Adventures in Bureaucracy

So every time I think I'm close to getting this whole passport thing sorted out something comes up.

The UK passport application requires me to declare any previous or current passports I have possessed, UK or foreign. It also asks me if I have attached the passport and if I have not attached the passport why. It then tells me that if I have not attached the passport I am required to fill out an LS01 form which is a form for lost or stolen passports.

I did not lose my passport nor was it stolen. I require my Canadian passport for travel to the US during the time it will take my UK passport application to be processed. The form just does not pertain to me.

So I am going to attach copies of my passport, including the stamped pages, and a letter explaining why I did not include the Canadian passport as well as why there is no LS01 form attached.

I just hope that does the trick.

Oh boy do I hurt.

I slipped a fell on some ice at work yesterday and it was a dozy of a fall. I went to the doctor on campus and was prescribed an anti-inflammatory and a muscle relaxant. The anti-inflammatory has done wonders and the muscle relaxant knocked me out for 12 hours. I think I will take one more tonight before bed and then call it quits on that one unless the pain is really bad.

My plans for the weekend weren't big but there was some stuff I wanted to get done and now I can't. For one, there is no way in hell I am going to drive in the state I am in, even though I took the knockout drugs last night, I'm still loopy. Secondly, I am so damn stiff and sore. Sticking close to home it is!

Two steps forward, one step back

I have finally managed to get the whole passport situation sorted out and I should be sending off my documents and application next week. The cat's have had their blood tests. So in the next month or so I will know if the cats can travel and if I will need to report to Ottawa for an interview or not.

Everything is moving forward!

Or not.

There have been a LOT of unexpected expenses in the last two months. Expenses that have drained half of my money for my move. I'm not saying that I can't replace the funds by September but it's not looking good. Calgary is not the ideal place to save money.

Over the next 5 months I will have to take a good long hard look at what my real departure date will be. There are some trips that I have planned over the next 8 months that I'm just not willing to give up. I'm going to Vancouver for my mum's 2 year cake, I promised to visit my (step)dad this summer and as part of that trip out I will be attending a friend's wedding (so damn excited), and I've also promised to go to Ottawa and Minnesota, and I'm just as excited about that as I am about moving. So if it means I don't leave until January, or if it means I need to get a part time job and work my ass off, then so be it. But for right now, I officially don't know when I will be leaving.

I have in my hands all the paperwork I need to send off my passport application everything is ready to go, all the stuff that needs to be signed is signed...

but.

I don't know why I didn't just check the backs of the photos before I left the place I had them taken. Oh lord why did I not check?

The store stamped the backs of both photos. The back of one photo is supposed to be blank.

This sucks.

After a long, ongoing battle with anxiety and depression I decided I had no other options left to me and I started taking medication. It's amazing what a couple of months on meds and therapy can do to a girl.

I've learned a lot about myself and I am continuing to learn.

One of the things I am going to have to learn is that not everybody is going to be able to understand what it's like to deal with chronic anxiety and depression. Not everybody is going to understand that the reason I live my life the way I do is it is the only way I am able to get from one day to the next. I have to come to terms with the idea that no matter how much I lay it out for somebody, draw them a roadmap, they are just not going to get it.

Not everybody is going to even want to try.

Now that I am older and wiser and I've stopped listening to the people that say medication isn't the answer (well it's not, it's just a big part of it), and that I should just get over it, get out more, get some exercise, that's it's all in my head (well... it kinda is I guess), I am finally starting to get my shit together and I'm finally feeling... I dunno... normal?

It feels good, even if it means bridges are burning as I go.

And we're back

The server that kindly hosts my rambling missives has been down for awhile while it was moved to its new home.

Boy do I have a lot to say.