I am in England now, writing this, so, all the mad rushing around of last week did result finally in my having a valid passport to travel (2, in fact).

I wrote about my crazy hectic Wednesday, when I somehow squeezed in a trip from Baltimore to the center of DC to hand in my documents for my replacement passport, which I had to pick up on Friday afternoon, between 12-3pm.

So, Friday was a fairly normal day. I made rounds with the inpatient team, and we had only two new admissions, which were fairly straightforward. Again, my team knew that I needed to get out of the hospital, and that I would be happy to return to the hospital, but I really needed to get to DC no later than 3pm to pick up my passport.

I was doing really well, but had to swing by the clinic to deal with a couple of issues that were going to be problematic while I was gone if I didn’t deal with them that day. Of course, when I arrived in clinic, I had a few other things to sign, and the clock was ticking. But, I felt comfortable that I had plenty of time.

Then I got in the car to make the drive down to DC. I set the destination on Waze, my favorite GPS driving app, which is always remarkably accurate with it’s estimates on time of arrival, and it told me that I would arrive at the Passport Agency at 3:02!

Yikes!

So, I pushed the speed limit (by a lot), all the way down 295, the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.  Waze was showing an accident which was delaying traffic, which, as soon as I passed the spot (yes, there were a couple of police cars, but the accident itself was cleared), my arrival time bumped back to 2:59!  Hurray, I thought, let’s keep going.

I managed to keep driving fairly aggressively, and ended up arriving at the Passport Agency at 2:51, and, because the gods were clearly smiling down on me, there was a metered parking space with time remaining on the meter.  I ran in, collected my passport, and left, feeling truly lucky, once more.

I was then able to take a fairly leisurely drive out to Wheaton, where I picked up salmon and kale that I prepared for a potluck shabbat dinner I was taking the boys to Friday evening.  That night, I felt truly thankful for a miraculous week in which I managed to get everything done that I needed to, in order to allow me to be on this lovely two-week vacation and rest break in England.

So, on this eve of Thanksgiving, when I will be thankful about spending the holiday in a country where I don’t have to worry about cooking a huge feast, or eating it, I give thanks for my health, my lovely daughter, and amazing boys, and my good fortune to be able to live my life mostly as I choose, and to dedicate myself to helping others.

Wishing all of you many joys, and opportunities for gratitude.