Bond Grrl Necessity: A Passport

Hey.

If your James is going to whisk you away to Paris -- or if you are going to save up that Frappacino money and take yourself to Rio -- you have to have a passport.

Do you?

If you do -- how's the photo? If you don't -- why not?

Let's chat about this for a second.

I think that the whole passport thing is really a stupendous goal for externalizing your inner Bond Grrl. Why?

Because that doggone photo is going to be with you for a LONG TIME. And, as opposed to a driver's license, a passport still has a little ring of "daring, mystery, etc." to it -- because it's only use is for Travel.

So, how about putting Get Passport as a goal for your Bond Grrl self -- about 3 months out on your desk-blotter calendar? Put "star" stickers around it, etc. Pick a special color for it if you're taking the idea of "blocking out your time" from the previous post.

Go to the State Department's website at: http://travel.state.gov/passport/get/get_840.html and download the forms -- you can hang these somewhere prominently, so that you remember this is part of your goal. You could even print out a few copies, and put them in various spots where you might "get weak."

What do I mean "get weak"? WELL, if you are not completely congruent in externalizing your inner Bond Grrl, what I mean is that you likely feel you have to do some tune-ups before you take that photo: Could be lose some weight, go to the gym, bag your old makeup and get a real makeup lesson at the department store (free at most counters), tune up your wardrobe, get a fresh hair cut/color -- you name it.

Remember -- I'm giving you 3 months. That's enough.

If you do something EVERY DAY towards that passport goal -- write it down. For example, a passport isn't cheap. So that might be what you give up your lunches out, or your Frapaccino, or your "impulse shoe buying" for. Take the money that you would have spent on those items, and put it in a cookie jar. (I'm assuming you're not "deficit spending" -- e.g., buying things you can't afford on a credit card and not paying it off -- if you are, time to go buy Suze Orman and get yourself out of THAT disaster.) This "nest egg" is going to go towards your passport photo, registration, etc.

Then, every day, do something that works towards having a fantastic passport photo. That can also come out of this "nest egg" if it's something different -- such as getting color in your hair if that's not what you usually do. YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES, I know this means you're going to have to cut back a LOT, once you start adding up what it's going to "take" to get this awesome passport "thing" done. But you can do it. Honest.

So each time you are doing something that we've mentioned before -- cleaning out your closet, going through and pitching all your old makeup and toiletries, etc. -- you could actually write that down on your calendar as a move towards this goal. Though you won't see much of your outfit in the passport photo, YOU will know what you were wearing.

How about your hair? Have you been going to the same stylist (or "SuperCuts") for the last zillion years? Start scrutinizing women around you -- is there someone with hair that is similar to yours that has a really stylish do? Be brave -- ask them where they get their hair done. Often stylists and colorists are different people -- so if you know someone who gets their hair colored and that's something you want to consider, then you want to talk with them, too. Remember, of course, that not all stylists are great with all sorts of hair -- a perfect example is that a woman of color might not get the same great results from a stylist who is used to only cutting Anglo hair.

Get some workout tapes or use that gym membership that you pay for but never make it to (that's me!) -- and each time you go, put a note on your calendar, because you're going to present a far more toned look facially if you lose a few pounds of fat and gain a few of muscle. This is totally "doable" in 3 months. You want to be awesome -- you want to RADIATE a "look at me, I am so hot!" look in that photo. Though you might be able to "fake it" if you crash gym/diet/etc. for a month before your photo shoot, don't be so hard on yourself. Put yourself first each day in one area that's going to move you toward that awesome passport shot.

Once the day comes, check out the places around you that will do the passport photo. It's well worth the money to get your hair styled and your makeup done that day -- yes, even if it costs you a few bucks -- because this photo is going to represent you for the next DECADE! (yikes!)

Once they snap the photo -- LOOK AT IT. If you hate it -- pay to get it done again. Make sure that photo radiates your awesome Bond grrl "you." (I have such awesome driver's license and passport photos that people behind me in line when I use them will sometimes just reach over and pick them up -- they can't resist -- saying "WOAH, this is amazing!" Of course usually that's because I have broken my own rule and I'm standing there without makeup in my sweats buying a quart of milk at the store and showing my driver's license to the check-out clerk, but never mind that (laugh))

If you already HAVE a passport....then you can apply again, pay a little more, and say that your passport is lost. I did this. My last passport had an AWFUL photo of me -- oh my goodness. It never occurred to me that it "made a difference," but each time I showed that passport the person would look at the photo, look at me, look at the photo, then SOMETIMES (if brave) would say something about whether I'd "had a bad day" on the photo date. (I had, but it never occurred to me to pay another $20 and come back the next day and have a "do over" with the photographer.) Each time I thought about travelling, I had that awful photograph in the passport, so the passport wasn't this wonderful, magical "gateway" for me -- it had a first page of me looking like something dragged in from a refugee camp (well, not quite, but it wasn't good), so to "get to" the pages of travel stamps, etc. (the "good part") I had to go past the ugly and forgettable Moi.

So some of the best money I ever spent was replacing that darned passport. I happened to "luck out" when I did the photo -- I was in a GREAT mood (needed the passport because I was going to realize a Life Dream of driving cattle through the mountains of Australia), I happened to have had a "good hair day," all the rest. So now, when I pull that passport out, I just LOVE looking through it -- at the stamps, but also at Wonderful Me in the front. It gets me excited just to write about it.

As an aside (I'm always SO full of them), a few years ago I went through all of the photographs in the house (and in boxes, etc.) that had me in them -- and if I didn't LOVE that photo of myself -- I tore it up. HORRORS! Yes, I really did. (And while I was at it, I threw out all the photos that people send you of their babies at Xmas, all the photos of waterfalls that really aren't that great and didn't make it into the scrapbook, etc.) WOW was that liberating!

As another aside (oh no...), if you're one of the people who would "grab photographs" as you're speeding out of the door in a disaster, could I make a suggestion that after you spend your money on your awesome passport photo, you keep up your "saving ways," and then take all the photos that mean something to you to a local store (there is ALWAYS one somewhere close by) that does scanning -- and get all those photos scanned into digital format? (Same goes for old slides, etc. which you can have put on DVD) Only if you really would save these if the floodwaters were rising of course (otherwise it's a waste of money) -- but one of the things that I think we could all learn from the New Orleans disaster and watching people pick through the water-soaked debris of their homes and ruined albums/photos/etc. is that if these had been scanned onto a CD or DVD and sent to a friend out of the area, it would just be a matter of printing them all out again. This isn't going to be cheap -- but if you really love those photos, and that's all you'd save except your family and pets from a house -- then just think of it as an "insurance policy" of sorts. (If you have any other items that you would save, have you gone through your house and made an "emergency" list of where these "irreplaceable" things are, so that you can grab and go if the time comes? Just curious -- I haven't done this yet either, but with my Big Move and De-Clutter in the offing, this is one thing that I really have wanted to do for a very long time.)

OK, I know what I'm really doing here -- I'm really just avoiding getting around to doing more packing. So -- guess I better jet.

Passport! Remember -- this is a great idea! But it will only really help ya if you implement it -- maybe today's take-away homework is to go to the office supply store and get one of those desk blotter calendars (smile)