Passport Photo
It was time to renew my passport. Husband and I travel a great deal, so I always keep my passport up to date, but also because I have a secret fantasy
I had a wonderful university professor who taught International Politics & Relations — an elegant older English woman who spoke six languages, had degrees from both Oxford and Cambridge (thank you very much), and dressed like Diana Vreeland. We met for a conference one morning and over a cup of tea, she told the story of falling hard for a Frenchman visiting London. He wanted to take her to his chateau on the Cote d’Azure, but because her passport was expired and it would take 3-4 weeks to renew it, he had to leave and she never heard from him again.
Now this was probably a good thing, she reminisced, because he was a cad not to keep in touch and extend the invitation again once she did have a valid passport…but it taught her a valuable lesson about never letting your passport expire. And her words still echo in my mind — keep your passport up-to-date at all times, you never know when a fabulous Frenchman will want to wisk you off to his castle on the Riviera.
But I digress ~~ sigh…
It was time to renew my passport and I’ve always – always hated my previous passport photos taken by some gum-chewing drugstore employee under harsh florescent lights. Erma Bombeck said “When you look like your passport photo, it’s time to go home.” Given my past photos, I never should have been let outside of my own country. I always feared I looked like a escaped convict on an international no-fly list.
Luckily, I discovered that the passport website has instructions for taking your own passport photo, and a tool to load your image to check that it will meet the sizing requirements – check it out HERE.
Donning a black turtle neck, I spent an inordinate amount of time on my unruly hair, put on some makeup, and found a blank wall for the background. Husband then valiantly suffered through the taking of dozens of photos; “no try again, my hair looks funny”, “yuck look at my double chin”, “too close — my head is huge!”, “err, nice, but let’s try another”…until we had a winner.
My passport arrived in the mail the other day and I opened it warily preparing for the worst — but I actually don’t hate it.
Now, just waiting for that Frenchman…
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Is there a law against smiling??????
Mrs. Sleech
Passport Agency does not advise smiling…sorry
Oo la la… I want a copy of that photo for xmas. It’s awesome and it’s how I see you in my mind’s eye and in our rare in-person get-togethers. You are always Frenchman ready, Debba!