Adventures in Getting Passported

Since I finally got my certified birth certificate in the mail last week, I finally made it down to the County Clerk's Office to get my no-fee passport taken care of!  It looked like things would go easy and quickly from the moment I walked into the courthouse where the office was located as there was no one other than security guards in sight.  We are, however, talking about Peace Corps business, so easy and quick it was not.

Once I made it though security (now without the cat nail clippers I that I had forgotten which have been swimming at the bottom of my purse), I headed to the blue elevators at the other side of the building and went up to second floor only to discover that the office was right near the elevators and SO easy to find. Yay!  When I walked into the office, there were two ladies sitting behind cubicle set up against the counter and neither of which had anyone to help.  I stepped up and said I needed a no-fee passport and whipped out my UPS envelope sent to me by PC to send my Visa and Passport stuff in via FedEx (so silly) which contained my folder with everything sent to me pertaining to these two items in addition to the newly taken terrible pictures of myself.

That is when the fun started.
Long story short: Another clerk was brought over to help and wound up calling an actual passport agency because they had no clue as to what the protocol was for a PCV's no-fee passport was.  They also tried arguing with me about sending in my sealed application with my visa to SATO despite the fact that the paperwork that I brought in and that they read said to do so! Luckily, they eventually ACTUALLY read the mailing instructions and saw that I was, in fact, to mail it myself.  Oy vey.  I also repeatedly heard the term "walk through" and discovered that I have amazing patience with people.  It is nice to know all of my years in retail have paid off!

Now it all taken care of nice and spiffy and hopefully there will be no more problems with it.

And if anyone was wondering, if you do not have and have never had a regular passport and you want one in addition to your no-fee, you need two certified birth certificates since they get processed separately.  Looks like I may have to embassy it up in Ukraine to get a personal one... Unless this passport place lied to me.  Let's hope not.

107 Inches of Checked Bags

Tah Dah!:
Duffel #1 (in Olive)
Duffle #2 (in Grey)

107 inches on the dot!

It only a ton of combinations to find, but yay nonetheless!

Still need to find a carry-on.  Any suggestions?

Yay Birth Certificate!

I had to order a certified copy of my birth certificate from California since mine was apparently lost by my dad during the course of his numerous moves over the years.  It finally came today!  Now I just have to get my passport pictures taken and I can get my passport and visa stuff in :)

Sometimes getting mail sucks.

I received a letter in the mail today from the old property management I was dealing with back in Las Vegas.  No security deposit back.  Long story short, I may have to pay to replace the carpet! I call bullshit, especially since I know there is someone already living there (she moved in on the 29th of this month, I know this because we are friends) and the letter I received was dated for the 30th stating that they were currently waiting on estimates.

Someone tell me how this works out!? That is an ass-clown move to pull on new tenants... 

In all honesty, I am wondering if anything will actually become of it.  I sent my friend now living there a message asking if they had said anything about replacing the carpet, because if they didn't and they try charging me then I shall be releasing the Rage Hippo for non-PC purposes.

And now for something completely different (well, still related..)-
After getting this letter and giving into a freak out at the amount of money this could put me out, I began considering my options.  Let's face it, if my debt isn't paid off (in addition to my lingering medical bills), then there will be no Ukraine for Kim :(
Awesome option put into play to solve this debt problem, allow me to save money for items I will need to buy for service, and (if needed) pay for this new carpet: 401k. 
Reasoning? I have had one since I the day I turned 21, and let's face it how many people have been lucky enough to have one for three years going into their 24th birthday this day in age?  Not a large chunk, I'm sure.  That being said, I pulled enough money to cover all of my current debt and doctor's bills with the mindset of "I have time to save for my retirement, if I am not dead by then."  Better to use that money to help me achieve an amazing Peace Corps experience that I have been chosen for!

Weight, thank you for being lifted off of my shoulders!

I bought my first thing for Ukraine today.

A hat.

It has balls on it.

 I am not quite sure how I feel about having giant balls on strings attached to my hat, but they sure are fun to play with! I love my easily amused nature.



This made me wonder... What was/will be your first Peace Corps purchase for service?

Obviously, mine is probably not the first thing someone declares that they need to buy when going to Ukraine, but damn it, this purchase was a matter of circumstances.  Work circumstances.  As I was walking to the backroom to clock out after my shift, I passed by this nifty hat.  "Well, that should keep the babushkas off my back about wearing a hat" I thought.  Not to mention that it should help with the whole not-having-my-ears freeze-off thing as well.

Spreaking of buying stuff for service, I have totally been building up a Favorites folder of things I will be needing/wanting.  But mostly needing :)

Dear Ukraine TEFL Invitees:

Skype me!
kimberley.rawr

:)

Aspiration Statement and Resume Info

In the off chance that you want to get your resume set up to what PC requests of invitees, I give you this.  One less thing for you to worry about when that invite arrives if it is already done! Plus it may keep you busy during those bursts of RAS :)

It also includes information about writing and formatting your aspiration statement, which I need to get to work on. I thought I was done with essay style writing when I graduated!  I at least didn't think I'd be dealing with it so soon...

Happy writing!