are you kidding me?

Apparently the universe thought my last post had too much whining in it, because karma got me.  This is how my day went:

No sooner did I click "publish" on my last post and Patrick called me with more tasks.  Turns out in order to get medically cleared I would need immunization records for both Gunnar and I.  Dating back to birth.  For real?  I had 16 years worth of medical records lost by Johns Hopkins.  And I'm fairly certain that the doctors that gave me shots when I was a baby are no longer practicing.  So, I said that's not happening, what else can I do?  He said the overseas screening office told him that I needed to get a blood titre drawn by my doctor.  Ok, sounds easy enough.

I called my doctor who said they can't just take my word for it, I needed the overseas screening office to fax them orders for the labs.  Well after a phone call to them, I found out they don't do that, so I had to go to the base hospital and have it done.  Patrick told me to go in, ask for the admin office because I needed to be put into the system, and then they would help me from there.

I pack Gunnar into the car and we head to the naval hospital, where the parking lot looked like Christmas Eve at the mall.  I found parking and went on with the mission... In the main entrance to the front desk, asked for admin and found the right office.  I waited a few minutes, gave the guy my info and he said "Did they tell you you weren't in the system?  Because you are."

Ok... so then I asked where I needed to go for the titre, and he directed me to labs.  There, I took a number and waited.  When it was finally my turn, the woman at the desk asked who sent me since I didn't have any orders for blood work.  I told her my story and she said "You need to go to the Overseas Screening Office and have them put it in the computer, I can't do anything without orders."  Annoying, but makes sense; so I asked where to go.  "I don't know" she said, and was on to calling the next number.

Ok... so I went outside and googled where I needed to go.  Turns out it was in the hospital.  Went back to the front desk and asked for directions again.  Found the right office to which I was told they didn't do that and I needed the immunizations clinic.  I got directions, and wouldn't you know... right next door to labs.  The woman there put the info into the computer, and it was back to labs where I pulled another number.

We waited, returned to the desk with the same woman who took my number and my ID and then asked "did you pull another number?"  Well, since I just handed you a new one, yes, yes I did.  I was lectured on the fact that I should not have taken a new number because had I not, she could have bumped me to the front of the line, but now I would have to wait.  Since they hadn't yet called my old number to the back for lab work I don't know how this new number affected the situation, but I didn't ask questions, I just apologized and took my seat again.

I finally got called back, and since apparently I couldn't hold Gunnar while they drew blood, and he couldn't be "unsupervised" we had to wait for another nurse to come in and watch him.  The vials started filling and then GASP!  Just what you want to hear from the person holding a needle in your vein.  Turns out I started "free bleeding" and blood was gushing out of my arm where the needle was sticking in.  Once it was under control, I told her that never happened before, and she told me she had never seen it happen before.  Very comforting...

I got cleaned up and quickly gathered my things, and we were on our way.  Bonus - I can now navigate the naval hospital in my sleep.  Another bonus was that I got a call that our passports were ready, and I could come pick them up.  I planned on it since I was still on base; could things really be turning around and going my way?! After lunch with Pat I went to the passport office.  She asked if I wanted to check them out, and I said yes (really just to make sure that the important documents were returned with them).  Everything seemed in order, so I put them back in their respective envelopes and noticed that they were different colors.  I asked why, and she said "oh no".  She made a few phone calls and turns out, the government issued me the wrong type of passport.

So it was back to waiting, more phone calls, paper work, and trying to control a tired toddler who was way too far past nap time.  I got everything filled out and turned back in, and she will call when it arrives... "hopefully it won't be too long".

In conclusion... Gunnar and Patrick are totally ready to go in regards to everything we have accomplished thus far.  I, however, am not ready in regards to ANY of it.  I didn't get cleared by dental, I won't be cleared by medical until my lab results come back in two weeks (meaning a longer delay before meeting with TMO and scheduling our move), I won't have a passport for probably another four weeks because they sent me the wrong one.  Clearly I am not meant to make this move, or someone up there gets a real kick out of having me run all over God's creation.

Just an FYI universe:  I'm not whining.  I get it.  You can stop now.  Thanks.

PS:  I promise to make the next post much more fun.