So still no news about the visa, and since my 90-day Schengen (tourist) visa expires tomorrow, I'm writing this from the Frankfurt airport, waiting to board my flight to Denver, from whence to Arizona for a week. I'm hoping that news about the new visa will come today or sometime in the next few days, so I can book a flight to Los Angeles (to pick it up) and fly home and to Catalina next Friday.
But if not, I've made arrangements to fly to Michigan and spend a week and a half with friends there. After that ... we'll see. Morocco? Thailand? Belize? England? Montenegro? Who knows.
I did, though, check a few days ago, and while, indeed, the Czech consulate promised to make a determination about the visa after 90 days (a period which expired a week and a half ago), they also said in "especially complicated" cases that period can be extended to 120 days. Now, frankly, I don't think my application is complicated at all, let alone "especially" so. It's all straight-forward, and the only real question-mark that I can imagine is whether the potential benefit to the Czech Republic of bringing me in (i.e., the tax revenues they'll receive from my businesses, the amount of investment I'll make into the country, the amount I'll spend, etc.) is worth it. I don't know the answer to that, of course, but presumably they've got a simple algorithm they apply in such cases, so ... it should be straight-forward.
Instead, I think, honestly, that, in a government bureaucracy, the fact that the statute allows them to take 120 days (sure, for "especially complicated" cases, but that only means they can refer to that if they need to), that's generally what they're going to take. So I'm hoping this delay does not, in fact, reflect problems with my application, but only the ever-familiar slowness of these kinds of processes.
Anyway, the good news is, that means this process isn't open-ended. I'll definitely get an answer after 120 days — so around March 10 — if not before. Keep those fingers crossed for me!
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Difficult to leave Catalina this morning, though, not knowing if I'll see her next week, or in late May. I know she's not a human child, obviously, but ... she's as close to that as I have, and while I'm in no sense the best cat Dad out there ... she's pretty special to me. I hate feeling like I'm abandoning her. Poor thing. Hope I come back soon.
Speaking of which, someone rang my doorbell from the street last night, which panicked her off my lap and into hiding. After I went to the little video system by the front door to determine it was a mistake I came back to the living room and found that the combination of fear and curiosity she was experiencing had resulted in a new game: "Where's the Cat(alina)?" You can play along!
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| For $10,000: Wherrrrrrrrre's the Catalina?!!? |
Waiting in the passport control line here in Frankfurt it occurred to me that I was standing right behind Jeff Goldblum, wearing super-loose (but clearly expensive) jeans and a big black flat hat. Something like this, in fact, with an enormous brim.
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| Note: Not Jeff Goldblum |
Anyway, I quickly decided it wasn't Jeff Goldblum after all, but thinking that it would make a quick anecdote about how I briefly thought I was standing right next to Jeff Goldblum in line ... when two airport representatives rushed up to him, apologized profusely (though he seemed a little rattled at the attention, if anything, and didn't seem upset at all), explained that they were his "guides," and whisked him away to the front of the line to get through passport control.
Turns out ... it was Jeff Goldblum!
(And I'm not the first person to be struck by the hat, BTW).
Later, in the Business Class lounge, he was here again — still discombobulated and uncertain. At one point, getting food, he and I did a little do-si-do, which I exaggerated a little bit, hoping he would smile at me as people do, creating a real anecdote. Or who knows, he could say, "wow, you're really friendly -- why don't you be in my next show?!"
But he kept his head down, didn't notice me at all, and I never saw him again.
Thus endeth my brush with greateness.
Now. Time to board for Denver.
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