intuition and better judgement, I'm going to keep on looking...