something bad finally happened (well, almost)

So when Eric and I traveled through Asia we sent email to our frends (1999 - this was in the days before blogs even existed) and our motto at the time was "the worse the situation, the better the story". So here in Switzerland I have been waiting for something "bad" to happen so I could tell a good story. And I have been waiting, and waiting... and life here has been, well - normal. We are making new friends (thanks to Eric, the social king), having people over for dinner, Sue goes to work, the kids play with kids in the neighborhood, the take piano lessons, and blah blah blah... So it has been hard to muster up a good story to tell without boring myself, much less someone else who would care even less (except the grandparents - they want to know everything).

Well last week I finally had my chance. Eric calls me on Tuesday to let me know that he can't find Bennett's passport. This would be OK, except for the fact that we are leaving on Saturday for vacation in the Canary Islands - and we can't go anywhere without that passport. So I tell him to remain calm, we will find it - a motto in our family is that "we always find everything" - which we do, though I think we are in contention for the "Most Lost Things" award. I swear we could get so much done if we just stopped having to always look for everything...

Now the fact that the passport was missing was not so strange in itself. Bennett, destined for life as a spy or a CIA agent, has been caught previously playing with it - making photo copies and crafting fake passports (that is along with photo copying money, which we explained is a federal offense). So he played with it, and we just have to ask him where he put it...

So with Bennett still at school, Eric, who always gets a bit anxious before we travel due to all the logistics, starts to really panic. He sends me emails during the day that he has looked everywhere; he called the consulate and found out we would have to go to Bern the next day to get a replacement with no guarantee of timing - and it would have to be all of us so I would have to skip work; and then he finds out that we would need to have a police report to file for a replacment which means we need the police to come over on Tuesday night... so I, who really believe that we find everything, start to panic myself a bit. I send him a list of places to look for the passport: in the kitchen drawer, under Bennett's bed, in the kid's safe, under the carpet in their room - I am coming up with anything I can think of, because I know if Eric can't find it quickly he will just explode with stress.

No luck, no passport found by early afternoon. So Eric is off to school to pick up the kids, and I reassure him that Bennett will know where he put it. I sit at my desk at work and start speed dialing Eric at 3:20 so I can hear that all is well and Bennett knows exactly where it is... I finally get through, only to find out that Bennett does not know where it is.

So now I start to panic.

I have been looking forward to this vacation for months - a warm beach break from increasingly cold Basel. I am starting to mentally rearrange my meetings for the next morning so we can go to Bern - and then there is figuring out how we find the police department that is open late so we can file the police report - all the time knowing if we just look further we will find it. But what if we don't??

I had a pretty intense work meeting from 4 to 6 pm - but the whole time I am distractetd on what we are going to do if we don't find this passport. I want to get home so I can help look and get this behind us. And all during the meeting I keep checking my email in the event that Eric's luck turns.

And the email comes: "Found it. I am a loser."

Relief floods my whole body - vacation is on! It turns out it was exactly where it should be: in the desk drawer. It turns out in his haste, Eric did not see the passport as it was separate from the others and tucked between two pieces of paper.

Moral of the story: We always find everything...

Next stop: Canary Islands....