Here I am, starting a blog entry with “here I am” again. This time, your intrepid reporter is waiting in line at the ICBC licensing office, waiting to grt my precious photo ID reissued.

I got my birth certificate yesterday, and today, I will finally legally exist again. I will be too busy tomorrow to get anything done, so it will be Wednesday or Thursday before I can get to VanCityto open my account there and get a void cheque.

Then it is over to (weirdly enough) the local postal outlet to get my student loan. Then I will be able to pay Kwantlen what I owe, buy book, and hopefully have enough left over to get a new tablet and a decent pair of shoes.

Oh, and to pay back Joe for the loan I needed so I could get this damned ID before Xmas, Or more importantly, Vcon.

As usual, it feels like the convention snuck up on me. I think the fact that it starts on the second day of October contributes to that. We tend to naturally think in exusting units of time, and so there is a natural mental barrier keeping people from thinking about what is in the next unit.

(—)

Well, the good news is that my number came up, I went through the process successfully, and I am now done.

The bad news is, I ain’t got no ID card.

Not yet, anyhow. It will be three to four fucking weeks and arrive by mail. And I cannot wait that long. The university needs their money ASAP and I don’t know how much longer these shoes will last. So I am stuck trying to get a bank account without ID, then get the student loan deposited into that account withput any photo ID.

It is that second one that worries. Banks I can count on to be greedy for new customers.
  j
I think I will go check out the food court here, or maybe walk to White Spot.

I can’t really afford it, but I really need to activate the reward center of my brain.

(—)

I am in the food court now, eating my veggie laden six inch Cold Cut Combo. It probably won’t fill me up, but it will get me home.

See, I didn’t know it would take so long to get the ID because the last time, it didn’t. They printed it out right there. It was still warm from the printer when I put it in my wallet. But apparently, that was too fucking convenient.

I mean, I guess I am happy to have gotten the process started. But for my immediate needs, it is woefully inadequate. I asked the very nice Japanese lady who served me if there was any way to speed it up – because at this point, I would be more than willing to pay for faster service – but no.

Well, I am done eating. Time to go home.  Hope I make it there before I go crazy.

Against bureaucracy, the gods themselves struggle in vain.

(—)

Now, I am waiting for the 405 on Three Road. This is my most geographically diverse blog entry ever!

I am near Three Road and Lansdowne. A lot of people waiting! It IS the tail end of the 9 to 5 rush, after all. And that rush is a lot bigger than I would have thought, because it turn out everything in Lansdowne Mall closes at six.

That’s right, SIX. PM! That is batshit fucking insane. Why close when people are just getting off work? For that matter, why only be open during business hours? It doesn’t make any sense to me. Are these people afraid of money?

Damn it is cold in the shade today. Stupid me for not wearing my jacket. But it looked so nice and sunny! These are the deceptive days of fall, where if ypu took a picture, it would look like a picture of a perfect summer day.

But it is actually way colder than that. Hence my summer clothing leaving me cold. I wish the bus would show up already. I have seen two 403’s and FOUR 410’s, but no 405. So here I shiver.

Never thought I would ever have this much resentment for shade.

Honextly, I could have walked home twice by now. But now, if I leave, the bus wins.

It’s not easy being male.

(—)

And now I am home. Phew.

Not bad, I did 730 of my words on the road. This using writing as a way to relax myself in times of stress has a lot of promise to it. It helps me sleep, helps me deal with depressing life events, and even helps me sort out all the tangled wiring in my head and replace it with nice clean simple circuitry.

It’s like I’m going from transistors to microchip all up in la cabesa del frufru

I am going to try to find a way to receive my student loan sans bank account. If I could have it just show up on my prepaid visa, that would be mega awesome.

Heck, I could probably settle my debt with Kwantlen online that way. Fine by me. But I don’t know if you can get transit numbers for a credit card. And that’s what the void check is for.

So I may end up having to turn on my “lovably helpless” charm at Van City and try to get a bank account without primary ID. And then turn it up to 11 when I have to convince some hapless postal outlet worker to let my loan through without primary ID.

This quest for identity is proving to me quite the existential quandary.

I exist enough for the government of BC to give me $947 a month. I exist enough for Money Mart to cash those checks. I even exist enough to pay sales tax and to enlist in the military.

But until that fucking thing arrives in the mail, I don’t exist enough for a student loan.

Or rather, to collect the damned thing.

I will talk to you nice people again tomorrow.