There are things in this major metropolitan area that still boggle me.
I was watching the news tonight when a very interesting story came on.
Several of the lakes around here have recently had something happen to them, so they are not up to drinking levels.
Yea, don't ye fear, the government is working on it. A few of these lakes are now back up to acceptable qualities! All the others are still a work in progress, but will be back soon.
Do you know what this means? Do you understand what they are saying?
PEOPLE HERE DRINK THE LAKE WATER.
THEY USE IT IN THEIR HOMES.
This is one of the largest cities in Canada.
How???
Friday, August 8, 2014
Changed my name in a day
I knew I had to get all the paperwork done before we went back to Canada. I carved out an entire day to make it to all the agencies.
The first order of business was to file the marriage license. I would need that at all the other locations.
Max and I learned something new that day. The clientele at the county clerk's office can vary drastically. We showed up around 11 am to request our marriage license. There were screaming children, long lines, tired employees, and couples of all ages and makeup. We arrived at 8:05 am when we were filing. No children, no lines, only 20-something business couples there exactly 30 days prior to their wedding date. Woah it was different. Thankfully, it meant it only took us 10 minutes to file our license! That was a pretty sweet deal!
From there we went to the social security office. The place opened at 9 am, so we were in line before the doors opened. It didn't take us too long to get up to a window, maybe 30 minutes. Here's where things started getting frustrating.
I had already printed and completed the form to apply for a new card with a changed name. The form had a location for a mailing address. It asks for the country. I assumed this meant that you could enter a country other than the US and have your card shipped to you.
The cranky lady at the counter informed me this was not the case. I had to provide a US address. Which is fine, I can use my parents address. But it meant I had to verbally provide the address. I was not given a chance to confirm the information. The address the card is shipping to is Lavendare, while my parents live on Lavendale.
I asked an officer (yes, actual police officer, sent there to guard the crazies) if I had to get back in line to request a change. Yes. I would have to take another ticket. The current waiting time was over an hour. Oh. No. No no no. We'll just hope it still winds up at my parents' house. If not, I'll try again at Christmas.
It occurred to me that I might be able to call and have the information changed on a form somewhere. I dialed the number, waded through all of the select-an-options, and was told by a machine that there were currently no operators available to assist me, then was disconnected. I'm done with you, social security office. Done.
We drove through Chick-Fil-A for lunch, then set off toward the DMV. Garland has a new mega-center, and they recommend that you call ahead to get in line. The first time I called, I got a very choppy machine which I couldn't understand. The fifth time I called, I was finally able to understand the machine, only, this time, their system wasn't processing any of my selections. No matter how many times I pressed '2' for get in line, the machine kept repeating the entire list of options to me. Fine. It was still only 10:30 am, so the line shouldn't be too awful.
Once I got in line, I had a 42 minute wait. Not awful. Max had finished eating his Chick-Fil-A and made it inside. I mentioned that he still hadn't gotten his license replaced since his parents moved. He went back to the entrance to get in line for a license. His wait was 30 minutes behind mine. That's alright, we've got the time.
The new mega-center is really nice. It's clean, it's large, they are very efficient. However, the place is freezing. It's seriously just insanely cold! Max was even cold! That never happens!!!
The time passed fairly quickly. The folks working there get way too personal way too quickly. The gal who helped me told us all about her daughter's wedding and asked about Canada and it was more interaction than I'd ever desired to have with a DMV employee.
Then it was another 30 minutes before we were called for Max's new license. This gal was a little less chatty, but still asking the tough questions. It didn't help that we were hitting a real low energy point.
We'd had a long weekend!!! We'd been busy!!! And now we're sleepy! Leave us alone!
We made it out of there right around 1 pm. I had an appointment at the passport office for 2, but we figured they could let us in early.
Wrong. Of Course. As with everything else so far that day.
The passport office is in the courthouse downtown. We went through security and up the bank of elevators for floors 9 to 15. There's only 15 floors. I really don't understand why they had two banks. Whatever.
We walk in the office and the officer (again... officers...) asks if we have an appointment. It was 1:30 pm by the time we'd made it there, but he informed us we would have to come back at 1:45 pm for our 2:00 pm appointment. I asked if we could just sit on some of their chairs. No. But, there's a cafeteria on the 6th floor that we could go sit in. If we took the elevator down to 9, which is the floor that connects to the other elevator bank, then take the other bank of elevators down to the 6th floor.
