During the summer of '09 I was working at a locker manufacturer as a blueprint reader and estimator through a temporary agency. The owner of the company was the iconic micro manager. He reminded me of a villain from a Dickens novel. Needless to say personal calls and cell phones at work were not part of the program.
One day I did get one of the cell phone calls. It was from the British Consulate in Los Angeles. I had my phone on vibrate and when the call came through I ignored it, excused myself to the bathroom and saw a number that I did not recognize. I snuck outside and dialed. A very proper woman answered the call and explained to me that there were some "issues" with my application and they had to be resolved now. My heart stopped.
My only option was to call Jemma. The conversation went like this "look babe, that lady at the consulate needs this and this. I need you to get it done for us right now or we're screwed. I gotta go. Did you get that? Right now or we're screwed. Oh yeah, I love you. Bye". I must have sounded like a scared jerk. In hindsight I should have told my boss to take a hike, gone home and handled the issues myself. But I panicked and dumped on Jemma. I was a scared jerk.
I felt terrible putting all of this on Jemma. I hate "right now" stuff. When somebody tells me "right now". I usually respond with two other words myself. Jemma handled it. She handled it like a pro. The very strict sounding, proper consulate lady gave us a very short, non-negotiable time table to work with and she had no problem telling me how busy she was and what a favor she was doing for us by giving us this impossibly short amount of time to jump through firey international bureaucratic hoops. I thought chefs were mean.
The consulate rep made it clear that after we sent her the required information, we were to have no contact with her. They would email me. Waiting really sucks but the next day the email came. I had a proper U.K. settlement visa. I was in. I got past the velvet rope into the club. When I got my passport back with my U.K. visa I must have just stared at for hours.
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IN the midway of this our mortal life,
ReplyDeleteI found me in a gloomy wood, astray
Gone from the path direct: and e'en to tell
It were no easy task, how savage wild
That forest, how robust and rough its growth,
Which to remember only, my dismay
Renews, in bitterness not far from death.
Yet to discourse of what there good befell,
All else will I relate discover'd there.
How first I enter'd it I scarce can say,
Such sleepy dullness in that instant weigh'd
My senses down, when the true path I left,
But when a mountain's foot I reach'd, where clos'd
The valley, that had pierc'd my heart with dread,
I look'd aloft, and saw his shoulders broad
Already vested with that planet's beam,
Who leads all wanderers safe through every way.