WTF?!

Ahhh! So I finally got around to updating my passport with my new last name about a month ago. First, I was kinda peeved that I had to pay another $100 to get a completely new passport because my maiden name passport was over 1 year old. For the record, it was 1 year and 1 month old. And I still had to fork over $100 for a new one.  Whatever.

After being nagged by Andi for months to update it (Hurry! What if we want to go on a last minute travel deal and we can't because you don't have a current passport!) I went to the Post Office to get a new photo taken and send off my old passport book. I was suprised when I arrived that I had to send in our original marriage license w/ the stamp on it into the National Passport Office but was promised it'd be returned to me along with my old passport (in case I wanted to collect my travel stamps, etc). Reluctantly, I handed the marriage license over to the USPS worker who violently STAPLED our marriage license to my old passport. I cringed. So much for preserving our marriage license's condition.

Cut to today when there's a USPS envelope in our mailbox. Oh good! My new passport arrived. I ripped open the envelope and pulled out the paperwork. My new passport's in there and looks fine, but no marriage licenese or old passport book. WTF?!?! So I dialed the toll-free National Passport Office number on the paperwork enclosed. Ring, ring ... I'm sorry, your call could not be completed. WTF?!?!? I called about seventeen bazillion times more and same thing.

Now I'm panicking. I'm missing our marriage license, which I'm sure I can get a new one by paying for another one from someplace (courthouse?) but that'll cost me more money. And then there's the whole thing about driving downtown, finding a place to park, finding the office where I'm suppose to get the new marriage license, waiting in line for like 45 minutes, and then talking to some worker who is moving slow as mollases and barely speaks English. Sorry, but it's true. Then I get another marriage license (that I paid for twice now!) but it's not the original one we got married with; it's a duplicate which just plain sucks. For real, where do I even get a new marriage license? Anyone know?

Super angry at the National Passport Office right now. Fix your damn phone number so I can talk to live person. LIKE NOW.