I just.
Can't we.
Please?
No. To the 6th floor we went. I was thirsty. There were vending machines. The one that only dispensed water was out of order. The one that had one spot for water was out of water. :( I just want to be done.
So all of 5 minutes later we went back up to the 11th floor via the 9th floor. Ridiculous.
Then we learned about the process. The officer let us in this time. We proceeded to the check out counter. She wants to see all of your paperwork. She does not verify that any of your paperwork is correct, necessary, or all present. She does however check your application form. This fabulous government agency also asks you which country they should mail things to. So, in another desperate attempt, I put in our Canada address. Friendly little check in gal tells me I have to put a States address. I insist that "Country (if not the US) should not be on the freaking paper work. She informs me that I'm "not wrong." Thanks. I was incredibly worried that I was wrong about this fact.
She paperclips it all together and gives you a number. Then you sit and wait for your number.
Since handy dandy check in lady doesn't actually look at the documents you hand to her, folks can spend 30 minutes at the next window. Or they can spend 2 minutes there if the kind citizen bothered to check online and verify the required documents. But, you know, to each their own.
45 minutes later our number was called. Thank goodness. We approached the counter. The employees sit behind BULLET PROOF GLASS. WHAT HAPPENS HERE?!!!? WHAT?!!!!
I pass through all of my documents. Since I knew what I needed and had everything in order, it took all of 2 minutes for her to put all of my information into the computer.
Now.
NOW we have to wait "no more than an hour" for them to print the new passport.
But, it's already 2:38 and even if we're just using the bathroom out in the hall, the doors lock at 3 and we will not be allowed back in.
Working hard here in this government agency.
Exactly 59 minutes later my passport is ready. The office has emptied and there are only 3 of us left.
But now we're done.
And my name is officially Catherine Ann Burgess.
So that's pretty great.
The first order of business was to file the marriage license. I would need that at all the other locations.
Max and I learned something new that day. The clientele at the county clerk's office can vary drastically. We showed up around 11 am to request our marriage license. There were screaming children, long lines, tired employees, and couples of all ages and makeup. We arrived at 8:05 am when we were filing. No children, no lines, only 20-something business couples there exactly 30 days prior to their wedding date. Woah it was different. Thankfully, it meant it only took us 10 minutes to file our license! That was a pretty sweet deal!
From there we went to the social security office. The place opened at 9 am, so we were in line before the doors opened. It didn't take us too long to get up to a window, maybe 30 minutes. Here's where things started getting frustrating.
I had already printed and completed the form to apply for a new card with a changed name. The form had a location for a mailing address. It asks for the country. I assumed this meant that you could enter a country other than the US and have your card shipped to you.
The cranky lady at the counter informed me this was not the case. I had to provide a US address. Which is fine, I can use my parents address. But it meant I had to verbally provide the address. I was not given a chance to confirm the information. The address the card is shipping to is Lavendare, while my parents live on Lavendale.
I asked an officer (yes, actual police officer, sent there to guard the crazies) if I had to get back in line to request a change. Yes. I would have to take another ticket. The current waiting time was over an hour. Oh. No. No no no. We'll just hope it still winds up at my parents' house. If not, I'll try again at Christmas.
It occurred to me that I might be able to call and have the information changed on a form somewhere. I dialed the number, waded through all of the select-an-options, and was told by a machine that there were currently no operators available to assist me, then was disconnected. I'm done with you, social security office. Done.
We drove through Chick-Fil-A for lunch, then set off toward the DMV. Garland has a new mega-center, and they recommend that you call ahead to get in line. The first time I called, I got a very choppy machine which I couldn't understand. The fifth time I called, I was finally able to understand the machine, only, this time, their system wasn't processing any of my selections. No matter how many times I pressed '2' for get in line, the machine kept repeating the entire list of options to me. Fine. It was still only 10:30 am, so the line shouldn't be too awful.
Once I got in line, I had a 42 minute wait. Not awful. Max had finished eating his Chick-Fil-A and made it inside. I mentioned that he still hadn't gotten his license replaced since his parents moved. He went back to the entrance to get in line for a license. His wait was 30 minutes behind mine. That's alright, we've got the time.
The new mega-center is really nice. It's clean, it's large, they are very efficient. However, the place is freezing. It's seriously just insanely cold! Max was even cold! That never happens!!!
