You Can't Make This Stuff Up

I've been trying to blog Monday, Wednesday and Friday, but life intervenes sometimes.  Friday it just didn't happen.  If I were to try to write in a book of fiction the things that have transpired the last few days, it would not seem plausible.  Some things really are stranger than fiction.

So, let me lay out the last few days for you.  My son is traveling to Brazil in July.  He will be there for two years under a religious minister visa.  On Thursday he got information about what paperwork he would need to turn in to get his visa.  Only the packet of information was delayed.  It should have gotten to us several weeks ago.  It turns out that all of this paperwork was due two days before we received any notice of it.

You would not believe all that is necessary for a Brazilian visa: curriculum vitaes (in duplicate), transcripts (in duplicate, visa application (in triplicate), police letter of good conduct, ordination certificates (in duplicate), and other various and sundry forms!  Most of these need to be signed in front of a notary public.  My son is at college in New York, while we are in Ohio - along with some of the people that need to sign documents.  Apparently everything has to be notarized in the same state.  (And after you notarize the forms, the county needs to certify them, and then the state needs to authenticate them!)  So, to accomplish all of this in the same state - I spent all of Friday driving!  My son was in Cape Cod doing service on an alternative Spring Break.  He left there Friday morning to return to New York and I left Ohio to meet him in New York.  Then we turned around and came back (11+ hours in the car) - all so he could take a couple of pictures and sign a few documents!

Fortunately, some of his friends were here in Ohio on Spring Break, so he could hitch a ride back on Sunday after a flurry of activity on Saturday.  I still can't believe all that happened in a couple of days!

So, there's my excuse for why I didn't blog on Friday.  I also can't believe my fiction has to compete with this kind of non-fiction!  The way things are going my fiction is going to be more believable than my real life!