I would highly recommend smiling and being very nice to everyone you interact with.

30 years ago I was supposed to go on a cruise, and I was gonna use my birth certificate instead of a passport, because I didn’t have one, and the week before my car was robbed, and I lost my only copy of my birth certificate. The tickets were replaceable, but the birth certificate was not.

I went down to the state administrative building in Philadelphia, explain my situation and fell on their mercy. She had a copy ready for me by the end of the day.

When I came back, I brought a tub of water ice