Back To Hell

OUR VISIT TO HELL THIS MORNING - or JUST SHOOT ME! We decided to get new passports. Our last trip out of the country was to Cancun in 2007.  But we might need them in the near future because we've talked about going on a special 25th anniversary trip next January.  To that end, we went to a post office in St. Ann. Online it led us to believe we could have our photos taken there.  Nope!  For that we needed to go to Walgreens.  WELCOME TO HELL KIDDIES!

Besides Walgreens, we had to go back home to get my birth certificate.  The form read as though you could pick from a list of documents, including driver licenses.  Nay Nay!

At Walgreens, the first lady that tried to take our pictures took a few, left us, then called for help in Photo over the store wide PA system.  A second lady came, took our pictures, left for a minute, came back, and then we had to wait while she helped a woman who was trying to print baby pictures with a machine that scanned photos.

Finally, we got our pictures taken and printed and went back to the post office for the second time.  My passport processing went okay now that I had my birth certificate.  Although, I forgot they take your actual birth certificate and mail it back to you later.  Also, the picture we got at Walgreen's was super high resolution and showed ever wrinkle, dark circle under my eyes, as well as various spots on my old man's face.  When did I get so ugly?  WELCOME TO HELL!

When the Post Office lady went to process MR's passport application she wouldn't accept her Vopeil Pocket birth certificate, and said she had to have a full sized one.  She directed us to the St. Louis County Vital Records, about 6 miles away.  

We used Google Maps to get there, and couldn't find the building.  We found the right numbered building but it was the country health department.  After driving around the lot I suggested we go inside and "ax" someone (literally - I was that frustrated!).  Once inside we saw that the place we were looking for, while not listed outside the building, was there in an office to the left of the lobby.

We went in and MR took a number and filled out a form on a clip board.  When she was called she had to go sit down again because she missed a section.  She did that, and fortunately no one was at the window so she got a copy of her birth certificate and we returned to the St. Ann Post Office. 

Even though there were only 2 people inside the glass doors off the post office lobby, for reasons unknown to us, an old lady in front of us elected to wait outside the doors until one of the two people left.  We had to wait behind her.  DID YOU FORGET THIS IS HELL?

When she did go in, we didn't wait, we went in as well.

Well, dear reader, do you think our visit to Hell was over?  Not quite.  The postal clerk asked MR if she had her divorce papers from her marriage to her first husband?  We didn't know she'd need them.  We thought we'd be going back home AGAIN, but I guess by now we'd all become fast friends, shared pictures of our dogs and kids, and she felt sorry for us.  She said, "I'll send it in without it, but I can't guarantee they won't ask for it."  

We decided to take our chances and the clerk finished processing our paperwork.  We went home where I drowned my sorrows in a pan fried with butter hamburger, and fried French fries (work that one out).  Now we wait...