3 days, 3 hours, 4 hours, some rain...

Yes, it all seems to be going by WAY too fast. But the adventures never cease in the speed's midst.

Having to walk through a torrential downpour (w/out an umbrella) to reshoot forgotten passport photos might seem inconvenient. But as I strolled downtown Miami, with business-types hugging buildings to avoid the rain, I tried to imagine unpaved roads as I carried on towards Walgreens. A t-shirt, a towel, and a digital photo later, I was headed back to the Miami Passport Agency...

...I had been assured earlier there would be no problem; no major delay. When I arrived, damper, but no worse for the wear, a young republican reviewed everything, nodded, and tersely told me to have a seat. He quickly shoved a small, white, silky square ticket under the window, stamped A80016, and just below it, 1:06 PM. As my stomach began asking me when exactly it's midday reinforcements might be coming, I politely inquired as to how long I might be waiting.

"30-45 minutes maybe," The kid in adult's clothing came back.

After an hour of sitting in a hard fiberglass chair, under a high-velocity ceiling fan, in damp sandals and shorts, my fingers began to cramp from playing Texas Hold'em on my phone. An hour after that I had made about fourteen phone calls, and learned things crucial to my upcoming journey. 30 minutes after that they closed the doors to the passport office, and the 20 or so of us that remained all looked a little more frightened. The numbers on the flashing, scrolling, and sometimes flickering displays in the large, square, fluorescent room had begun at A79970. I looked at my watch, as I picked at what I thought was some food on a back molar, and read 3:42 PM. Then a piece of my tooth fell off. Then the numbers on the display, which had so far been steadily increasing towards the digits printed on my ticket suddenly jumped backwards.

I stopped for a second.

Okay, back to normal. A80016 was called at 3:57 PM. 12 minutes later I was outside on the street, looking for the nearest hot dog vendor.

Apparently, my tooth is fine. At my third consecutive daily visit to the dentist this morning, I was told what fell off my tooth was almost certainly a piece of the cement used to bind the filling I received yesterday. So look out lesser antilles, I've got a passport, and my pearly whites are ready!