Meanwhile...back at the beautiful United States Post Office in downtown Tacoma

The evening of Friday, January 25th was my 19th New Thing: Self-Portrait...

Earlier that same day, my niece, Jackie, and I spent some time together.
Our primary agenda: Jackie applying for her passport. I was honored she asked me to come along. I think she wanted my support and my well-known passport expertise (see 13th New Thing ).

Can you tell that I want some credit here? As if it never would have occurred to Jackie to get a passport except that she was so inspired by the post about getting mine. That I made it look so fun and exciting, she couldn't resist getting one herself. yeah, that's my story...

But I think we all know, Jackie would have attained her passport eventually, regardless of her Aunt B's Year of New Things. With her outlook as bright as the spot-lights shining on the Lincoln Memorial she'll be needing a passport,....along with high security clearance for unspecified government agency work and mysterious, highly classified projects.
It was only a matter of time.

We met at the same post office where I applied for my passport.

I was a little sad that Dennis wasn't there to make us laugh.

She stepped around the corner for her snapshot.

My photography is a bit blurry but action shots are like that. 

No time to focus. 

Things happened speedy-quick. 

All done....easy breezy!

You know those Military hand signals that soldiers use to communicate while on maneuvers? 

To convey: "Move out," "Take cover," "Disperse," "Double time."

Well, apparently this is the State Department hand signal for 

"United States Passport Applied For."

I just want to point out here that after Sequoia & I applied for our passports, Sequoia's arrived in the mail about four weeks later. Mine took five or six weeks. (My guess is that Sequoia's was a bit faster because she, being six months old, had substantially less background to check into.)

But Jackie (the State Department Intern) found hers in the mail exactly two weeks from the day she applied. Hmmm...coincidence? It's not what you know, or who you know, it's the national secrets you promised never to reveal?  We speculated that perhaps because she'd gone through security clearance in order to intern in D.C. a few months prior, that her background had already been riffled through, quite thoroughly.
Either that....or someone just wants her to hurry up and get out of the country. (Don't worry, Jax. I'm sure that's not it.)

On the day of My 19th New Thing, she applied for her passport.

On the day of My 20th New Thing, her passport arrived in the mail.

(Again with the mysterious government coincidences??)

This is clearly the State Department hand signal for 

"The New Passport is here! The New Passport is here!"

The subtle distinction between this signal and the previous, being the passport in her left hand.

Great things happen on the New Thing days. 

And I'm not necessarily speaking of the New Things themselves.

Congratulations Jackie! Thanks for letting me come along.