adventures in bureacracy forthcoming

[rivendellrose]

I have to go to the Department of Licensing tomorrow to get them to a) change my address, and b) renew my license. I cannot renew online because naturally the address they have on file for me is... quite old. What can I say? I don't drive. It's not like I need to keep the blasted thing updated all the time when it's only getting used to prove my identity at the airport or my legal right to an alcoholic beverage at one of the few remaining restaurants or bars that actually believes me to be under the age of thirty.

(Random Digression of the Moment: Fandom reflexes, I has them. Just overheard a coworker say "Cylons, it's a cylon!" (referring apparently to an image another coworker was looking at? Unless he was talking about his computer...), and immediately grabbed my headphones, jammed them onto my head, and turned the CD I'm on back to its most consistently loud and sound-canceling track. Just in case. I'm having a hard enough time avoiding spoilers lately without my coworkers getting in on the action. :P)

Annnnyway, the need to go do the red-tape-and-bureaucracy thing has been complicated by the fact that apparently Seattle's budget is currently so dire that only one of the department offices in the city limits is open on Saturdays, it's the least convenient for me, and it's only open half a day. Yeah, that won't be busy as all hell. Plus, it's in a part of the city I do not particularly relish going to even under good circumstances, so... yeah. Fortunately, we're going to Bellevue tomorrow anyway, so I found the office there and figured out how to get to it, and am hoping that the suburbs will be a little easier to deal with. Especially if we go first thing in the morning.

Seriously - the office I went to last time this happened, near my old apartment, is now closed on all but 2 days of the week. And even then during business hours of course. And you need an appointment. W.T.F., people.

This time I promise to be good about keeping my address up to date so I can renew online the next time this happens. Because this is just plain absurd.

Moral: Think of The Boy and I tomorrow morning when you're all enjoying a quiet Saturday lie-in, because we'll be taking the bus across the city so that we can sit in a dingy lobby for a few hours and get grumped at by cranky civil servants. Oh yeah. Thank god I have the new Bill Bryon book to get me through the time.

Comments

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Ooo, which Bill Bryson book are you reading?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

"At Home" - it just came out recently in the US, and it's... well, about everything, like most of his books, but it's built around his home in England and its history and construction. Really interesting so far!

I so much adore all his books. He's the best writer I've ever read for mixing really good information and highly amusing style and anecdotes. ♥

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

That sounds fascinating! I'll have to put it on hold at the library. I first read him when I was going through my etymology phase, and picked up "The Mother Tongue." So far my favorite of his is "Short History of Nearly Everything" - it should be required reading in high schools.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Totally agreed on "Short History of Nearly Everything." I love science books, in general (...okay, not so much textbooks, but I love the books they publish for lay audiences), but that one is just so many miles above most of the stuff that gets published in science. Although actually the guy he talks to about trilobites, Richard Fortey? Actually has some fantastic and fun books on his own. Not quite as funny as Bryson, but he's good, and he really knows his stuff. His "Life" is a nice overview of, well, everything. ♥

If you haven't read Bryson's "Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid," I really recommend that one, too. It's his book on growing up in Iowa in the 50s, and it's awesome.

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

I haven't! I'll put it on my list, along with Richard Fortey. I love science books. (Although right now I'm reading an anti-science book. One of those about some mysterious pre-historical technologically advanced civilization that actually built the pyramids. It's fun! It reminds me of when I was twelve and actually believed that kind of thing.)

Wow, I totally failed at replying to the right comment earlier.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Yay! And oh, the archaeological aliens books. I read a bunch of Erich Von Daaniken's stuff in that vein when I was younger. It was pretty weird figuring out at thirteen that I could reason out how wrong this adults arguments were. The Egyptians couldn't possibly have made the pyramids even though we have records of exactly how they did it! And this thing that looks like an eggplant is totally a lightbulb!

...Now I hide those books if I find them shelved in the archaeology section, but that's just academic spite.

Eh, it's Friday. I'm theoretically working, but... it's too much of a Friday for me to really function on more than a "hmm, code... code... code.... butterflies!" kind of level. :P

[kungfuwaynewho.livejournal.com]

Yes! Von Daaniken, and I also read a lot of Zecharia Sitchin, who was really into the Planet X thing. I just checked out every book from that section when I was 12, that and the ghost books and the UFO books, etc. (The X-Files!!1) And I wish I remembered the exact book where I was like, wait a minute. This is bullshit.

My dad picked me this one up because he just saw "Pyramids" in the title, so I'm kind of contractually obligated to read it. It's amusing. I'm like, "LOL, no," every other page.

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Lol. Me too. I think there's just an age when you've read a certain amount of that stuff and all of a sudden a little lightbulb goes off over your head. "Hang on... this doesn't make any sense."

And, hell, it's still fun stories. If you're into the cryptozoology stuff, you should totally listen to MonsterTalk. (http://www.skeptic.com/podcasts/monstertalk/) Done by Skeptic magazine, so they're on the "reality" side, but they're all like us - read TONS about it as kids, then suddenly realized it was crap, but still loved to talk about it and hear the stories and all. The episodes are a bit hit or miss sometimes (depends a lot on the guest they've got) but they can be really fun.

...And yeah, I sympathize. My dad got me "The DaVinci Code" and "Angels and Demons" a few years ago. Because I'm into history. I didn't quite have the heart to tell him that the fact that I'm into real history means that I know those books are total tripe. :P

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

I loved Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. Also A Walk in the Woods.

[narsilion.livejournal.com]

Darn it! I bought you At Home as part of your present.
Oh well, I want to read it, so I guess I don't have to buy it for me now.
Is there a book that you want that you don't have so that I can replace At Home for you?
When is a good time to get together?

[rivendellrose.livejournal.com]

Oh no! I didn't even know it was out yet, The Boy brought it home on Thursday night. It's really good so far! ♥

I don't know about another book - I kind of keep buying whatever I find that I really want (bookstores - I have no self-control).

Ummmm, as for a time to get together, I don't know! When are you free? I think we're free all week except Thursday night, since that's the night we're going out to dinner (Fridays are too busy at the place we wanted to go to). What day is good for you?