what the blue bloody hell?

Okay, where the hell does New York state get off charging me a $45 fee (plus $11.95 shipping) for a copy of my OWN MARRIAGE LICENSE? And that's not expedited in any way - that's just regular vanilla handling.

Edit: okay, that's through a third party company. If you go through the actual district you got married they'll charge you $10. So just a note to the unsuspecting, I guess.

return of the MONDAY

Right.

Stupid Ontario government wants (once again!) a GUARANTOR for my FREAKING BIRTH CERTIFICATE.
Problem that I have with this is twofold:

(1) just because I say that someone is a secondary school teacher/accountant/any one of a list of white collar jobs doesn't mean that they actually are. I could get Chris to sign the bloody thing. Like they have any way of keeping track of most of this crap. (This sets aside the notion that oh, yes, someone in a white collar job is so much more likely to be truthful. Have they never heard of Ivan Boesky? The ENRON scandal? Riiiight.)

(2) Not to mention I have no way of finding out if notaries in the US are even allowed under their stupidly archaic laws, because their phone number (for the one freaking office of vital records in the entire province of freaking Ontario!) is constantly busy. Not to mention that it takes six to eight weeks. Probably because they're backlogged because there's ONE OFFICE IN ONTARIO. One office.

Contrast:
I need copy of my marriage license. I call up Buffalo vital records. She takes my information. She says she'll get that out to me today.

I love Canada. But some of their governmental decisions are nigh on frucking STUPID.

Other things: why is it that university health insurance will cover SPORTS INJURIES but not EYE CARE - you know, so you can READ. Which is hopefully what you're supposed to be there to DO. But if some football player strains their weenie, they're all over him.

Signed, the chick who has lousy eyesight and no athletic ability whatsoever and has to pay out of pocket for three eye exams in the next several months.

Yeah, it's MONDAY.

Whee, fun.

Good things that have happened today:

I got a postcard from the lovely and fabulous st_carrie! (Yes, you are permitted to laugh at my future Bostonian accent. I still giggle whenever I hear the word 'depahtment'.)
And also some CDs I ordered from the terribly addictive Newbury Comics! (CDs: Rilo Kiley (More Adventurous), The Decemberists (Castaways and Cutouts), Yes (The Very Best of Yes), The Flaming Lips (Clouds Taste Metallic), Genesis (Trick of the Tail), Bill Evans (You Must Believe in Spring.) Damn them and their sale bin. :-P)
It rained! And that's good because it was only a little drizzly rain and it made everything look pretty and smell nice.

Bad things? I'll let my husband rant about those. I expect he will. And he does it so much BETTER.

Amusing things:
We're trying to encourage the boy that 'hi' is something you say to someone when you see them - you know, hi as a greeting, give and take. So whenever he says 'hi', we say 'hi' back.
This occasionally leads to three minute conversations of nothing but 'hi!' 'hi!' 'hi!' 'hi!' ad infinitum. And he CHIRPS. So it's a very cute chirpy 'hi!' over and over.

We got our final assignments for intro to fiction today (aside from the final short story). I'm going to miss that class. I actually decided to take intermediate fiction writing next semester, and I'm being all stupid about the fact that it's a closed section and she has to approve our writing samples before we're enrolled. So I'm sitting here angsting and being all emo. I'll get over myself soon enough. (Or I'll just buy this t-shirt instead. :-D) But yeah, we have to do one of those 'write something in the style of your favorite author' things. So I'm doing Coupland. Was there any doubt? I think I can pull it off.

Links:
I really love The Cradle Rocks! Punk stuff for little kids! How awesome is that? (Which reminds me, I have a baby present to procure.)
I also love the poison garden. :-D I want to GO. And take a few people! *evil, sinister laugh*