just one of those days

once in a while, you get one of those crappy days where everything seems to go wrong, and you think to yourself "ok, what next?!". you know what i'm talking about... like a really bad Monday, where you're probably better off staying at home and crawling back into bed.

today was one of those days.

i just flew back into Hong Kong last night. since HK is 15 hours ahead of California and i didn't sleep a wink on the 14-hour flight yesterday, my internal clock was all screwed up. i woke up several times in the middle of the night, eventually got up at 6:30am this morning because, for the life of me, i couldn't fall back to sleep.

there's a typhoon here, so it's been gusty and rainy all day. at times, it was pointless to carry an umbrella because the rain will come at you sideways and your umbrella will be blown inside out. broken umbrellas everywhere. as i'm typing this, the rain is so heavy now that everything's white outside my window!

naturally, today would've been the perfect day to stay indoors. but since we're taking a trip to Tibet in 2 weeks, it's essential to apply for my China visa TODAY.

first, i needed money from the ATM to pay for the visa. but when i got to the bank, not only did we NOT have any money left in the account, we were overdrawn! luckily, i called Larry and he quickly transferred some money in.

i then went to the travel agency to apply for a China visa. since i need the visa by Monday in order to process the Tibet visa, i have to pay an extra $50 US dollars for the next-day express service to get it processed by tomorrow! fine, i didn't have a choice. but THEN the travel agent told me that i didn't have any blank passport pages left to attach the China visa to. what?!

now i had to run over to the U.S. Consulate and request additional passport pages... except that the travel agent mentioned that it was closed this afternoon. WHAT?! i frantically called Larry. he looked up the hours , and assured me that they were closed for lunch and would re-open at 1:30pm. whew!

i rushed over to the U.S. Consulate, but i'm stopped by a guard. "Do you have an appointment?". WHAT?!?!? with heightened security, you now need to make an online appointment before you're allowed inside the building. couldn't i just call? i couldn't believe it, it was one obstacle after the next. luckily, it was Larry to the rescue (again), and he was able to make an online reservation for me for half an hour later. (thanks, dear!)

well, i guess it could've been worse. the Consulate could've been closed for the rest of the day, or i could've slipped in the rain and fallen into a muddy puddle... now THAT would've been bad.
alright, i feel much better already.