World traveler

Tonight Sean and I took new passport photos of each other. In fact, he's sitting next to me right now, cropping them to size on his laptop. We both need to renew our passports because we're going to Budapest in May -- Sean's latest feature film, Something Blue, is going to be screened at an international conference of public television programmers. While I'm incredibly proud of Sean, I never figured my next destination in Europe would be Hungary; I figured Germany or France, one of the major leaguers, would be my next stop. I feel both excited and confused about the prospect of this trip. I need to get crackin' with my copy of Top 10 Budapest and figure out what we're going to see and do while we're there.

I dug out my old passport earlier this evening. I'd forgotten that I'd put it in a bright purple leather passport folder. Really, what was I thinking? The photo, which was taken in 1988, is not a bad one of me. I look rather eager, as if I were thinking about my upcoming trip to England, which I probably was. The one thing I'd forgotten about, and which pretty much destroys any attractiveness I may have displayed in that picture, was my glasses, which cover half my face. I mean, I know it was the 80s, but really: what was I thinking? I'm certainly not going to reprint my passport photo here for y'all to see, but this picture should give you some idea of what I looked like then:

Lose the eyeglass leash, grow the hair out about three inches, add 30 pounds, and presto -- there I am. Or was.