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dolariSo.
The fateful weekend.
Tuesday, March 10
Because of the time differences when I lived in Texas, our "anniversary" as it were was March 10th for me, and March 9th for Emily. With that in mind, I wanted this weekend with her to be special. I'd budgeted enough money for us to do pretty much anything we'd like, and she'd decided on a trip to Victoria.
I took off for the border and got there a little later than I'd have liked, about 3 or 4. Stupid me looked at the border wait times and saw Peace Arch was 5 minutes and the PAcific Crossing was 10 minutes. Shoulda gone for the PAcific Crossing.
The Peace Arch crossing is the "main" crossing into Vancouver, where all the tourist traffic goes from I-5 where it turns into BC 99. The Pacfici Crossing is a smaller crossing a mile or two away which handles commercial traffic and "townie" traffic - people from Blaine going into Surrey. It's known fo rbeing a quicker crossing, and a bit more lenient (Lynden is my favorite (pretty lenient) , but is QUITE some ways away from Vancouver).
I went through Peace Arch and knew I was in trouble as soon as I saw the two people directly in front of me, and the one car in the other lane pulled in for further questioning. And then there's me. Mexican. In a beat up truck. With Texas plates. I gave the border guard my passport, he immediately asked for drivers license as well. As soon as he saw Texas on it, I was asked to pull in.
I pulled in, grabbed my "Orange Folder." My Orange Folder I put together for my first crossing. It has everything I'd need in case of trouble - birth certificate, name change papers, passport, social security. It also has my job offer letter, and occasionally my rent bill. I was grilled, saw them going through my truck with a fine toothed comb. I wasn't worried at all - I'm not carrying anything illegal...till I remembered I had my hormones and estrogen pills in an unmarked bottle in my duffel bag. THEN the worrying started. They ARE controlled substances after all.
I was given a grilling as to who I was seeing and how I knew them (I've learned that "She's a Family Friend" is a good keyword when trying to explain my relationship with Emily). They asked for her exact address, I didn't know it...but gave them the intersection near there. They then asked if I ahd anythign proving my address in Renton, and this is where my Orange Folder saved my bacon. I didn't have a rental statement (I will from now on, let me tell you), but I had my job offer letter (and I mentioned my job badge was still in the duffel bag). I gave it to them, and they let me stew in the building for about 40 minutes.
I wasn't worried before, but I WAS worried about my pills. I don't bring over my whole stash of hormones, but I had three days worth, more than I usually bring. It was a harrowing 40 minutes, but when I was called back up, the agent I was talking to was MUCH friendlier, and told me next time I cross, things will be much easier if I bring my rental agreement or rent check. All the agents who were stern to me on the way in, friendly on the way out. Dodged a bullet.
Note to self - Get Washington Tags for the Truck in July. ABSOLUTELY. Consider getting a Washington WHTI compliant ID as SOON as things look more stable in Seattle. Both will go miles towards getting into Canada safer, easier, and more reliably.
I drove up to Emily who suggested we go see Coraline that evening after we finished rotating Boxey's tires and an oil change, which we did. But because we cut it too close, we decided to catch a later showing, so we could clean up and maybe get something to eat.
Before I left Canada, I had a package pickup which had two new pairs of pants, bought to alleviate Pants Crisis '09 (With all the money problems, I've been wearign the same badly repaired pair of pants for two months). I buy my clothes online, because I don't like getting the odfds look clothes shopping in stores. Which can lead to problems like I found out at Emily's, where my pants were one size too big, and many sizes too long (who knew I was a "petite?").
At the same time, I found out that I'd grossly misjudged the Ferry over to Victoria. IT wasn't $45 one way, it was $70 ONE WAY. $140 round trip. I checked my finanaces, and whule we could still do the Victoria part of the trip, it would SEVERELY limit what we could do there ($80 left in the credit cards after accounting for the fare). So I decided to run off to my bank account to see if I could pour any extra into my cards and that's when I realized I had another problem:
My electricity company is Batshit Insane. I pay my bill electronically. They don't take Credit Card payments, they pull directly from your account. I paid them three weeks before this trip. But they have this little clause in their payment that each payment needs to be "reviewed" before they'l l pull the money out. They pulled it out WAY after I'd budgeted this trip, not only killing any extra money I could put on the cards, but putting me DEEP into the hole. In fact, I had to pull $50 from credit cards to keep my bank account from going into "We're going to close your account" territory, dropping the $80 for the island down to $30.
So, in the course of a two hours I'd had:
1) Harrowing customs experience.
2) Pants that had to fit that didn't.
3) Bank Account Emergency that made us...
4) Unable to go to Victoria Island.
This was a lot to hit me at once. This was supposed to be the biggest weekend of my life so far, with no barriers to anything we wanted to do, and instead of it being the best, right out the door, the whole thing collapsed. I broke down. I totally broke down, right there and then. I just felt like I'd been repeatedly punched in the stomach.
We ended up cancelling the Victoria plans to free up some money. We'll try again soon...maybe next three day vacation I manage. We did go to Coraline (after working witht he pants to keep them wearable), and got pizza for dinner afterwards. Not the Dinner and Date I wanted for our Anniversary...but it was time with Emily. Hopefully the next day would be better. It kinda had to be.
