visa dilemma

so i'm missed my flight this morning. i can't help but feel jaded by this because this last reason to why this fell through simply was due to miscommunication.

basically, my visa got help up the mail. It something so preventable which makes it that much more aggravating. I should (better!!!!) receive it today. I haven't heard any news about it so far. This whole process has been a nightmare, which I think makes this sting even more.

I was rejected my first application due to two reasons: 1) my money was in the form of stocks 2) when liquidated to cash, it wasn't on formal enough paper (which it actually was but it just didn't look like it because they probably aren't used to seeing print outs directly from a stock broker).

I found this out (the formal reason) on labor day weekend. I contacted a visa expedite agency who, in hindsight, were very helpful. They answered all my questions in a timely manner and caught a mistake that would pop up in my next application. My next steps after talking them was to reapply under the auspice of a dependent rather than a dependent and use my father's bank account to prove my funds. Besides needing to get a birth certificate, this wasn't too difficult to do. It just weighed on me for the last few weeks mentally.

I got all my stuff together to mail to them last friday, which took me a while to make sure that everything was organized (I must have read the UK Visa website a hundred times), and confidently mailed it to the agency to be received for 10am on Monday morning. I left a two-day airbill in the package because I thought I had plenty of time to be mailed back my visa according to their two-day expedition policy. They got it monday, but processed it tuesday, called me to inform me of a mistake, we overnighted a new bank statement, they received it wednesday, processed everything thursday, including going to the consulate, supposedly mailed my newly approved visa thursday night, never got it friday, freaked out friday night, waited around saturday (well my dad graciously did), realized that my airbill was never used therefore speculated a new airbill was used, hoped and hoped and hoped Tim, my very nice correspondent, made it a saturday two-day airbill, waited on my parents stoop until 530pm, cried when no one showed, cried again when i saw it cost $1500 to change my monday morning flight to the evening, cried even more to see the cheapest option isn't until sunday night still costing $300, relished in a dinner in which my grandmother consoled me, cried more and more and more (and when I say cry i mean figuratively; no tears were shed unfortunately), and now i am praying that it is not lost in the mail.

i want this to evil process to END! wahhhhhh wahhhhhhh.

I've been a big of a mope the past day and a half. I just reaaaaaaaaaaaaaaally wanted to go this week. I was so excited to be in London without anything to do and just get to roam around, see my neighborhood, hang out in the city. But, sigh, it will have to wait until next week.

The good news is that when I planned this, I gave myself a two-week cushion before school starts, so thankfully I will not miss anything important, and I still will have plenty of free time next week. I also am glad that I have a week to do nothing in town. Last week was very rushed, especially after going to DC, so I feel better that I can have a really slow pace before I leave.

I think I'm fine now; I just really don't want to have to deal with a potentially lost visa. That will make me cry, maybe even with real tears. I'm not emotionally prepared to have that happen.