Erika Bonham dot com

August 8, 2007

I am feeling a little bit guilty. I mentioned to Shane that Tegan is 5 months old today and he reminded me that she would be 5 months old tomorrow, the ninth. I then recalled that earlier in the week, I was kicking myself for thinking her birthday was the 7th of March, when it was in fact the 8th. I had it wrong twice. I forgot when my baby’s birthday was. Twice. March 9th. March 9th…may I never forget again.

Speaking of Tegan, because shey was not born in the hospital, I had to go and apply for a social security card for her. I have to say, the social security office is up there with the DMV. It may be worse, in fact. I didn’t like being there. First, a security guard signs you in and has you fill out the appropriate paperwork, then hands you a number. Then you sit and sit until they call your number. Everyone ahead of you is wondering where their social security check is or why they aren’t getting it anymore and they are all real high class people. It was very seedy and uncomfortable and I was very happy when my turn came. One month, she said, to get the card in the mail. It has now been three months.

A few weeks ago, I called social security. They have an automated menu. I hate these menus. The voice recognition never works and maybe it is only me, but I end up in the wrong place and very frustrated and it just never works out. I finally figured out how I could talk to a real person and the wait was too long so they hung up on me. Tried again later and waited 20 minutes on the phone until it was my turn. The automated voice wanted me to do all these things while I was waiting to help make things easier when I spoke with a real person, like enter the social security number of the person you are calling for (I DON”T HAVE IT). It asked me a million times.”I am sorry, maybe you don’t understand the question. A social security number is a 9 digit number that is located on your card. Please enter it now.” (I STILL DON’T HAVE ONE). It was finally my turn and I explained my situation and that I had been waiting for my daughter’s card for 2 months. She said there was no way for her to check to see if it had been issued or if she was in their system, etc. WHAT?? Type her name into your computer and see if she’s in there. She offered to send me the paperwork to reapply for a card. I asked if I should reapply if I had already applied once. Her response was that it was probably just taking longer than they said it would and if I wanted to check the status, I would have to go down and sit in the office again with all of the seedy people. No thanks. I will just continue to wait. So weird. I was very put off by all of it and my opinion of the social security department is not very high at this point. I am just hoping that card comes and I don’t have to go back.

The moral of the story: Have your baby at the hospital. It will save you a lot of trouble in many different ways.

♥