sly like a fox

Last night I went to get my picture taken so I could finally renew my passport. I really should have renewed it a little while ago, but I had very good reasons for waiting:

1) I hoped to convince the US pasport office to just extend my passport for an additional month. Mine expires June 8 I'm getting married June 23 and going on my honeymoon on June 25. My name will change shortly after that and I'll have to get ANOTHER passport. Wouldn't this be easier for all of us if we just extended mine until after the wedding. btw, if this is happening to anyone else, if you renew your passport and your name changes within a year, it's free to get it fixed.

2)I didn't have any checks. I misplaced my one remaining check book and I refuse to order more for the few months I will still have this name and this checking account. That's silly. Instead, I prefer to save the $13 it would cost me to order more and waste it in gas driving to the far away credit union service center to make them issue me certified checks. Or, I make my fiance write them for me instead of paying me back for his half of our car payment. So, I waited for him to owe me money, so I could use his checks. Another fun side note, he has a sampe check pack from the bank so we really enjoy seeing which pops up. My Junior League dues were paid with an appropriately girly green check with a pink border that had purple polka dots. The passport people will be getting a horse check.

3) I was trying to find out how long renewals are currently taking. I don't want to pay to expedite if it isn't necessary. However, because I waited, now it is necessary.

4) I needed to have a good hair day. I don't like to shower in the morning because my hair is crazy and while it doesn't require a lot of styling, to wear it down does require a lot of rewetting and starting over. So, I usually wash it at night and pull it back for work. I also find that it helps reign in my beauty, which really makes working with people A LOT easier.

I worked an on-call shift the other day which allowed me to get off at noon on Thursday. (Surprisingly, sometimes it is actually worth working 27 hours straight to have the afternoon free-although I don't actually have any choice in the matter.) So, I washed my hair after work and went on about my activities. When I got home, I rewet my hair, reapplied my curly products and waited for the end result. I found it satisfactory, so at 10:30 I went to Kinko's.

As I sat on the stool smiling, (anxiously awaiting the surprise flash, I always start smiling early), the girl told me I could do that smile. I had to do something more natural. Um, this is pretty much my only smile choice, other than the ginormous smile related to puppies, babies, and 4th grade year book photos. She consulted her colleague after taking a subdued smile photo that included teeth. Nope, Joe says no teeth. Only natural poses. Okay, so I can't stand on my head, I get that, but why can't I smile?! So, we tried several times. You know this is going to make me look like a criminal, don't you? I asked her. She just laughed, and waited for me to literally get the grin off my face. I practiced a few times...she was very patient and I finally settled on a very slightly upturned close lipped smile.

It's horrible. My hair actually looks okay. My eyes are open. My earring is weird, but you can't tell. I applied some vaseline, as my lips are kind of dry these days, right before I went in, so the end result is a glistening sneaky little smirk.

Now, I'm praying that they make me take a new photo when I get the name changed. It's actually not horrible, but really unpleasant. On a funny note, my fiance, who always has to be reminded to smile, why do men do this?, was actually encouraged by the postal employee to smile and the guy cracked jokes to help him. I guess that's what you get when you pay two more bucks, that and you get stopped by security when you cross the border. You wanna show teeth you gotta pay the price, right?!



L