The time passed fairly quickly. The folks working there get way too personal way too quickly. The gal who helped me told us all about her daughter's wedding and asked about Canada and it was more interaction than I'd ever desired to have with a DMV employee.
Then it was another 30 minutes before we were called for Max's new license. This gal was a little less chatty, but still asking the tough questions. It didn't help that we were hitting a real low energy point.
We'd had a long weekend!!! We'd been busy!!! And now we're sleepy! Leave us alone!
We made it out of there right around 1 pm. I had an appointment at the passport office for 2, but we figured they could let us in early.
Wrong. Of Course. As with everything else so far that day.
The passport office is in the courthouse downtown. We went through security and up the bank of elevators for floors 9 to 15. There's only 15 floors. I really don't understand why they had two banks. Whatever.
We walk in the office and the officer (again... officers...) asks if we have an appointment. It was 1:30 pm by the time we'd made it there, but he informed us we would have to come back at 1:45 pm for our 2:00 pm appointment. I asked if we could just sit on some of their chairs. No. But, there's a cafeteria on the 6th floor that we could go sit in. If we took the elevator down to 9, which is the floor that connects to the other elevator bank, then take the other bank of elevators down to the 6th floor.
I just.
Can't we.
Please?
No. To the 6th floor we went. I was thirsty. There were vending machines. The one that only dispensed water was out of order. The one that had one spot for water was out of water. :( I just want to be done.
So all of 5 minutes later we went back up to the 11th floor via the 9th floor. Ridiculous.
Then we learned about the process. The officer let us in this time. We proceeded to the check out counter. She wants to see all of your paperwork. She does not verify that any of your paperwork is correct, necessary, or all present. She does however check your application form. This fabulous government agency also asks you which country they should mail things to. So, in another desperate attempt, I put in our Canada address. Friendly little check in gal tells me I have to put a States address. I insist that "Country (if not the US) should not be on the freaking paper work. She informs me that I'm "not wrong." Thanks. I was incredibly worried that I was wrong about this fact.
She paperclips it all together and gives you a number. Then you sit and wait for your number.
Since handy dandy check in lady doesn't actually look at the documents you hand to her, folks can spend 30 minutes at the next window. Or they can spend 2 minutes there if the kind citizen bothered to check online and verify the required documents. But, you know, to each their own.
45 minutes later our number was called. Thank goodness. We approached the counter. The employees sit behind BULLET PROOF GLASS. WHAT HAPPENS HERE?!!!? WHAT?!!!!
I pass through all of my documents. Since I knew what I needed and had everything in order, it took all of 2 minutes for her to put all of my information into the computer.
Now.
NOW we have to wait "no more than an hour" for them to print the new passport.
But, it's already 2:38 and even if we're just using the bathroom out in the hall, the doors lock at 3 and we will not be allowed back in.
Working hard here in this government agency.
Exactly 59 minutes later my passport is ready. The office has emptied and there are only 3 of us left.
But now we're done.
And my name is officially Catherine Ann Burgess.
So that's pretty great.
Bed, Bath & Too Much Beyond
We were blessed to receive many gifts over the course of our engagement and wedding. This blessing posed a problem.
How to get everything back to Vancouver?
We didn't have our address when we registered, and later, Bed, Bath & Beyond wouldn't let us put in a Canadian address. This meant all gifts, big and small, went to my parents' house in Texas.
We didn't even have enough luggage, much less enough money to pay for the checked bags, to get everything home with us when we flew.
Max's mom suggested a plan: Return everything in Dallas and repurchase in Vancouver.
This seemed like a great idea!
I, however, wanted to double check with BBB up in Vancouver to make sure this plan would work. Max insisted that it would be fine but courteously agreed to make the 30 minute trek with me to the store in North Vancouver just to ask them if they thought this was the way to go. After wrong turns and tons of traffic, we finally made it. The fabulously friendly folks at the registry counter assured us that everything would run smoothly within the first two minutes of our being there. It was nuts. I could feel the "I told you so" burning into my skull. Oh well. At least we know it will work and now we have a plan in place.
Lots of place settings and guest towels later, we were back in Vancouver with our merchandise return cards (essentially cash for BBB) and gift cards. We arrived at the store around 1 pm. We went straight back to the wedding registry section to get a printed copy of our registry so we would know what they had in the store.
Now, I wouldn't say that I've ever had a negative interaction with BBB employees, but the folks at the North Vancouver location were above and beyond in the friendliness and helpfulness departments. It was overwhelming at times. They also had what I found to be a remarkably high number of employees working at 1 pm on a regular old Wednesday afternoon...
