Toronto

Well it's official, (more or less, more on that later,) I'm going to Toronto in October for my Grandma's funeral. It is unfortunate that everyone is getting together for such a sad occasion, but I am excited to "meet" my extended family again. I haven't seen many of them since I was a young teen, some of them since I was much younger. Unfortunately, (here comes the more or less part,) I don't have my passport exactly. It's currently in the mail getting renewed, and I'm hoping to get it back in time. My dad called the Canadian consulate in Chicago to see if they could speed up the process a bit, but unfortunately they don't give emergency passports anymore. They said that they could write a note that is supposed to allow me over the border, but now that I have moved down to Mississippi, I am no longer under the jurisdiction of the Chicago consulate. Tomorrow I have to call the consulate in Atlanta, Georgia to see if they are willing to write a note as well and send it to me here in Mississippi so I don't have to drive the 5+ hours to retrieve it. If all of this falls through, I basically have to bring every document that shows that I live in the United States, have established a life here and intend to return to the United States. I'm sure there will be a lot of begging and pleading with border patrol to let me over the border, I'm just hoping that I don't get stuck on one side or another. Since my parents, and oddly enough my grandparents, don't want me to drive the 9 hours from Mississippi to Missouri to meet my mom to fly from St. Louis to Toronto, it looks like I'll be flying from Huntsville, Alabama (which is an hour and a half from where I am now,) to Charlotte, North Carolina, to St. Louis the day before we leave from St. Louis for Toronto. With all of this traveling, I will be away from Keegan for about a week which is going to be really hard, but it will be nice to see family again. Now all I can do is wait and hope that the consulate in Atlanta will write a note for me to allow me over the border, and if not, wait and hope that my passport comes in.