My code?

I walked outside this morning and felt like I was in Buenos Aires. A gray sky, leaves on the trees turning yellow, the colors and the chill in the air felt just like Buenos Aires. I did a double take, worried that I'd been dreaming for the past few months. It's funny to think the last time I had weather like this was in B.A. in June. How quickly the mind adapts to include new experiences. I'd have thought my mind would have conjured up images of New York over the last few years, but no. It skipped to Buenos Aires. Lovely.

Maybe with a day like today, the world is telling me to get back on the road. First, the international trip down memory lane. Then, I got my passport back in the mail. It took less than a month. Woah, rehiring those who had recently retired sure is working. Or maybe the troublesome passport times for American citizens who've never been arrested who have lots of blond highlights in their hair are over! I was worried it'd be January before I got it back and that I'd have to suffer through my third winter of 2007.

Did you know that US passports are now electronic? A chip embedded in them somewhere links directly to each passport holder's info. Scary. What is this 1984? I can even scan the bar code on the last page to retrieve flight information at online airline kiosks. As though I need the feds to track my domestic flight info as well. It's strange, too, now having a bar code associated with my identity. I wonder: will airport security turn into the check-out line at Stop & Shop? "Price check on aisle 4!" It's enough to make me nostalgic for my old passport, not to mention the cool stamps that barely had enough time to dry before surrendered to the State Department. And I have a new passport number! Dag! I'd just gotten the old one memorized. Well, at least we've still got social security. Knock wood. I bet years from now we'll joke about those. "Do you remember your social security number?!?" It'll be like Name That Tune. "I can name 5 out of the 9 numbers of my SSN." "Well, I can name 6 out of the 9 numbers of my..."