We were surrounded. Two nice ladies helped us print the registry and get us started. They then made a store-wide radio announcement that we were in the building, so all the employees would be on the lookout for us to offer their utmost assistance.
This was getting really real.
We found all 6 of our red place settings, but they didn't have enough of our green so we ordered all 6 of those. Since we chose all of our serving pieces in the gorgeous chocolate color, but this location wasn't carrying any of the chocolate, all of them were ordered. They also didn't have our silverware, so that's ordered. They had a different brand of serving utensils, but they were still excellent quality, so we grabbed those instead of the ones we had registered for. We found towels and sheets and KitchenAid Stand Mixer accessories galore. The actual mixer had to be ordered since they didn't have the yellow we wanted.
We sprung for a new counter top grill! It has removable grill platters that are dishwasher safe (YES!!!!!!) and they reverse to be a griddle. It also opens flat so both the top and bottom panels can be used for cooking. That's one of our favorite new buys.
We couldn't go home without getting something for the kittens, so we got them a cool new toy. It required 3 C batteries. What?! What needs C batteries? And 3?! That's such an awkward number of batteries. They only come in even packaging!! Why would you ruin everything and request that I provide you with an odd number of batteries?!!?!! WHY?!?!! We also don't currently have any C batteries... We're working on it...
We filled a couple of carts. Every time we were just starting to think that we should find a new one, a helpful employee was there with a brand new cart, offering to take our full one up to the front for when we check out. Unbelievable! It was a great adventure!
We wound up with some things off of my "As Seen On TV" list!! XD We got a sticky buddy and a scrub daddy! They're both pretty great, and Max is an incredible guy who loves all the quirky parts about me.
Nicole was the gal on the wedding registry end who was helping us throughout the day. She was looking up items to see if they had them in a local warehouse. She suggested cool items she thought we might like. She was the best. Then she brought us to Elise to check out. She brought us to Elise because she was also the best. These are just the facts.
The thing you need to know now is that two of my best girls are named Nicole and Elise. They're sisters who I've known since we were in preschool!! I found it just absolutely hilarious that we wound up with a Nicole and Elise to walk us through the checkout process.
One of our amazing guests gifted us a 20% off your entire purchase coupon. This blew Elise away. Lots of things, that day, blew Elise away. She had this adorable gasp that we heard again and again as we went through the check out process.
The first thing that happened was the order purchase of the items they didn't have in the store. Nicole had compiled the list and printed a sheet with all the bar-codes listed on it. Elise appreciated this, but still gasped at the sight of it. She scanned all of them in and we used the first merchandise credit card on that order. Then I brought up the 20% off coupon (I was under the incorrect assumption that the order from the warehouse and the checkout of items in the store were two different purchases, meaning we could only use the coupon on one of them). Elise gasped her adorable gasp and Nicole excitedly informed her that it's a new coupon BBB is offering. They quickly decided that it would apply to everything we ordered/bought that day. Poor Elise now had to re-scan all the items to do a return, apply the discount, and then scan all of them once more! There were many gasps.
Then we started in on the items we had in our three carts. The four of us now worked as an assembly team! Max removed items from the carts and handed them to me, I found the bar code on each item and presented them to Elise, Elise scanned them and handed them to Nicole, Nicole bagged all the items and put them back in the carts. We were very well oiled!
As we moved through our merchandise credit and our gift cards, Elise began to tell us she was really going to miss the time we spent together. We said our goodbyes as we hauled the carts over to the elevator. After we got it all into the back of the car, we remembered the car-elevator-hallway-apartment process through which all things must enter our home...
It only took us 5 trips. Not bad.
How to get everything back to Vancouver?
We didn't have our address when we registered, and later, Bed, Bath & Beyond wouldn't let us put in a Canadian address. This meant all gifts, big and small, went to my parents' house in Texas.
We didn't even have enough luggage, much less enough money to pay for the checked bags, to get everything home with us when we flew.
Max's mom suggested a plan: Return everything in Dallas and repurchase in Vancouver.
This seemed like a great idea!
