As does the IND.

Ok, actually, the IND doesn't suck. They have protocol and they have to follow it, and the only fair way for them to function is to answer the correspondence and applications they get in the order in which they are received. I understand this - I worked for Immigration for a couple of summers back home in Canada.

BUT... I called them today to find out what's up with my passport and when I might be getting it back, and guess what? Because it wasn't part of an actual application for anything, they've not got any record of my documents, either my letter or my passport, and so can't advise me as to whether my request is pending, whether it's being looked at right now, whether it's been looked at and is on its way back to me...

What the hell kind of system doesn't allow you to track documents that are sent? The Immigration system in Canada allows you to create a temporary file for a request like that so that it CAN be tracked. Especially valuable documents like passports! Honestly! What the hell is up with that? I'm very reassured that the IND has no fucking clue what's up with quite possibly the most important document in my life. So, to Sonya from the IND who answered the phone today, I say thank-you for being polite, but your "you're just going to have to wait, dear, I'm sorry" was less than reassuring.

Oy.

And now, in an attempt to be completely uncreative and usless, I bring you, fresh from the genderist, "never have I ever". I list ten things I've 'not' done/that have 'not' happened to me, and you tell me if you've done any of them. I've cheated a bit with some future predictions on some of them...

1. I've never been stung by a scorpion in Mexico.
2. I've not visited 9 different countries (11 if you split up the UK into its constituent parts).
3. I'll not have three university degrees in six years.
4. I've never played with books that are nearly 400 years old and manuscripts two hundred years older than that.
5. I've not lived in another country for... wow... 8 months now.
6. I've not sat in a CF-18 fighter jet
7. I've not climbed the tallest mountain in a country (2nd tallest if we're NOT splitting the UK up)
8. I've never met Brad Pitt
9. I've never been up at 4 a.m. chasing people through the bush so they can't take photographs of a movie set for three weeks straight.
10. I've never slapped a guy for making extremely sexist comments.

One of my other favourites is two truths and a lie - it's good when you're meeting brand new people, and I have a standard set that I generally use. You just give three facts about yourself - two are true, one's a lie (even if only slightly) and it's up to the hearer/reader to figure out which is the falsehood. If you've been reading this blog closely or know me fairly well you'll be able to figure out easily which is which.

1. I'm named for my great-great-grandmother.
2. For my first degree, my major was English and my minor was Ancient and Medieval History
3. When I worked for Immigration, I was the third generation in my family to do so.

I Am Reading
Academically: No change. Had to read an entirely different book in the meantime as some MF recalled it to the library.
For Fun: Read a Cosmo magazine. Remembered why I hate Cosmo so much. Will now choose between Eco's "Baudolino" and Hawthorne's "Scarlet Letter".
Pile of Books on my Windowsill: 12. 3 read, 8 unread, 1 half-read.