November, already

Time just seems to fly lately, the weather changed, we fell back an hour. The extra hour of sleep probably did me a little good.

I just got my new passport. It only took 4 weeks. Kind of surprising when you hear about the backlog of applicants and all that. I suppose it's because I've had a passport in my possession my whole life. No strange background checks needed. They know where I've been. The new passport is rather strange, though. It's very---- American. It used to be a kind of non-decrypt identification book that just held visas and stamps of various locations around the world. Now, on every single page there is a picture of a national landmark and a famous American quote. That doesn't seem to make sense. Are other countries passports this ornate? Why? Do we really need another reason for other countries to hate us? Are all these things on the diplomat passports? I'm actually kind of scared to travel now. If you stamp on top of the pictures it would be really hard to see what that stamp said, or even a visa. Doesn't seem like homeland security is doing me any favors by adding these images on my piece of identification.

Anyway, glad I have it, let the traveling begin... anywhere in Asia, the islands...Iceland??? I'd go anywhere. J has to get a new passport and then we can plan.

Can't wait for the weekend to get here.... Decemberists! Can't wait to see them. I heard that they put on a good show. I guess other people do to, they're performing over 3 nights at the 9:30 Club.