Surprise!

Back in February, Mr. CPA and I made a quick trip to a small camera shop in our neighborhood to get some very small, rather expensive photos taken:

There are lots of good reasons to have a passport these days. For instance, now I’ll be able to enter Canada, our friendly neighbor to the North. Yes, in all the years that only a drivers license was required I never managed a visit, in spite of living here in Washington for 40 ((cough, cough)) some years. I’m sure the lovely new passport will change all of that. Well, that and reminders from Angela, Mel, and Lara that I need to come visit!

But I digress, where was I? Oh, yes the reason for the passports. (sorry Canada, it wasn’t just for you)

Sometime in late December, Mr. CPA and I had begun to discuss the possibility of taking a special trip in honor of his upcoming 50th birthday, the kind of trip that involves passports, beautiful scenery, cars with reversed driver seating, and with the potential for exciting adventures due to driving on the ‘other’ side of narrow roads while shifting with one's left hand and attempting to remember new traffic rules. Oh and, of course, it should also be someplace that Mr. CPA has always dreamed of visiting.

In short, Ireland.

Once the decision was made, we quickly realized we’d better get busy seeing about getting our passports. Since we had heard that due to the increased screening required by Homeland Security, there was currently a 10-week* wait for first-time passport processing it seemed like a good idea to hurry and get our paperwork in as soon as possible.

As it turned out, ‘as soon as possible’, ended up being in the early part of February – when I had just returned to work from being so sick and whacked out on codeine cough syrup at the end of January.

We got our passport photos taken in the evening after work. I was still feeling pretty blah at this point with a bonus helping of pale so I may have overcompensated just a bit attempting to not look half-dead in a photo that I would have to live with for the next 10 years.

Which might explain this:

I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille

I look so, umm, brightly colored. And surprised. Like I’ve just been the victim of a drive-by lipsticking or something. In retrospect, I guess could have toned down the makeup just a touch.

I had been joking around with the photographer immediately prior about the fact that I’m not very photogenic and so I’m typically not pleased with my pictures, but I figured that no matter what I thought of my photo right now, in 10 years I would think it was wonderful since the photo would look so much younger than I would at that point. The joking led to laughing and smiling, things that are evidently incompatible with a passport photo. So I was trying hard *not* to smile per the photographer’s instructions, which apparently led to the look of surprise in the finished shot.

But in a way it’s kind of good – the surprised look I mean.

Because if I should ever be in a situation where someone has to very closely examine my passport photo in an official capacity, I can guarantee you that I will look just that surprised. Probaby even more so. And since I blush when nervous I’ll probably look just as brightly colored too.

ETA: I meant to add that I think the picture turned out okay. Well, more than okay since it probably looks *better* than real life. It's amusing that my official photos (driver's license, work badge, etc.) always turn out much better than any more casual photos.



*being a bit Type A, we decided to pay the extra money for expedited processing even though we weren’t leaving on our trip until May. We both knew we wouldn’t be able to plan anything until we had it the passports hand. It turns out expedited processing really really is expedited (being the federal government we weren’t sure) and we had our passports in 10 working days!