Caleb let me know yesterday that he had us scheduled for a 12:30pm appointment at the Pottsburg Post Office to submit our passport paperwork. Online lets you know all the required documents and the qualifications a self-portrait must have. We had our mom’s send us our original birth certificates. I had trouble last year having the correct, updated, certificate when I had gotten motivated to have a piece of paper allowing me to come home in case I just wanted to leave the country for lunch.

We showed up an hour early, to get pictures taken, and hoping there wouldn’t be too long of a wait. We were the only ones there upon arrival as three others showed up. I attempted to take the pictures myself. I have this neat program, that I know practically nothing about, but I also happened to get a new number last night and shared that fact with my Dad over Facebook. He let me know that Magic Lantern has a ‘passport photo’ setting and it worked amazingly with Caleb’s face.

I used another setting – motion sensor, to take my picture. I could’ve used the timer as well but that wasn’t the issue. In Lightroom I noticed we had shadows on our faces and I couldn’t get my face centered just right. I would’ve let Caleb try but I was supposed to have them sized down to 600 x 600 pixels when he got home so we could go to Walgreen’s to print them. After our appointment he has to go back to work so before that we detoured to T-Mobile to get our plan fixed; now that I don’t need a cell phone.

They put Caleb on the phone and cut our monthly cost in half. He will be getting my cellphone when I put all the contacts into the land-line phone. He currently holds his screen in place with new applications of scotch tape depending on frequency of use. Back at the post office, the lady said we could send off everything to the Department of State today, and pay, but most likely they’re going to require me to get yet another updated birth certificate.

Last time, the form ID was no longer used. This time, the same department that will charge me for the information they have, wants my parents’ names on the document. I could be someone else entirely until they charge me another $50 to send me a form that I will have to send right back with the information they have at their fingertips. It’s a good thing that we started this process early but the current paperwork from their website says the one we turned in might work too.

It might be a small hassle but everything that is worthy isn’t easy. We were told we should hear from them in a week about whether or not the form will work and they will send us our originals back. I was worried about doing it over the holidays because I figure soon they will be closed for two weeks. As soon as our passports get here I am going to want to visit Mexico and Canada; they are close and Canada has polar bears! Then it is off to see the world one bucket-list item at a time.

As we were leaving with our passport receipt, money order receipt, credit card receipt, and picture receipt Caleb wondered why we had been given a copy of our passport photos. Caleb is used to posing for military photos. Mine looks like I have jaundice or maybe I am finally developing a tan from living by the beach for over five years. I told him they were for our overseas driver’s licenses; he said they would be good for a year. I was going to try to get us international student IDs but neither of us go full-time anymore. Know any other cool clubs we can join? What clubs have you been in or are still with?