Social SECURITY?

Recently, I have been going through name-change hell. I have spent hours trying to make my way through phone menus and elevator music in order to "take" my married name. I have been cutting up old credit cards and activating new ones. I have been explaining why my name on my driver's license doesn't match my name on my brand new credit cards. I should have known that all of this was going to look like child's play after tangling with the social security administration. (Forewarning: Rant forthcoming...)

I was prepared (or so I thought), I had gotten the social security form from the human resources department at work. Filled it out ahead of time. Had my marriage license, passport, drivers license, and book in hand. Waited the requisite hour in the waiting room before my number was called. A second later I was sent packing because I didn't have "a photo id with married name on it". I was confused most other friends had gone to get their social security card before getting their drivers license? Apparently, "due to new Homeland Security rules put in place 6 months ago by the U.S. Congress, they need to verify with new photo id AND old photo id that your name has changed before they can issue you a new social security card." Oh those, Senators and Representatives, always doing such important things. Don't worry about tackling our oil dependency, universal healthcare, or ending the War in Iraq, make an inane rule change that really does improve our daily lives.

Next Stop DMV, to get new photo id (driver's license) with new name on it. They didn't even really look at the marriage license and did nothing else to verify I was who I said I was before changing my name on my drivers license... Way to go Homeland Security... Beefing up our "security" every day, in new ways! "You will receive your new license in 2-3 weeks". Or 5.

So last week, as my window to change my name with the school district where I work was slowly diminishing before the kids arrive (and you can't do it without your new social security card), I began to wonder where my new driver's license was. At dinner that night, friend A assured me she had just gotten her new card BEFORE her new license. So I called the national social security administration. They assured me that I did not need a new photo id to get my new social security card. (Are you sick of this story yet, because I am...)

So bravely, I venture BACK to the SSA office. Wait the requisite hour. Sent booking within three minutes, after the woman told me they were "the only office in the tri-state area following the rules, the right way. I have reported to my supervisor all the other offices that are not following the correct procedure." So to clarify, I can drive another 10 miles to another office and they will change my name without a new driver's license? "Yes."

Four dollars in parking fees and 45 minutes later I emerged from the other SSA office a proud owner of a letter assuring me my social security card should arrive within 7-10 days. It only took me 30 days and 3 visits to get it done. Imagine what would have taken place if I didn't speak English, or was petrified of the bureaucracy.

Of course, my new driver's license arrived in the mail the next day. I am now official. Yippee! Now if my new social security card would just arrive in the mail...

So when people ask this fall what I did this summer, I feel like saying "I changed my name and hung out with people at the SSA, checked my mail a lot, and plotted several horrible deaths for SSA woman in suburban office job." (now I will for sure be on the FBI's list) Awesome good times. And all of this is making us safer, day by day, year by year, we are getting those terrorists, right?

A needed dose of Wildness

We have returned from the second annual BWCA trip. Here is what is left:
1. a really stinky car, with a pile of stinky clothes and packs in it.
2. mosquito bites as follows: 10 on left shoulder, 5 on right shoulder, 3 on right elbow, and one on my rear end(?).
3. a very oily, melted half block of sharp Cheddar, a few handfuls of trail mix (how could this be left over? we ate this constantly), 1 soggy pita, a bag full of yet-again uneaten oatmeal, and a bag of packed-out, leave no trace, garbage.
4. a tent, sleeping bags, sleeping pads, etc. that desperately need to be aired out.
5. some good pictures... see below.
6. great memories of our second annual trek into the wilderness with fellow adventurers the H-Hs. Here are some highlights and lowlights (in order of my preference and/or their hilarity):
a) "IN MY PANTS!, THERE IS AN ANIMAL IN MY PANTS!" (some dancing around, followed by the rapid exit of an orange and brown mole from A's shorts.)
b) POURING RAIN on Gerund Lake- so hard the rain bouncing off the water of the lake was white and looked like snow that we were paddling through.
c) The Germans on the portage offering to send us a picture of ourselves in the rain @ yaaaahooooooo.com.
d) A's "dumping" of the "canoe" along the portage.
e) The wind on Vera Lake, eliciting another, "nice fucking vacation" from husband. (Once again this year, not funny at the time.)
f) Sexual innuedos that went with Missionary, Skota, Spoon, Dix, and Neglige Lakes.
g) Husband and B demonstrating the efficiency of "ears out" rain gear hoods. looking good...
h) Naming the H-H's canoe, "The Big Red Beav." and B wrinkling her nose at it.
i) Having husband ask sleepily, during windy night, "are there trees around our tent?" Just about a million 50 footers. "Nope. Nothing to worry about- go back to sleep."
j) Me accidentally slipping into the lake in front of the crew, as I was so carefully just trying to 'step in'.
k) Using many of the things on the trip we received as wedding gifts, favorites being our new spacious tent and extremely fast dragonfly stove excellent for making yummy beans and rice.
l) Having husband quiz us all about "weather conditions in which you have pooped" (this must have been in honor of friend, slummy.)

So, along with these memorable moments, I am again filled up with the wildness of northern Minnesota. Although it may seem crazy to spend 4 days paddling more than 30 miles and portaging to more than 15 lakes with a canoe on my shoulders, it is the moments where you understand what you are made of and you test yourself against the unpredictability of nature.
I am reminded that I have come to hear loons learning to fly, see otters swimming in the early morning, and to smell the trees, air, water, and to remember what it feels like to be no match to mosquitoes on a portage. And most of all, to share all of this with people important to me.

The Fruits of Summer

It happened last night... the first sign of fall's eminent arrival. Husband and I went out for a walk before bed. For the first time this summer, it was just slightly chilly outside. We walked fast enough not to mind, but when we got home, my hands were cold. In all reality, it was probably only in the mid to low 60's, but it was enough to remind me that me that the cool evenings up at the cabin this last weekend were not a fluke.

Meanwhile, the garden is a bit out of control. Wonderful fruits of our labor are everywhere in our backyard. I can't resist putting in a picture of our recent harvest. It was so Pretty.