My frustrations with the Passport office

My passport expired a few months ago, I filled out the renewal forms & got my photos taken, but never sent them off. It was always at the back of my mind to renew it, but it wasn’t until we booked our Mexican vacation for September that the urgency to receive it kicked in.

Ever since Canada and the US decided that all flights in-between the two countries required a passport, the lineups and wait times have be long – 2-3 months to get your passport, hours spent waiting in line to apply.

So yesterday I took the day off work, mostly because I was feeling under the weather, actually I have a boarderline sore throat… I just really needed a mental health day and to run some errands. Plus I’ve worked so much overtime this week, and throughout the summer it didn’t even matter. I got a venti latte, a few snacks to keep me going through the long wait and I grabbed a novel that I was excited to start reading.

Yup, there I was trundling down the streets of downtown actually looking forward to my time spent in the waiting room…. As I rounded the corner towards the office I thought ‘hmmm I don’t see a line’ and once I got into the office there was almost nobody in there. I pulled a number to get a place in the line up, sat down in a chair and less than 15 seconds later my number was called.

Needless to say I’m angry, I didn’t even get to open my book, let alone read any of it, nor was my scone eaten, nor my coffee drunk. It took less than 5 minutes in-and-out, and my passport will be mailed to me within 2 weeks… I didn’t even get to pay a rush fee for priority, how disgustingly efficient. I felt like hanging around the waiting room for an hour afterwards just because I was so prepared, but decided it was probably best to go home.

Anyways, I’m having a crazy day at work scrambling to get something done… so blogging probably isn’t’ in my best interest.