Every year at this time of the year I must renew my permission to reside in Indonesia, and it seems like there is always some kind of problem. In eight years, it has never been a simple process. There is always a new rule, or something missing, or something additional required, or what have you. This year, the problem is with my passport. I knew that the passport would expire in December of 2019, but little did I know that this would cause a problem with the permit process eleven months beforehand. And although I told my immigration agent a year ago that the passport would expire this year, she didn't bother to tell me that I would need to renew it months in advance so as to not cause a conflict in the permit process.
So I find myself in a rush now to get to the American consulate next week and see what I need to do to renew the passport as quickly as possible, given that my residency permit will expire next month.
These sorts of technical difficulties become more and more challenging for me as the years pass, as they accentuate just how far down the slippery slope of cognitive dysfunction I have slid. As I put it in a conversation with my ex-wife, my functionality these days is pretty much limited to a daily trip to Starbucks for my morning coffee and then back home again. When a problem arises, when unusual matters come up that demand timely action and clear thinking, I become very quickly confused, which itself leaves me with a panicky feeling, like Oh my God, I have no idea what I'm doing!
The only thing I can do is to step back, go into one thing at a time mode, admit my confusion, look like a fool, ask for help. People will not know that I once successfully navigated a demanding career, that I graduated from university with a 4 point average in my last two years, that I raised a son on my own and travelled around North America and published in magazines and was an accomplished pianist and taught English to foreign students and so on and so forth. I can hardly imagine it myself, for here I am, unable to figure out how to find the American consulate and renew a passport.
To make things worse, I have developed the flu over the past couple days. Started with a sore throat, now joined by a cough, headache, body aches--you know the drill. This all turns the already deep-fried brain to little more than a lump of charcoal.
I hate February.
So I find myself in a rush now to get to the American consulate next week and see what I need to do to renew the passport as quickly as possible, given that my residency permit will expire next month.
These sorts of technical difficulties become more and more challenging for me as the years pass, as they accentuate just how far down the slippery slope of cognitive dysfunction I have slid. As I put it in a conversation with my ex-wife, my functionality these days is pretty much limited to a daily trip to Starbucks for my morning coffee and then back home again. When a problem arises, when unusual matters come up that demand timely action and clear thinking, I become very quickly confused, which itself leaves me with a panicky feeling, like Oh my God, I have no idea what I'm doing!
The only thing I can do is to step back, go into one thing at a time mode, admit my confusion, look like a fool, ask for help. People will not know that I once successfully navigated a demanding career, that I graduated from university with a 4 point average in my last two years, that I raised a son on my own and travelled around North America and published in magazines and was an accomplished pianist and taught English to foreign students and so on and so forth. I can hardly imagine it myself, for here I am, unable to figure out how to find the American consulate and renew a passport.
To make things worse, I have developed the flu over the past couple days. Started with a sore throat, now joined by a cough, headache, body aches--you know the drill. This all turns the already deep-fried brain to little more than a lump of charcoal.
I hate February.
1 comment:
When it rains in life it pours. It never fails even on a clear day.
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