#AdultingIsHard

I had an appointment this morning to work with a government agency to see if I'm eligible for a couple of benefits. The last time I had to visit this particular agency was two years ago, and I kept getting mail from them, following my application, but I never got any answers, so I showed up to talk to a person, and I spent All Day in that place. It was all gonna be much better today, though!

If you've ever had to deal with local government agencies for anything, then you know what I'm talking about. If you have somehow never had to go in person to get a driver's license or mail a certified package or get a physical checkup without insurance or request unemployment benefits or training or anything that comes with being a citizen of God Bless America, then I salute you. You have lived an incredibly blessed life! I suspect that very few of my readers have never.

So for the rest of you who have, and may once again in the future, need to deal with a local government agency, I Cannot Stress Enough the importance of the magical Golden Ticket that is An Appointment.

My appointment was for 10:30. I got there with plenty of time to park, as the sign was up that indicates that the Lot was Full. I suspect that that sign never leaves. and is never actually accurate. Neither here nor there; I found street parking and walked in through the security scanner in time to get in a line to let the CSR know that I had an appointment, and he could send me to the upstairs waiting room so I could sit or stand for 20 minutes or so, waiting for my name to be called.

I found a seat and began a manicure. Right at my appointment time, my phone rang; it was my caseworker checking to see if I was going to keep my appointment? Um, yeah, I'm sitting in your waiting area, because I checked in downstairs 20 minutes ago... okay, see ya soon! Only filed and painted three nails; oh, well.

Got through that whole process in what felt like record time, but she informed me that I hadn't needed to reAPPLY for the other benefit; I already had an "open" case that just needed reCERTIFICATION. So I'd need to go back downstairs, check in with a CSR and ask to see that caseworker. Back down I went. Now I was appointment-less, but I was already in the building, see, so I thought it couldn't possibly take too long.

Got in the line; the CSR who eventually called me over was a bit grumpy when she thought I was going to just approach her without being called; I know better than to leave the line without being called! She looked me up; checked me "in" (again), and sent me back upstairs to the other waiting room. She said that if my name wasn't called in 20 minutes. to check with the woman at the desk.

So I found a new seat and continued my manicure. Got it completely done, and looked at my phone. About 40 minutes had passed, so I checked with the woman at the desk. She made a call to someone in the back, and ten minutes later, I was sitting with a dude who didn't understand what I was there for. Once we were finally speaking the same language, he gave me the appropriate reCERTIFICATION form to complete, and he took some of the paperwork I'd brought with me to make photocopies.

Got everything done; got a paycheck deposited and some juice purchased; walked the old 'hood just a little bit (for the steps, of course); got home in time to have a fairly long convo with a mortgage lender who thinks we're not in as "bad" a place as we suspect. Sent him two years' of tax returns so he can crunch some numbers, and we'll know better whether 2016 is the year we buy a house in, oh, a couple of weeks, probably! And I'll know in that same amount of time whether I qualify for the other stuff I ran by the government today.

I did a lot of Adulting today! And tomorrow, I get to be back on set for the show I was on last week! Hurray!

hard to take a handsfree selfie of BOTH hands.
#MyChinToTheRescue!