Implications of my grammatical construction

As I alluded to in a previous post, my work was sending me to Beijing to present a few days of training to our colleagues in Asia; some of my US-based coworkers and I have been developing a ton of new material over the past couple of quarters. In fact, I was supposed to leave tomorrow!

And as the grammatical construction of the above sentences is implying - "was" this, and "was" that - my trip, as of this morning, is canceled. Really, what the f'?!

It's funny, I've been so blasé about the prospect of this Asian junket, even as I bought the plane tickets (about a month ago), been visiting the Chinese Consulate here in San Francisco, and doing final preparations with the training material. I think this odd attitude was a result of the combination of things being so well for me here at home - climbing and cycling, meeting new people and rockin' mad concerts, etc. - and the fact that China has never really been high on my travel radar for some reason. Well, at least, I haven't been interested in the major east coast cities of China, like Beijing, Shanghai, or Guangzhou; however, I do have some passing interest in some of the "wild west", like hiking in the Tien Shan mountains or taking photographs of the oilfields around Korla. But those latter musings are not really here, nor there (for now).

In any case, the short version is that I've been, of course, ready to go from a personal and professional standpoint, but not really "excited" about going. But it still feels weird (i.e. not cool) to have the official word that I *can't* go. You see, after a month of efforts, I couldn't get a Chinese visa in time for the trip.

I'm not interested in laying out the entire timeline of snafus, but suffice to say that it's rooted in mad bureaucracy and unfortunate coincidences. In fact, as of yesterday, I finally have all the necessary paperwork (err, well, I think I do - they changed the rules on me for business visas mid-process the other week), but the Chinese visa office is closed until Monday for a Chinese holiday. Go figure.

Yeah, so, if everything went perfect at the Consulate, I *could* - theoretically, anyway - get 1-day turnaround on my visa application and be in Beijing 5:20AM Wednesday morning.. which *is* in time for 3 solid days of work (vs. the originally-planned 5), but my manager deemed this alternative too much of a risk, given my trackrecord with the Consulate thus far. Instead, my other coworker on the trip (there were two of us) is going to do all the training by herself.. yikes!, for her; it'll be pretty stressful.

It's fine that it worked out this way, of course, but too bad; it's been a (medium/minor) bummer on my morning. For now, maybe I can shake off the bad taste in my mouth from this experience, read up a little more about the country, and make my way over there one of these days, for work or otherwise. In the meantime, I'll have to find my Gold Tips closer to home.