i have travelled to many places. i have passed through customs at airports and checkpoints all over the world. over the years i have experienced the increase in security and i understand and accept the need for it. so it's kind of odd that i'm up at 2am because thoughts of driving through the canada/US border tomorrow are preventing me from sleeping. we are driving to seattle. i have done this journey many times since i moved to vancouver most of which were without incident. the last time i did the trip is the one that is keeping me awake. the cg and i were taking my parents down to seattle for the day while they were visiting us. usually, when the cg and i are alone, they check our passports (he has a canadian one, i have a british one and a permanent resident card) and just wave us through. this time they made us all get out of the car and go into the customs office, which was fine. however, the guy who dealt with us was not fine. he was very far from fine to the point of being patronizing, aggressive and bordering on abusive to myself and my parents (the cg with his canadian passport was not subjected to this). as we walked away from the counter, after 20 minutes of humiliation and $21 in customs charges, i said to the cg in a private tone "i wouldn't have bothered bringing mum and dad to seattle if i'd known it was going to be this much trouble". the customs guy actually stopped me leaving and made me repeat it to him. i was seriously angry when i got back into the car but worse than that my parents were really upset. there was just no need to upset a couple heading towards their 70's (one of which is practically disabled) who were so obviously on a day trip with their flask of tea, a camera and the daughter and son in law they miss so much.
part of me wishes we were skipping the seattle thing altogether and just heading straight down to vegas from vancouver. all of me wishes i could just get some sleep.
2:19 a.m. - August 31, 2004
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