Paper Pusher

For the last couple of weeks, I feel like I've done nothing but fill out forms and wait on hold on the phone. Here's a brief summary.

1. We switched our home phone service over to Vonage. This involved filling out a form and waiting for a little box to arrive. It also involved waiting for our phone number to transfer over from AT&T. Not too much hassle here.

2. I switched my cell phone to T-Mobile. This, on the other hand, was a nightmare. It started by filling out a form to order a new phone online. This went OK, but the rest of the process was a disaster, especially keeping my phone number. It's partially my fault. I've switched to a system that allows me to use my cell phone in China, and I wanted to keep my old phone number. It took almost four hours on hold to Bangalore to make this happen. In the end, a nice young lady in Louisiana fixed things up for me.

3. I repeated step 2 for Erin's cell phone. Another four hours on the phone with "Steve" who sounded suspicially more like "Sreedev."

4. I applied for a China visa for my upcoming business trip. This requires multiple invitation letters, fees, passport paperwork, and proof that you've trimmed your toenails recently.

5. I'm still trying to get the insurance issues from Grant's hospitalization in May figured out. I'm down to one doctor in Florida who is insistent on making my life miserable. Each time my insurance company calls him and says, "You've already billed for this" or "You're not technically allowed to bill for this" he says, "OK" and rebills me. Nightmare. Hours on the phone.

6. I booked my upcoming trip to China. This involved the airline website repeatedly crashing, followed by me calling their 800 number, followed by them informing me that I "should really use their website instead." Grr.

7. I submitted for reimbursement from my company for said travel. Not much here.

8. I submitted for reimbursement for childcare expenses. Monthly task. Nothing new.

9. Finally, we received a package this week informing us that we needed to redo all of our background checks for our Chinese adoption...for the third year in a row. Add on the fact that we did all these checks one additional time when we adopted Grant, and I've spent more time being fingerprinted at our county jail than O.J. spent at trial.

It appears to be neverending...