Global Entry: And Now We Wait

Last Friday our renewed passports arrived— by Priority Mail, no less. It only took 4 weeks including mailing both ways. That weekend we used our new passport numbers (yes, the government changes your number every time you renew 🙄) to apply for renewing our Global Entry memberships.

Global Entry is important because it includes TSA PreCheck, which speeds us through security checks at airports. That saves me 10, 15, even 20+ minutes each time I enter an airport. I fly often enough to make it well worth it. On top of that Global Entry adds simpler processing through border control when returning to the US from overseas. I don't travel internationally as much as I used to 10-15 years ago, when I flew overseas almost once a month, but the cost premium is small so I figured it's worth it, too.

There was good news/bad news on Global Entry. The good news was that DHS responded to our applications quickly. By Monday, next business day, we had conditional approval. Conditional approval means that an interview is required to complete full approval. And that's where the bad news comes in: Global Entry interview appointments are ridiculously unavailable.

• First, there's the option for a Zoom interview. I checked the schedule.... None available for the next 52+ weeks!

• Next I checked in-person interviews at SFO airport, a 40 minute drive away. Also none available for 52+ weeks. I mention 52 weeks because this has to be completed within a year of applying or the whole application is lost and must be restarted from scratch.

This is even more of a farce than when we originally enrolled in Global Entry 5 years ago. Back then I could at least schedule an interview at SFO 7 months out.

What about flying to another airport for an interview? Yes, we did that 5 years ago! We flew to Albuquerque, 1,000 miles away, for our interviews. I started with airports that are easy (less expensive/lots of direct flights) to get to:

• Los Angeles: no availability for 52+ weeks
• Las Vegas: no availability for 52+ weeks
• Portland, OR: no availability for 52+ weeks
• Phoenix: no availability for 52+ weeks
• Seattle: no availability for 52+ weeks

Are you sensing a pattern here? 😡

GoT S6E5: Hodor's Story

Hodor is a popular minor character in the Game of Thrones series. He's mentally disabled and can only say his name, "Hodor"— which he does enthusiastically at times, to viewers' amusement. He's a strong and loyal servant at Winterfell whom the Stark family value.



In the TV series it's implied in earlier seasons that Hodor wasn't always mentally disabled. The books so far never address it. Perhaps he was kicked in the head by a horse as a youth and suffered a brain injury? Certainly there were people at Winterfell who knew him when he was a boy... including his grandmother, Old Nan... who'd know when he was injured, if not also how/why.

In S6E2 we get a small spoiler about Hodor's past. In S6E5 we see the full story. It's a major reveal. And... Holy shit, it hits hard.

Spoilers ahead. Note this is also a spoiler for not-yet-published book 6. These scenes have not occurred in the 5 published books. In a behind-the-episode featurette the showrunners explain that author George R.R. Martin revealed these events to them as plot twists that will be in book 6 or later.

( Spoilers from S6E5... and Book 6! 😨 )