At the Passport Office

We finally made it over there and it was, of course, another adventure. But, I want to say that Houstonians are some of the nicest people and all our fellow "passport comrades" waiting for their turn, were funny, friendly and gracious.

After spending the day before trying to get through to the office to ask about whether I could make an appointment or if it was first come first served, but getting nothing but a busy signal all day, we show up at 9:40 for the 10am opening. There is a sign on the door saying you have to sign-in and they only take 35 people a day. So I go to find the sign-in and discover you can sign-in starting at 7:30 am and we are numbers 22,23 and 24. I call Tim and tell him not to come over (he has his passport, but has to be there for the boys).

Decide to go home. Try to time it (based on the 10 minute per applicant I was told) to arrive back and not have to wait too long. We return and discover they had JUST called us and he took the next person. This because #20 wasn't there, either. So, when he comes out, I tell him the Wallaces are here but he says we have to wait since we were not there when our name was called and we were suppose to be. I smile and say ok.

The other people are super gracious about this. One guy says tell him you had to leave to find a restroom as there are none here. One gal says she wanted to leave to get lunch but was afraid to. Yes, peoples bladders are bursting and they are fainting with hunger in FEAR they will miss their spot in line at the passport facility. Is there something wrong with this picture!?

The passport Nazi takes us next after punishing us and then rants about us not having official state identification for Ben. I tell him I have EVERYTHING the web site says (and then some) to have and I need a form he has to provide (an Affidavit thingy) as I couldn't access it. He says something inane about "Well the web site might say that but I..." I manage not to scream at him. I'm at this point telling him how to do his job. Another guy comes in and gets the affidavit forms for us and we start to fill them out. Passport Nazi then begins to fill out his portion and then decides to let guy # 2 (who we'll call Dave because I think that was his name) take over so he can go to lunch.

Dave is much nicer. He starts to fill out his portion when I notice that passport Nazi had put the wrong information in the boxes. I point this out and Tim and I have to start over with the forms.

We eventually raise our right hands and swear the information and pictures are true, sign the forms, write all the necessary checks and leave. I thank all my fellow passport comrades as we leave that they didn't insist on us going to the end of the line. They are so friendly and gracious and one guy says, "See you here again in 10 years!"