Running Errands

I spent a lot of time today running errands. First thing on the agenda was the issue with the Return-Envelope for the passport. The website of the Embassy only states that postage has to be paid, is otherwise quite vague on the subject. From previous experience I knew that trying to get a hold of someone on the phone on the Consulate General in LA was pretty pointless, your best bet is to send them an email. So I just called the Embassy in Washington DC. I got a hold on someone right away and found out that the Return-Envelope has to be USPS Certified Prepaid Envelope.

Next on the agenda were the 2 passport pictures. I knew that there are several place that do passport pictures in a rather crappy part of Van Nuys and I wasn't particularly thrilled having to drive all the way out there for just those 2 pictures. So I did a Google search. Turns out that the local CVS, that we go to all the time, does passport photos.

So I headed out to Santa Clarita and picked up the Certified Prepaid Envelope at the local USPS office. My next stop was the local CVS store. They took the picture and 5 minutes later I 2 new pix for my passport. After that I went to the local Mobil gas station to fill up my truck, since I really didn't want to have to do that tomorrow morning.

Once I got back home I had some left overs for lunch and then started to deal with all the paperwork. Fulling out all those forms proved to be a very negative experience. I had ti fill the 'main passport' form out 3 times... certainly makes you question your own ability to fill out a friggin' from. The second form I had only to fill out twice. Once I was done with both forms I triple checked them and they were all filled out right. Then I triple checked with the 'Passport To-Do-List' that I did indeed have everything I needed.

That entire thing was giving me an award winning case of stomach ache. It's not so much having to deal with those forms, but having to deal with government bureaucrats and they can be a royal pain in the ass!!