Daniel and family (May 12)

Daniel is the son of former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger, whose campaign I volunteered for while I lived in New York City. Daniel went to the sibling scohol to Penny's college, and they went out during and after Penny's college days. I've visited him twice with his new family in Miami, where he was a researcher and then a psychology professor at the University of Miami. He and his wife had a young daughter when I first visited. When I went swimming with Daniel and his daughter in 2001, she was like eight. Now, she was 16 and already graduated from high school. I met Daniel again outside the psychology buillding at the edge of the University of Miami's main Coral Gables campus (pictured above). Daniel (pictured below, talking on his bluetooth throughout) was nice, but in a rush. The family was about to go to Italy and - as with me two years ago before going to Guatemala - had discovered that their daughter's passport had expired. When I flew to DC two years ago, I toyed with instead going to passport offices in Chicago or Miami. But they opted not to go to the office in their own Miami. Instead, they worked with a middleperson private agency and Fed Ex-ing stuff to DC. Quickly Daniel was talking with me and talking with the bluetooth to make arrangements.

We stopped in the SUV outside the house and talked in the car on the phone and through the window to Daniel's family members.

Just to make things more complicated, we talked with Daniel's plumber who was in the middle of a project at the house also.

We caravaned back through Coral Gables to South Miami, a more working-class and more multicultural Miami suburb. Daniel's daughter and wife waited with him preparing to tackle some State Department paperwork from the South Miami post office.

Other people waited behind us. I think I heard people speaking four or five different languages, including an Asian language.

Below Daniel and his wife make the final complicated arrangments to order the passports.

Daniel's family went on to something else. After this, he and I drove around looking for a Fed Ex office or location. Then he dropped me off to the elevated train to north Miami. It was interesting being in the middle of this crisis adventure. However, visiting with Dnaiel and his family in a more relaxed environment next time.

-- Perry