The Trip to the Mexican Consulate

I caught the sun yesterday just as she popped up over what I think is Silver Star Mountain. I will have to find my topographical map and determine the names of some of those peaks I have been looking at for 22 years.

Then I drove down into the valley, along the west river road to check out the osprey nest. Lately a big fat Canadian goose has been sitting in the nest and each time I stop on the road and watch, she jumps up, flaps her wings and starts honking at me to get lost. But, she wasn't there yesterday.

This morning I went down to Starbucks and got a mocha, my first day back in the store since my last day of work last Sunday. I saw so many people I know on my last day. I hugged as many people as I could. I kissed every baby I could. Then that night I got sick with the flu.

How do politicians pull that off? They must be on a regular dose of antibiotics..or go through alot of hand sanitizer...now I am truly joking because I would again hug 100 people in a day and kiss 20 babies and get the flu AGAIN to get another Sunday like that...honestly, I will miss the people of this little town so much and will miss seeing them in our small town Starbucks store.

Our small town Starbucks is the oldest store on the eastside (meaning across the lake from Seattle). A lot of folks don't know this but it has been in its location for 15 years. The town of Carnation itself is roughly a square mile and the population, I believe, is around 1,500. Everyone goes to Starbucks and if not, they go to Sandy's espresso, which is a great espresso place down the road. She has been there as long as Starbucks has been in town. My guess is most people support both businesses.

I think people come to our store because we are truly people friendly and we make good coffee. Fishermen and hunters come early because they know they'll get a good cup of coffee. Commuters drop in because the drive to Seattle is taking longer and longer. Teachers come and chat before school. Students come in the afternoon, waiting to be picked up by a parent after a late band practice, because they know it's a safe place. Cyclists come in droves on the weekends. Motorcyclists are always stopping by while on fundraising events. Tourists come because they are ..tourists. And in the summer, counselors from 6 surrounding camps keep all their receipts in order to obtain bragging rights for the most amount spent at the store.

If you are ever in Carnation, stop by the Starbucks and tell them Linda Lou sent you.

Enough, did you think I was going to write about the trip to the Mexican Consulate????

Well, we did go yesterday when I returned from the river road drive.

If you read the blog of the trip to Olympia, you know what the requirements of obtaining the FM3 are. We had them all except the bank letter, but felt we had our bases covered given what the Secretary of State said.

Before going to the Consulate, we stopped and got the required 2x2 photos and then, headed to Seattle. I thought the Consulate would be near the courthouse, but it was way across town in an area I was unfamiliar with. Once parked and inside, we worked our way around a hundred Mexican families waiting at window One to window TWO where on his previous trip to get our applications, Bill had been told to go when we returned. Window TWO told us to go upstairs where we waited for our turn with the man at this window.

He looked at all of our paperwork and said the bank statements were not acceptable. We would need to return to our bank for the letter. We told him that our bank would not give us the letter. He suggested we go the large branch a few blocks away and see if they would give us the letter. They do it all the time, he said.

Then he took all of our stuff and put in below under a counter where we could not see it.

Come back Monday morning, he said.

Can we have our passports and other things back, we asked.

Oh, no, no, no, he said.

Bill and I just looked at him, looked at each and turned around and left.

We went to the bank. It usually takes 9 to 10 days to get that letter, she said. She made a phone call to the special solutions center. We can do it in 2 business days, they said.

So, there we were on a Friday afternoon...we can't go back to the consulate on Monday unless we have the letter and we probably won't have it until Tuesday or Wednesday.

In the meantime, everything else we need to get the FM3 is somewhere under the counter at the Mexican Consulate..

What if they misplace it, especially if we don't return on Monday???? What if the housecleaner accidentally cleans it all away into the waste basket? What if the man who helped us could really care less if we want to live in Mexico????

I am a nervous wreck over this. And I don't nervous or wreck very easily, I am pretty steady going...

So, to end this session, last night was the last soccer game of our co-rec soccer winter season. A party was being thrown for us at Azteca. I was feeling well enough to go, but planned on passing up a beer for a 7-up. On the way to the game Bill got really sick and we had to turn around and go back home. We'll miss our fellow soccer players. Hope you had fun at our party........