Passports, Shots and Fish Bread

I have to get a new passport! My first passport expired in 1979 but I still had it. I had applied for it to go to Spain in 1974. It's not even the same color on the outside as the new passports and it certainly doesn't have the "intelligent chip" technology contained in new passports. It's supposed to make it easier to get your new passport if you have your old one though so I'm one step in the right direction.

I had my passport picture taken at J.C. Penny's. The retail price was $14.00 but I found an online coupon that took it down to $10.00. Maybe if I had paid the full price they would look better (you can't smile for a passport photo) but I'll console myself by thinking that only customs and immigration people are going to be looking at it. The bad thing is that your passport is good for ten years so I'll be stuck with it for that long.

My old birth certificate is somewhere in my house and I'm sure it will show up after I get my new passport but I can't find it now for love nor money! That was another $5.00 to get a new one but if I had waited till after July 1 it would have been $10.00. When I turned in my application at the Post Office I had to show my driver's license (photo ID), my old passport and my birth certificate. If I had to have my birth certificate to get my license and my old passport then why did I have to give them another copy of my birth certificate? How could I have gotten the first two without it? Oh, well. Bureaucracy at it's best!

I hadn't had a tetanus shot since I went to Spain in 1974 so it was definitely time for one of those. The only other shot I needed was for Hepatitis A. It's a two-part shot so I'll have to get the second dose just before I go in December. My doctor's daughter went on the summer mission trip to Russia a couple of years ago and he said she had a great time. Her biggest complaint was that they kept serving them "fish bread" to eat. Fish bread? Sounds like a good way to go on a diet!