I, however, wanted to double check with BBB up in Vancouver to make sure this plan would work. Max insisted that it would be fine but courteously agreed to make the 30 minute trek with me to the store in North Vancouver just to ask them if they thought this was the way to go. After wrong turns and tons of traffic, we finally made it. The fabulously friendly folks at the registry counter assured us that everything would run smoothly within the first two minutes of our being there. It was nuts. I could feel the "I told you so" burning into my skull. Oh well. At least we know it will work and now we have a plan in place.
Lots of place settings and guest towels later, we were back in Vancouver with our merchandise return cards (essentially cash for BBB) and gift cards. We arrived at the store around 1 pm. We went straight back to the wedding registry section to get a printed copy of our registry so we would know what they had in the store.
Now, I wouldn't say that I've ever had a negative interaction with BBB employees, but the folks at the North Vancouver location were above and beyond in the friendliness and helpfulness departments. It was overwhelming at times. They also had what I found to be a remarkably high number of employees working at 1 pm on a regular old Wednesday afternoon...
We were surrounded. Two nice ladies helped us print the registry and get us started. They then made a store-wide radio announcement that we were in the building, so all the employees would be on the lookout for us to offer their utmost assistance.
This was getting really real.
We found all 6 of our red place settings, but they didn't have enough of our green so we ordered all 6 of those. Since we chose all of our serving pieces in the gorgeous chocolate color, but this location wasn't carrying any of the chocolate, all of them were ordered. They also didn't have our silverware, so that's ordered. They had a different brand of serving utensils, but they were still excellent quality, so we grabbed those instead of the ones we had registered for. We found towels and sheets and KitchenAid Stand Mixer accessories galore. The actual mixer had to be ordered since they didn't have the yellow we wanted.
We sprung for a new counter top grill! It has removable grill platters that are dishwasher safe (YES!!!!!!) and they reverse to be a griddle. It also opens flat so both the top and bottom panels can be used for cooking. That's one of our favorite new buys.
We couldn't go home without getting something for the kittens, so we got them a cool new toy. It required 3 C batteries. What?! What needs C batteries? And 3?! That's such an awkward number of batteries. They only come in even packaging!! Why would you ruin everything and request that I provide you with an odd number of batteries?!!?!! WHY?!?!! We also don't currently have any C batteries... We're working on it...
We filled a couple of carts. Every time we were just starting to think that we should find a new one, a helpful employee was there with a brand new cart, offering to take our full one up to the front for when we check out. Unbelievable! It was a great adventure!
We wound up with some things off of my "As Seen On TV" list!! XD We got a sticky buddy and a scrub daddy! They're both pretty great, and Max is an incredible guy who loves all the quirky parts about me.
Nicole was the gal on the wedding registry end who was helping us throughout the day. She was looking up items to see if they had them in a local warehouse. She suggested cool items she thought we might like. She was the best. Then she brought us to Elise to check out. She brought us to Elise because she was also the best. These are just the facts.
The thing you need to know now is that two of my best girls are named Nicole and Elise. They're sisters who I've known since we were in preschool!! I found it just absolutely hilarious that we wound up with a Nicole and Elise to walk us through the checkout process.
One of our amazing guests gifted us a 20% off your entire purchase coupon. This blew Elise away. Lots of things, that day, blew Elise away. She had this adorable gasp that we heard again and again as we went through the check out process.
The first thing that happened was the order purchase of the items they didn't have in the store. Nicole had compiled the list and printed a sheet with all the bar-codes listed on it. Elise appreciated this, but still gasped at the sight of it. She scanned all of them in and we used the first merchandise credit card on that order. Then I brought up the 20% off coupon (I was under the incorrect assumption that the order from the warehouse and the checkout of items in the store were two different purchases, meaning we could only use the coupon on one of them). Elise gasped her adorable gasp and Nicole excitedly informed her that it's a new coupon BBB is offering. They quickly decided that it would apply to everything we ordered/bought that day. Poor Elise now had to re-scan all the items to do a return, apply the discount, and then scan all of them once more! There were many gasps.
Then we started in on the items we had in our three carts. The four of us now worked as an assembly team! Max removed items from the carts and handed them to me, I found the bar code on each item and presented them to Elise, Elise scanned them and handed them to Nicole, Nicole bagged all the items and put them back in the carts. We were very well oiled!
As we moved through our merchandise credit and our gift cards, Elise began to tell us she was really going to miss the time we spent together. We said our goodbyes as we hauled the carts over to the elevator. After we got it all into the back of the car, we remembered the car-elevator-hallway-apartment process through which all things must enter our home...
It only took us 5 trips. Not bad.
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