Hooray for elected officials!?!

This post may turn out to be premature, but we'll see. I leave for Europe in 7 days, and still do not have my passport (I sent in for a renewal almost 4 months ago, not thinking I needed "expedited" service.) The passport agency won't even talk to you if you're not going somewhere in the next 14 days. Well, I called a week ago, and after several hours (not exaggerating) finally got through. They upgraded it to "expedited" which did absolutely nothing. At 9 days from travel day, I started to panic and called to schedule an appointment at the Chicago passport agency. The automated appointment system, groaning under the weight of the excessive call volume, took 35 minutes to tell me that there aren't any appointments until July 25, and I leave on the 20th. Out of desperation I called our Senator's office. Which must have worked, because today I talked to someone at the passport agency, and she mentioned a note in my file that there had been a congressional call requesting a 24-hour passport issuance. It should be sent via Fedex later today.

So, hooray for democracy. Or something like that. (Never thought I'd be so grateful for a politician.) I'll have to remember to send his office staff a postcard from Europe.