Amanda's Blog

Until I saw The Galleria. I still remember my first trip there, when my sister took me to show me this crazy 4 story mall of legend. I don't think I believed it actually existed. When we walked in, the store workers broke into a dance to welcome us, and angels actually sang over-head. That's totally how I remember it, but that was a while ago. I just remember thinking, though, that this mall was way out of my league. It was magnificent, but I'd never be able to buy anything from any of these stores. Plus, it was so far away, I'll never shop here regularly. It would have to live on as a legend... because it was just to far out of reach in so many ways.

Then -- Stonebriar was built. And holy-mall-overload, was it amazing. I took full advantage of this brand new consumers HEAVEN. I shopped till my hearts content at places like XXI, Charlotte's Russe, the very much missed Gadzooks. I discovered Sephora in this mall, as well as Aldo. I shopped totally unaware of the drug deals happening all around me. I was happy!!

Then Willow Bend opened. Willow Bends is the Galleria for Plano. OH THE HUMANITY!!! An Apple store. The biggest XXI I'd ever laid my eyes on. And it was practically empty. Every time I went to that mall, it was like it had been closed for my own personal shopping day. What more could I ask for?!?

Now I find myself working right across the street, in WALKING distance no less, from The Galleria. And actually buying things there!! (They've since opened a Forever 21!)
I make it to ALL of these malls at least once a month, if not more. Not to mention the Northpark Mall, which holds treasures like Urban Outfitters and this new store that gave us martinis when we went in on Monday.

I love all these malls for so many reasons. And I LOVE Dallas for being the shopping MECCA that it is and having all these malls, and Sam Moon, and Ikea... all of which I couldn't live without.

But... I shall never forget my first love of the Collin Creek Mall. And it still holds up as a really good mall!! Even compared to all these others...

Can you tell I love shopping???

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We thought, wow, we have 12 weeks! We'll be fine!! Nope. 4 weeks before the trip, when we didn't have them, I started to panic. News reports started coming in that people were canceling flights, losing money on vacations, and passports were taking a lot longer than expected. So I called the number on the website. It, very strictly told me, "UNLESS YOUR TRIP IS WITHIN TWO WEEKS, DO NOT CALL US." So, like a naive fool, I waited. Two weeks before the trip I called again. "UNLESS YOUR TRIP IS WITHIN TWO WEEKS, DO NOT CALL US. Press 3 if it is within two weeks." I press 3. "Press 1 if you have all your information ready." I press 1. Then the automated system (that f'n bastard) hung up on me. It simply said "We are too busy to take your call. Goodbye." I was SHOCKED. My sisters hang up on me all the time. Friends, sometimes. But never an automated system. Maybe it's an error, I think. So I call back. I press 1 for English, 3, then 1 again… and "goodbye" click. Wow. No you dinnn't. I call again. Then 20 more times. FINALLY, it clicks through and starts to ring. YES, RESULT! However, it's now ringing to put me on hold. For 45 minutes. Ok, that's fine, whatever. Just give me my passport.

If only it were that easy. The number I'm calling is only an answering service helping the passport agency out since they are too busy to answer their phones. A super nice answering service, but just an answering service. They find our passports in the system. They are being "processed", but there is no way to tell if we'll get them on time. They kindly "flag" our passports and say that we need them expedited to us for our trip. But that's all they can do. They can't talk to the passport people. They can't give us any other info. But we are welcome to call back in a few days. Which I do. 20 tries and 45 hold minutes later, a nice lady tells me that there is no progress on the passports but, they have acknowledged our request. Two days later, I call again. No progress. This time someone flags them again and tells them to complete my passport with Tony's and send them together.

I must have called over 20 times. By one week before the trip, I was calling morning, noon and night for status updates. They all told me the same thing – they saw no progress on our passports, and we should try to get an appointment at the Houston office. There they could get us our passport that same day. We called the number for appointments repeatedly and they hung up on us repeatedly. When we finally did get through, the automated system told us the first available apt is not until June and then hung up. We figured, if our best bet is to show up there on Thursday and beg, plead, and offer first born children, we'd risk it. We had to. There was no other choice.

Wednesday before our trip (2 days left) I call, holding my breath for the entire 45 minutes on hold (metaphorically speaking of course) and they say – "oh, they've completed Tony's. Here's his tracking info. It should be there tomorrow." They didn't complete mine (the person doing the calling, ok Tony called some too, but I called a LOT) but they completed Tony's. I was livid.

Poor sweet Tony was so sympathetic. And Wednesday night off we go to Houston.

We got to the building at 7 am, an hour before they open, and we were in the SECOND group of 50 to be allowed up. We were amazed at the amount of people there. Hundreds. It was a mad house. We stood in lines for 2 ½ hours before we got a number to be called. We waited 3 more hours before they called my name. All the time listening to horror stories of people who'd been there for two days trying to get their passport and people who were canceling flights and trips -- it was insane. The tension was too much and I was fighting with Tony for no good reason. Finally, at 12:45 they called me up. It was going to be another $97 fee and "oventually" they would refund my first payment. "Oventually" the guy stressed to me. I waited, this time holding my breath for real, to see if I could get mine today. He said, "Yes, come back at 3:30." I'm still not 100% convinced.

3:30 arrives and we're back. People are everywhere. The police, trying to keep some order, are herding us around like sheep telling us to stop asking questions and to fill out this sheet if we are there to pick up our passports. We fill them out and hand them in. Then they take them up. One officer tells a group of people "you are not getting your passports today. Go home. Come back tomorrow." Then I really start to panic. Then another officer comes by and says, "This doesn't mean you guys." And I'm thinking 'I've never seen you before!! How do you know who this means and who it doesn't mean?? What's happening? I need a zanax!! If Tony could have, he'd have given me two.

Finally, a lady comes down and takes us to a different room and starts calling names. We hold our breath again. We cross every finger we can. And finally "Amanda Velasquez".

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I can't believe I just got it. I'm literally too stunned and exhausted to be excited. I just can't believe it.

We drive the 5 hours back home and I start to loosen up. The 3 bags of chips, 2 pickles, twizzlers, diet cokes, and several other horrible junk food items (that I'd rather not mention) that Tony and I scarfed on the way totally helped.

When we got there, Tony's passport was under the doormat. And we were going on vacation to ITALY!!!!!!!

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