Pain In The Ass

I was woefully unprepared for what a pain in the ass getting my passport was going to be.

First, it turned out I had an unofficial birth certificate, which was just dumb on my part. Then I was "half-smiling" and it "changed the shape of my face" in my photo. I got my official birth certificate and then found out today that it needs to be the long-form certificate, that includes my parents' birth information. And the background of my photo was possibly "too brown." It looked off-white to me, but who knows.

I submitted it, anyway. I'll just get my long-form birth certificate and have it ready when the rejection letter comes.

I'm just glad I didn't put off doing all this until the last minute.

I've been relatively productive today. After the frustrating passport office experience, I went to Barnes & Noble for some retail therapy. I bought Lonely Planet's Pocket London travel guide.

It's perfectly purse-sized. Pocket-sized, not so much, but it'll go in the purse. It has walking tours and recommendations and maps based on each neighborhood, which I like. And I like the pull-out map, even though I wish it wasn't just of the city center. I'm realizing now that my hotel isn't even on any of the maps. But that's okay. I can find my way there from the edge of the map.

It does, however, have a walking tour of Hampstead Heath, which ends with lunch at The Stag. I'm already planning to do that, actually, but I like that it was in the book. It makes me feel like I'm already in the know.

And it has information about what time of day is best to see the top sights in every neighborhood, which is something I hadn't even thought of, but I think that will be very useful.

Today, I'm planning to take my dog for a walk, because it's beautiful outside. Also, because I'm ridiculously out of shape and way too fat. If I could lose like 60 pounds before I go to London, that would be fantastic.

I'll get right on that. (Yeah, right.)