The fateful weekend.
Tuesday, March 10
Because of the time differences when I lived in Texas, our "anniversary" as it were was March 10th for me, and March 9th for Emily. With that in mind, I wanted this weekend with her to be special. I'd budgeted enough money for us to do pretty much anything we'd like, and she'd decided on a trip to Victoria.
I took off for the border and got there a little later than I'd have liked, about 3 or 4. Stupid me looked at the border wait times and saw Peace Arch was 5 minutes and the PAcific Crossing was 10 minutes. Shoulda gone for the PAcific Crossing.
The Peace Arch crossing is the "main" crossing into Vancouver, where all the tourist traffic goes from I-5 where it turns into BC 99. The Pacfici Crossing is a smaller crossing a mile or two away which handles commercial traffic and "townie" traffic - people from Blaine going into Surrey. It's known fo rbeing a quicker crossing, and a bit more lenient (Lynden is my favorite (pretty lenient) , but is QUITE some ways away from Vancouver).
I went through Peace Arch and knew I was in trouble as soon as I saw the two people directly in front of me, and the one car in the other lane pulled in for further questioning. And then there's me. Mexican. In a beat up truck. With Texas plates. I gave the border guard my passport, he immediately asked for drivers license as well. As soon as he saw Texas on it, I was asked to pull in.
I pulled in, grabbed my "Orange Folder." My Orange Folder I put together for my first crossing. It has everything I'd need in case of trouble - birth certificate, name change papers, passport, social security. It also has my job offer letter, and occasionally my rent bill. I was grilled, saw them going through my truck with a fine toothed comb. I wasn't worried at all - I'm not carrying anything illegal...till I remembered I had my hormones and estrogen pills in an unmarked bottle in my duffel bag. THEN the worrying started. They ARE controlled substances after all.
I was given a grilling as to who I was seeing and how I knew them (I've learned that "She's a Family Friend" is a good keyword when trying to explain my relationship with Emily). They asked for her exact address, I didn't know it...but gave them the intersection near there. They then asked if I ahd anythign proving my address in Renton, and this is where my Orange Folder saved my bacon. I didn't have a rental statement (I will from now on, let me tell you), but I had my job offer letter (and I mentioned my job badge was still in the duffel bag). I gave it to them, and they let me stew in the building for about 40 minutes.
I wasn't worried before, but I WAS worried about my pills. I don't bring over my whole stash of hormones, but I had three days worth, more than I usually bring. It was a harrowing 40 minutes, but when I was called back up, the agent I was talking to was MUCH friendlier, and told me next time I cross, things will be much easier if I bring my rental agreement or rent check. All the agents who were stern to me on the way in, friendly on the way out. Dodged a bullet.
Note to self - Get Washington Tags for the Truck in July. ABSOLUTELY. Consider getting a Washington WHTI compliant ID as SOON as things look more stable in Seattle. Both will go miles towards getting into Canada safer, easier, and more reliably.
I drove up to Emily who suggested we go see Coraline that evening after we finished rotating Boxey's tires and an oil change, which we did. But because we cut it too close, we decided to catch a later showing, so we could clean up and maybe get something to eat.
Before I left Canada, I had a package pickup which had two new pairs of pants, bought to alleviate Pants Crisis '09 (With all the money problems, I've been wearign the same badly repaired pair of pants for two months). I buy my clothes online, because I don't like getting the odfds look clothes shopping in stores. Which can lead to problems like I found out at Emily's, where my pants were one size too big, and many sizes too long (who knew I was a "petite?").
At the same time, I found out that I'd grossly misjudged the Ferry over to Victoria. IT wasn't $45 one way, it was $70 ONE WAY. $140 round trip. I checked my finanaces, and whule we could still do the Victoria part of the trip, it would SEVERELY limit what we could do there ($80 left in the credit cards after accounting for the fare). So I decided to run off to my bank account to see if I could pour any extra into my cards and that's when I realized I had another problem:
My electricity company is Batshit Insane. I pay my bill electronically. They don't take Credit Card payments, they pull directly from your account. I paid them three weeks before this trip. But they have this little clause in their payment that each payment needs to be "reviewed" before they'l l pull the money out. They pulled it out WAY after I'd budgeted this trip, not only killing any extra money I could put on the cards, but putting me DEEP into the hole. In fact, I had to pull $50 from credit cards to keep my bank account from going into "We're going to close your account" territory, dropping the $80 for the island down to $30.
So, in the course of a two hours I'd had:
1) Harrowing customs experience.
2) Pants that had to fit that didn't.
3) Bank Account Emergency that made us...
4) Unable to go to Victoria Island.
This was a lot to hit me at once. This was supposed to be the biggest weekend of my life so far, with no barriers to anything we wanted to do, and instead of it being the best, right out the door, the whole thing collapsed. I broke down. I totally broke down, right there and then. I just felt like I'd been repeatedly punched in the stomach.
We ended up cancelling the Victoria plans to free up some money. We'll try again soon...maybe next three day vacation I manage. We did go to Coraline (after working witht he pants to keep them wearable), and got pizza for dinner afterwards. Not the Dinner and Date I wanted for our Anniversary...but it was time with Emily. Hopefully the next day would be better. It kinda had to be.
