YES! An 1/8 of an Inch Does Matter

I'm turning the big 40 this year. My friend Joni has always said that we need to go somewhere on vacation together when we turn 40. So the time is soon approaching. Joni grew up going to Mazatlan every year for Christmas and now her mom actually owns the condo that they always went to. So we are going to stay in the condo at Mazatlan. I'm a little nervous though. I have never been to Mexico. Needless to say, I need a passport. Wow my first passport.

On Friday I went to go tackle to task. First, I stopped by the local post office to see what to do. They only accept passport applications by appointment and the first appointment was Feb. 21. The man also told me that it was taking 6-8 weeks to receive your passport and to expedite that time it was an additional $95. Ouch! I asked him if there were any post offices that received walk ins. He told me the only post office to receive walk ins was the downtown post office. Okay great! I get to go venture downtown which I don't do very often. You know how any downtown is in any city. Parking is a big pain. Now I'm mad about waiting too long to obtain the passport.

So I head to Walgrens to get a passport photo. It goes smoothly. Only takes 10 minutes. I head downtown, but it's now around 3:50 pm since I had to get the kids from school first before heading down. Boy oh boy it's crowded. I get in line and the postal worker makes us all shuffle out the door. Everybody in line is worried that when 4:30 hits (which is the last time they'll take walk ins) that they'll just close the door on us. I don't even have an application and there is nowhere to just pick one up and start filling out while you wait. Finally a man applying for a passport sticks his head out the door and asks if everyone has an application. Whew! That will save some time. I finally get up to the counter after a half hour. The worker process everything. Staples the passport photos on and then tells me to wait for another worker that is currently helping someone else to pay for everything. When the next worker starts helping me, he looks at the picture and pulls out a tape measure and says that my photo is too big by 1/8 of an inch. I'm thinking can't you cut it down by 1/8 of an inch but that's not the problem. The man at Walgrens made the photo from my head to my chin an 1/8" too big. The worker tells me that I could try to send it in and see if it's passes but if not they will send me a letter telling me to submit a new photo. I'm thinking I don't have time to waste since my trip is in 9 weeks. So now I have to pay double the price I did at Walgrens and get a new photo taken at the post office. Then there were four people behind me that had taken their photos before me so I never even saw the new photo. The worker that first helped me and took the photo said I didn't have to wait that he was sure the photo would turn out okay. How much does anyone want to bet I'll get a phone call on Monday from the post office saying that my photo didn't print and I need to come back in? It wouldn't surprise me after what I was going through to get this passport.

On the way home, I stopped by Walgrens and had to get a refund for the bad photo. You know if Walgrens is going to advertise that they make passport photos, you'd think they would train their employees better. Anyways, I ended up taking my whole Friday afternoon just to apply for a passport. So if any of you need a passport, don't put off applying for it. Do it sooner than later. And remember: an 1/8 of an inch does matter!