Government Agencies... I Loathe You.

For all of you who have spent hours and hours waiting endlessly at the DMV, ready to take your own life or the lives of others at the end of a fruitless day, take heart. I have found a place where things are worst.

The United States Passport Office.

As of February of 2008, all children under the age of 16 are now required to have a valid US passport in order to leave the country. You may not go to Canada. Not the Caribbean. Not Mexico. You MUST have a passport.

Drew and I both have passports that we are able to renew through the mail. Brody and Molly are another story. I must present them, 2 photographs, their birth certificates, myself, and a notarized authorization from Drew to the local passport office in order to get them passports.

So we head off this morning to the closest one, about 20 minutes away. They open at 10am. We arrive at 10:15. I get both children, the stroller, toys, and 300lbs of documentation out of the car and head to the front door. On the door is a small sign stating that the passport office door is in the rear of the building.

Lovely. Do I pile everyone and everything back in the car to drive around to the back or do we walk? It's 90 degrees but what the heck, we'll walk. How far can it be??!!

Ten minutes later, in the rear of the building I find another door and another sign. "Passport Office. Employees Only. All others use door to the left." More walking. Another door with three large steps to drag the stroller up (aren't there laws about handicap accessibility??!!) Haven't even made it through the door, and already I'm fuming.

So finally we are in. And then we round the corner of the dark and dank hallway. There sit 14 people. All waiting for passports. I sign my name on the sheet and turn to a lady standing by the door to ask how long she's been waiting and how fast the line is moving. Everyone has been there since 10 and it is now 10:30. And they are still processing the first person. Oh. My. God. At this rate we will be seen sometime next Thursday. I look at my two whiny, sweaty, snackless children and decide the stars have not aligned properly and there is no way we are waiting for 14 people to finish.

So I lug the stroller back down the stairs (where IS the wheelchair ramp!!??) and we start walking back around the building.

And Molly says, "Mommy, that was the dumbest place ever." No kidding girl. No kidding.