Passport photo

I have purchased my plane ticket for going to the States in July.  I AM READY!

Am I ready?  Wait a minute...  When does my passport expire?  Gasp!  It expires in June!

Well, I'm glad I noticed that little potential panic situation.  I set about renewing my passport yesterday and readying an envelope to send to the US Embassy in Tokyo.

•  I needed to enclose the online application form.  I managed to fill that out.

• I needed to enclose my current passport.  No problem.

• I needed to enclose fees...  A bit more difficult to do than expected (money orders and such at the post office) but after an hour of filling out forms and waiting for people to confirm things, that got done too.

• I needed to enclose a recent photo.  Sigh...

There are few things more depressing than getting photographed for an official paper especially when the LAST time the photo was taken was 10 years ago.  I distinctly remember not liking my passport photo when it was taken 10 years ago.  But let me tell you, it was A LOT better than the one I had taken yesterday!  And I did my very best to make this one a good one too!  I mean, I bypassed the photo booth and paid the extra amount to have the camera shop take a photo for me.  (The photographer used a Nikon camera.  I'm pretty aware of people's cameras nowadays.)

BUT...  Nothing can help the fact that I am 10 years older... Grayer hair.  More wrinkles and spots.  Definitely weigh more than I did in 2003.

GYAHHHhhh!!!!  

I'm going to have to live with this passport picture for the next 10 years!!!

The only positive thing I can think of is that in 2023 I will probably look back at this picture and think of the good ol' days...