Passport

Today, I got a call from the supervisor at the social security office. I'd been there Monday because I called them asking about the passport I sent them to get a new card. (I got the card fine, but a month later, no passport.) The person I talked to said it was in the lost and found, so my mom helped me get there. (No license yet because I keep winding up in China over the summer and school is busy.) I got there, and the passport had apparently been sent back out again on Thursday or Friday. I'm not sure why they tried again, since the problem was that the passport had been returned as undeliverable and I told them I would come pick it up, but whatever. It's bureaucracy. Anyways, I get to the following Wednesday, and no sign of the passport. The supervisor I talked to while I was at the office called to check if I'd gotten the passport yet because whatever I might have to say about bureaucracy, she is doing her best to be helpful. Since I don't have it back and it was the government that lost it, she tells me that if I bring a receipt for the passport fees, the social security office will reimburse me for the replacement passport and for expediting it, since I leave for India on May 15. I'm glad they are-paying for India is going to be interesting enough without the $200+ for getting a new passport and having it expedited. But that means I need to go apply again. So I'm going to Boston this Friday for a 9am appointment to apply for a new passport the super-fast way. Yay madness ensuing? I'll probably bring my math homework with me for one of the three math classes I'm taking, and maybe some grading work. It's not like I really have time to go to Boston, but I do need the passport.