DOC DANCE

Yesterday Bee told me that she was doing the doc dance b/c her cruise documents had come in. She was raving about the way they were packaged. Now, my wife and I are going with Bee and Charlie on the cruise and booked with the same travel agent, so I immediately thought, "Where's MINE?" I called home and DC said, no, no DHL delivered package was there. Hmmmm.

So I got thinking. I wonder if I told the travel agency we'd moved? The cruise line knew b/c I'd (like the good little anal-retentive person I can be) already filled out our immigration papers online. So, they had our new address. So, all the travel agency had to do, if they didn't have our new address , is check the address on the cruise documents, and - voila - we'd have it sent to the correct place! But the DHL package wasn't there. And Bee and Charlie had THEIRS already and we didn't have ours. Hmmmmm.

Then I thought, 'I think I knew we were moving when I first made the reservations, so surely I gave the agent our new address when I booked the cruise.' Yeah. Well. Except for the fact that I still lived at the other address THEN and would have wanted anything they sent to me come to my PRESENT address, so that probably wasn't what I did. Darn.

Then I started to worry. Called the travel agency, but didn't our agent had changed b/c the one we booked with left the agency. Finally found the one that took over our booking, but of course she wasn't there. I left a message. Surely they didn't send those precious cruise documents to the old address??! Surely DHL didn't leave them there on the doorstep. We used to live in a large apartment complex. Large. Apartment complex. Get the picture? Anything that looked valuable just left sitting in front of some apartment door was fair game. Oh shit!! Surely they didn't do that.

My wife and I are sitting in the living room watching a movie (yea Netflix!) when my cell phone rings and it's some number I didn't recognize. So I didn't answer it. They left no message.

Then I get a call from the travel agent (finally). The worst was true. Yes, she had my old address (I promptly gave her our new one), and, yep, she duly sent our docs out via DHL to the old address. DHL showed it had been delivered that day. Wonderful.

I informed the agent that this could be a disaster b/c of the unsecure location if DHL left it on the doorstep and the unknown element of who - if anybody - lived in our old apartment now. She said she'd contact DHL and tell them to pick it up, but she warned me they might not be able to get back out there until Monday (this was Friday).

While I was talking to the agent, that other number who'd called before beeped in. I ignored it. BUT, when I got off the phone with the agent, I realized that the telephone number's prefix was the same as ours used to be. A Boynton number. I said "oh my God, DC, I wonder if it's the people who live in our old apartment who called?" She had my cell phone, and called the number back. It went straight to voice mail. She left a message. We went back to the movie. But I was restless and a few minutes later, I asked DC to call the number back. She'd already started dialing.

You probably guessed it. A woman answers and DC asks "Did you call this number?" The woman says yes and then asks, "Were you expecting a package from DHL?" My wife quickly told her YES and then we all started to figure out how and when we could get it. We realized that the safest thing was to just go down there. But the woman was going out, and she offered to leave it under the doormat. Since we'd be missing each other by a short period of time, we said that would be ok. We also told her we'd be leaving a "thank you" under the mat.

DC and I were in our pjs. We hadn't intended on going anywhere last night. We looked at each other and she said, "I'm going in this" and I said "me too" so we both threw on a pair of flip flops and were out the door in seconds flat.

40 minutes or so later we pulled up in front of our old building. Thankfully, we hadn't got stopped for anything. Probably b/c DC was driving and not me. DC jumped out of the car and came back moments later with our package in hand. We left the woman a nice bonus for her kindness, integrity and honesty.

Bee was right, the document holder was very stylish. Of course we couldn't wait to get home before tearing it open and looking at our TICKETS!! When we got home, we literally jumped up and down together yelling "We got our documents! We're going on a CRUISE!!" OK, ok, we're easy to please. And excitable. And still in our pjs. Good thing the woman really WAS out and we didn't have to "make nice" with her standing there in our nightgowns.

Having the documents somehow always makes it seem so REAL, so CLOSE. I dreamed about it last night. We were supposed to leave that day and I hadn't even packed yet!!! Now, that probably won't happen. Not with ole list-maker-every-little-detail-gone-over-with-fine-tooth-comb me!

I told my grief counselor that lately all that keeps me going is looking forward to the next vacation. She said anything that works for now and it'll get better. I thank God that Bee suggested it back in July. She was right, it really DOES help to have something to look forward to. I'll try not to think about how nice it would be if Mommy was coming too. Maybe she will be in spirit. I know she'd be happy we're going. I'll hang onto that thought.