Yesterday I woke up at 4:45 in order to leave by 5 am to get to the Passport Agency in LA on time.  My appointment was for 7:30, the website says not to arrive 15 minutes early or 15 minutes late.  Pumpkin played chauffeur so I could sleep on the way, I'm not a pretty Princess when I haven't had my sleep.  He does much better than I with only 6 hours of rest.

I woke up when the car slowed to a near halt.  I sleepily mumbles "Where are we", he told me we'd just come down the mountain.  It was like 6:30, I sit up, the sun is now up, and I'm completely disorientated.  I thought we were coming down the mountain right before Castaic, eek!  I panic, how could we only be that far in 1.5 hours and only one short Starbucks stop for him before the Grapevine?!

He then explains himself, we'd come down the mountain AFTER Valencia ... Oh ... we were close to merging on the 405.  Phew!  So I apply my makeup then begin to navigate him.  Maybe I should have taken over driving at that point - I didn't know he's not an experienced "LA Traffic" driver.  Should have guessed since he's really bad with listening skills anyway.  So after several near misses, and miles of backed up traffic we manage to get onto the 405 and get off on Wilshire ... I'm panicking again - it's 7:25.

Fortunately the Federal Building is close to the freeway, we parked, then ran to the entrance (Pumpkin ditched me for the Cafeteria Bathroom, he had to pee so bad he could almost taste it, but then caught up to me)- only to be told to go stand in the back of the line of people waiting to be let in through security.  AUGH!  I'm afraid they are checking appointment times at the door, I won't make it through security until 15 minutes after and they'd send me home.

But alas, after Pumpkin ran our mobiles to the car, we were let inside.  The next officer stopped me to ask for my confirmation number, then let us into the waiting room where we stood in line to check in and take a number.

I felt safe once I was in the doors with my number in hand, the place was set up like the DMV - you sat with your number watching a screen that would call them out and tell you which window to go to.  I figured it was a good time to relieve myself, so I left Pumpkin in the waiting room, did my business and returned.  We waited less than 10 minutes when my number was called, YAY! 

The gal behind the glass was very nice, I explained my situation to her, that I was leaving next week and still needed my VISA.  She asked a supervisor if they could expedite it for that day, he agreed!  So I gave her my credit card, she gave me a receipt, and told me to come back at 1:00 pm to pick my Passport and Birth Certificate up at Will Call (which is outside).

It was only 8:05 when we left, so we had time to kill.  I planned in advance for this, so we headed to Santa Monica's 3rd Street Promenade ... again I did not drive and again I wondered why.  What part of "Okay, get off on the 10 and head toward Santa Monica, NOT LA" is hard to understand?  I was looking down, then looked up and he's in the LA only lane!  I'm like "AUGH! Santa Monica, Santa Monica!!!"  He swerves across lanes and medium just to barely make the ramp. 

Finally we safely made it to the Promenade, parked in the 3 hour parking building and went to find something to eat.  The first place we stumbled across was The Crepe Cafe.  Good choice!  I ordered the breakfast sandwich, hold the scrambled eggs (ick eggs, petrified chicken shit, hahah!) the waiter looked at me kind of funny and said "That's going to be a small sandwich.  The eggs make it ... can I replace them with something for you?"  We settled on just adding lettuce, more tomatoes, whatever.  I ordered Pumpkin the 3 egg breakfast, scrambled of course, with sausage, and an apple sauce crepe.  He had water, I had fresh OJ.

The food came, YUM!  My sandwich was on a baguette - bacon, lettuce, tomato, basil, melted cheese!  Unfortunately it was supposed to also have avocado on it, but they were out.  Bummer.  Still it was SOOO good!  It was also very large, which I expected, so I knew Pumpkin and I would be sharing. 

He ate his eggs, I ate my half of the sandwich.  We each had some of the best sausage in the world!  It taste like what I buy at the Farmer's Market when I'm there on the weekends.  He tried some of the crepe, then we traded plates so he could eat the other half and I could eat the crepe.  Yum yum yum yum YUM!

We were both completely stuffed by the end of the meal, it was only 9:30, the shops didn't open until 10, so we just decided to walk and look around.  There was a homeless man sleeping on a bench, you couldn't see his chest move, he looked dead.  We were going to poke him and run if he growled, but then decided not too, even though he was rather large so we figured he wouldn't be able to catch us.

Finally the shops opened, I convinced cheap ass Pumpkin to buy me new undies at Victoria's Secret (5 for $25).  I told him it would make me happy and nice to him, that I wanted to be a Princess, then I gave him my pouty look ending with a sarcastic smile.  Sometimes I have to not act like myself to get along with him.  I don't normally pout and stamp my foot, but I was in a Veruca Salt mood.

We moved onto Brookstone and played with all the fun gadgets then sat on the massage chairs, I told him he HAD to try the foot massage thing, that it totally just eats your feet and is freaky, but feels good.  It's like putting your feet and legs into ski boots, then you turn it on and it starts to massage your calves and feet, then inflates like a blood pressure machine and steals your feet from you, even if you wanted to get out you couldn't!  I bought some certified luggage locks, then he sat on the rodeo exercise chair thing, did his best Yee Haw, and I think he broke it, cause it stopped moving. 

Now it was time for my favorite store, LUSH!  I bought a few more bathbombs and another puck of solid shampoo and the gal cut off a perfect square cut of my favorite solid conditioner (Jungle) to fit into one of their square tins.  Yay!  Now I'm all set with stuff for my carry on.

By the time we left LUSH it was 11:15 - time to make it back to the parking garage to retrieve the car.  Now what to do?!

Drive around!  And again ... I let him drive.  Am I a glutton for punishment?  We ended up taking Santa Monica Blvd. to Beverly Hills then just drove around and stared at houses.  I was so happy when we stumbled upon the "Witches House" which is being restored.

Finally it was close to 1:00 so we headed down Santa Monica Blvd to Wilshire, he totally missed the turn, so I found an alternate route, made it back to the Federal Building and remarked at the line of people out front "Well at least we don't have to stand in that line!"

Was I wrong!  Even with a ticket to pick up you still have to stand in a very long Will Call line, well, not stand, there are stone benches all the way around the area so everyone just sits then does the wave and moves down every so often.  We waited about an hour and fifteen minutes, I was afraid I'd get to the front of the line just to be told my passport was not ready and be sent to the back of the line like so many other people.  But luck was my lady! 

With glee we ran from the federal building, me clutching my new gorgeous passport.  I did my best Veruca Salt again as we passed a tree with crazy red flowers, we'd seen a few in Beverly Hills too.  I want one.  "But Daddy!  I want a tree with RED flowers!" - but honey you already have 2 massive oaks trees, 3 pecan trees, several camellia's, a pathetic stump of a palm tree, and a slew of other trees - "But I want a RED one!"

Really I was just happy to have my passport in my hand at last!