Today is Passport Day!

Ever have one of those headaches where your scalp hurts?  I get those a lot—may be it’s because of my long hair that I usually put up in a pony tail—I don’t know, but I just noticed it while I was sitting at the receptionist desk (no, she isn’t here today).  I touched the left side of my head, and wham..There is that dull pain like someone hit me in the head and left an awful bruise on my head pain. 

 

The receptionist is on a schedule now.  She has Wednesdays off, as well as Thursday mornings.  She can’t “handle” a full week, so management is giving her a trial run with 1 day ½ off every week until August.  Interesting, huh?  Well, she has been coming in every day on the days she is supposed to, so may be this will work.  At least we will know what days to not expect her, but still..  I’m not quite sure if this is going to work. 

 

Yes, I’m a county employee.  Go figure.  Still, I highly doubt they would be so accommodating to me if I couldn’t work a full week, but them again; I’m not going to complain because I have a very flexible schedule.  Whenever I need to leave early or have a day off, it’s always, “no problem!”  If I have the vacation time to cover it, it usually isn’t.  So I’m grateful.  I’m not going to complain.  No way. 

 

I have an appointment today to get my passports done!  Hurrah!!  My boss lady overheard me talking about passports, and she clued me on to where to go, and who to see, so I’m leaving early today, and meet with husband and my daughter in a little town that lies between work and home.  Sounds so weird that all of us have to be there, but with these new immigration/passport laws, it has to happen.

 

 If you have a child/minor under the age of 14 you need to have both parents present for passport processing, as well as the child.  So, that is why husband has to be there for Nick.  I had to get a certified document signed by my son Andrew’s dad in order to get a passport for him.  Good thing I got this done months ago.  I can understand all of this, and the reasons behind it.  I would want to know if my ex was taking my kids out of the country of course, but it’s just a pain.  I remember the last time we went overseas, these laws were non-existent, but I had something similar done.  The travel agent warned me that I would need a certified document signed by my children’s father that he knew I was traveling overseas, otherwise without it, the kids could be taken off the flight.  That was years ago, and although their father was living locally at the time, I still had to fight tooth and nail to get that document signed.  It was a pain having to deal with him.  Of course, when it was time to travel, I had that certified document with me the whole and entire time, and waved it to the ticket agents who didn’t even want or ask to see it.  They all looked at me like I was nuts orsomething.  Oh well, at least Iwasprepared.

I was so happy to get an appointment.  Waiting in long lines, with a 3 year old is hard.  I am not kidding when I tell you about what a zoo it was at the post office I went to on Saturday.  There I was thinking it would be a breeze to get them all processed.  We had an early breakfast, and everyone was fed and ready for this little outing to the post office.  The post office was hardly busy, and I was happy, but where was the passport window?  I asked a postal worker, who directed us to ANOTHER building to the right of the main post office building.  Unfazed, we all went outside towards that direction, and right away, I knew it wasn’t looking good.  I began to see various people sitting outside under trees.  Not good.  Yes, it was a beautiful day outside, but this isn’t a park.  People don’t come to the post office for picnics!  Then, we opened the door to the other building.  The room inside was overflowing with filled chairs, and wall to wall people.  Being optimistic as I was, I pulled a number from the waiting dispenser.  My number was 98.  Suddenly, a voice blared out of the speaker system:  “Number 5, number 5, please come to the window!”  I put my #98 back next to the dispenser and we all left. 

I took out all my paperwork, birth certificates, and old passports out last night to make sure I had everything.  I have it all but I’m still stressing.  This morning, I couldn’t find a large enough envelope to put all this stuff in, and with the rush, rush; I just simple put it all in the front seat.  Of course, will all the hustle and bustle, I had to move it to the back seat, and of course stuff fell to the floor, and knowing that my car mysteriously “eats” stuff, and makes things reappear in odd places, (I’m referring to when my ATM card mysteriously fell in front of me, and later reappeared in the pocket compartment of my door.) Sure enough, I discovered that  lost one of my lovely passport pictures..(eek) and tried looking for the lost photo in between stop lights.  I didn’t find it until I actually stopped and parked the car in the parking lot of course.   I was told over the phone that the waiting time for passports is now 10 weeks, not 6 weeks like I’ve seen written.  This means I’ll get them in July.  (Sigh of relief) 

 

It’s raining here in California.  Yesterday it was in the high 70’s but very muggy (earthquake weather..eek), and now it’s pouring outside.  Very odd.  Oh well, that’s what happens in the Spring!  It’s a little gloomy, but half of the week is gone!