Passport love

Oh passport, you are my ticket to freedom and yet another chance for a self-esteem reducing heinous picture! Government issued photos and I have gotten along in the past, but since last year and the DMV's new "Bone Recognition Software" we no longer care for each other.

When Alex and I got married I had a license picture that was cute, I was sixteen and elated to have just passed my drivers test and you can see it in my smile. It wasn't a model worthy pic or anything, but cute none the less. That ID carried me all the way until Alex and I got married and I had to get a new one, I don't know if it was the post-honeymoon glow or what, but I was very, very, very lucky. My picture was beautiful, simple as that. Then, last summer I discovered that sadly my beautiful newlywed license did not renew my license, it had only replaced the one from when I was 16.

That's when I really got humbled (as if the PCT, which we had just come off of, hadn't done that enough!) when the typically "kind" woman at the DMV told me that since I got my last ID they now have "Bone Recognition Software". What is that you may ask? Well, that means you have to be zoomed up on at horrific closeness and then they'll tell you to "look here" which will result in you looking droopy eyed and under the influence of one substance or another and that the scarf that you will have chosen to "brighten your face" will only further the look of your detached head and possibly drunken demeanor. Ugh. I still haven't shown some members of my family, it's that bad.

Also since getting married I now need a new passport because my last name has changed, so yet again I have to go from having a relatively cute passport picture (I was 21 and my grandma was taking me to Mexico, so I was again excited and happy) to...the one I have now. One fabulous feature of today's modern world is that you can now take a passport photo at home, that fits certain restrictions, and use that as your passport picture. Being as how I'm on a time constraint I had to take my picture during the time that I was having an allergic reaction to nail polish (my eyes had bright pink rings around them up to my eyebrows and they were peeling, very attractive) that I apparently had suddenly developed. Miraculously I had come up with a somewhat decent picture.

They rejected it. At this time, I had about five weeks before I left to France and it's supposed to take 4-6 weeks to get your new passport! I had to bite the bullet and go to Wallgreen's asap to have them take a picture that wouldn't get rejected.

I walked into the store looking for their photo department and the little screen I would step in front of for my picture. I couldn't find it so I asked for help and the attendant pulled down a screen that was above the chips and gets a digital camera out to take my picture. She then informs me that she recently had someone come back saying that their photo had been rejected because they were smiling. Okay, no smile. And because their ears weren't showing. WHAT?!

So not only did I not have a chance for a shower that day but I then add on no smiling and making sure my ears are especially visible!

Compared to my license (which, no, I won't post) this looks like a professional photo shoot! But, who cares when the end result is traveling the world! But it could always be worse....

Totally unrelated, here's Alex's passport picture: he was trying to "bulk up" for the trail at the time ;)....