So yesterday was my birthday. No, no...if you didn't remember on the date, don't bother showering me with expensive gifts today. They will buy you no leverage with me on the 30th of the month...
B-days are supposed to be fun, right? So guess where I spent my 32nd birthday, pondering the meaning of life in my thirties, why I am where I am in life, etc. and more. Nope, you probably guessed wrong.
Let me start off by saying that procrastination is sort of a personal challenge for me. In business, I am Miss Pro-Active, but in my personal life, not so much. So it was not surprising to anyone who knows me personally when I announced that I had to get my Texas driver's license because it was expiring on my birthday.
Unfortunately, getting Homeland Security clearance when I worked at the Federal Reserve Bank was easier than getting my Texas driver's license. Forms of ID needed to procure a license:
1. Birth certificate
2. Soc. Sec. card
3. Two other random and obscure forms of ID - take your pic - two years worth of insurance policy history, a voter's registration card, marriage license, the list continues.
I won't go into too many details, but here's the timeline:
DMV - 20 minutes
Tag Office - 20 minutes
DMV (again) - 20 minutes
Social Security Office - 2 hours
Home (getting insurance company to fax me pages and more pages worth of documentation) - 45 hour
DMV (for the third time) - 1 hour
Travel time between destinations - about a half hour all total. Thankfully, the various offices are all located within five to ten miles of each other.
Since visiting government offices is something I avoid like the dentist, gynecologist and all cheesy self-help books combined, it is safe to say that five hours dealing with bureaucracy was not a fun way to spend my birthday. However, at the end of it all, I have my license, a receipt for the registration on my car (that I threw away a month ago by accident apparently), voter status in TX, a new copy of my social security card that has been missing for the past ten years and a new sense of relief that I should not be forced to visit any of these offices again any time soon. So, all in all, I came out on top....I guess.
0 comments