A very fitful night, then sometime around 3 am, I think my phone is ringing but it sounds weird. It's Facetime! It's my sister and Mom! Karen had made it to the hospital and onto the neurology unit and was with my Mom. She looked great! She was talking and looked and sounded fine but could not really feel the left side of her body. Still, HUGE relief.  We chatted briefly and I got a few winks knowing Karen was there. Around 7 am I contacted the front desk of the hotel, letting them know to expect my Fedex. Around 8 am I decided to track it. It shows that it got to Oakland at 3 am. Hurray! I google the drive time and it's something like 5 1/2 hours. Okay! It will totally get here by 9 am. At 8:30 am I decide I will use the chat function online to ask Fedex where my package is. Just an update please. I'm pacing and talking to myself and packing and David is observing me losing my mind from his bed. After a bit this very stilted message came:

PANIC!  Wait, so does this mean it is NOT coming today at ALL??? Where exactly is it? After three more rapidly fired off questions by me, (which did NOT include swearing) this is what she said:

 Maia, I perfectly understand how you feel about this trouble and I truly apologize for failing to meet your expectation. Is there anything else I can assist you with today?

I realized somewhere deep in my brain that I could wait for my passport to arrive and book new flights. BUT, it was very difficult to get the flights I was on. It was unclear how long I would have to wait and every minute felt like forever. Andrew and David were leaving the next day, what was I supposed to do? Hang out at the Ritz by myself? Not rational, not ashamed to admit it. Could not deal with this at all.

MORE PANIC!

My flight leaves at 2 pm. I'm not going to have my passport!  I have a four hour layover in San Francisco. What if it's still in Oakland?! I call Fedex and get a human on the phone who orders a trace on the package. She says I should hear something in one hour.  HIGH anxiety. It will be impossible to get another flight so quick. Nightmare scenario, I can't get there. Waited 30 minutes. Called again. Got a different human on the phone Barb (she is the key to the happy ending!) who is not supposed to but does put me in touch with another human, Patty at the Oakland sorting center who is the tracer person who confirms that it never made it on a truck out of Oakland. It is in the Oakland sorting Center - in fact, she is holding it in her hand. PANIC! PATTY!

I beg Patty NOT to put it on a truck. I will COME to get it in Oakland I say. Where are you? I get the address, I google it, it's 39 minutes from SFO. I can do this! Patty, I will come get it. How do I find you? Patty proceeds to tell me that they are not a pick up facility. I proceed to bombard Patty with every possible reason (still not swearing) that she really needs to do this for me. I believe at one point I said, "You're Fedex! You're supposed to deliver! You promised! You didn't deliver!" (At this point David is perking up and looking concerned about my sanity.) Patty says "hold on please." When she returns, she tells me how to get into the secure facility and that if she isn't there I should ask for Robert. She tells me again how highly irregular this is. Meanwhile Andrew has popped in from his meetings and says, "39 minutes????" This gets me going again. 

"Can you send it to the SF airport? Can you send it to Fedex in Burlingame or Mountain View? Can you get it closer to me so I can more easily grab it during my four hour layover? What if there's traffic? I can't miss my international flight!" Patty tells me to hold on again. She needs to speak to her supervisor. When she comes back she tells me that there is a Fedex office at San Francisco airport and she will send my package there via courier. I say, a COURIER? YOU MEAN A HUMAN IS GOING TO DRIVE MY PACKAGE RIGHT NOW, TO FEDEX AT THE AIRPORT AND  HAND IT TO ANOTHER HUMAN AT AN OFFICE THAT WILL BE OPEN AND I CAN PICK IT UP THERE?!?!" Patty says, "Yes, they close at 7 pm." I say, "I WILL BE THERE. OMIGOD PATTY I LOVE YOU YOU'RE MY FUCKING HERO!"

I Swore.