Smudged

I'm planning to go north of the border for part of a major international film festival in September, which means I need a passport. No problem. I'm taking care of this plenty in advance. I even was able to find my birth certificate without any difficulty.

After having a bad passport photo taken at a drug store--can't we try again?--I headed to the post office to file the appropriate paperwork. That's as far as I got. My original birth certificate was denied because of smudges on it.

I understand that they don't want to hand out identification for international travel when there might be the potential for a bad source document, but it doesn't mean it irked me any less. Luckily I live in the state of my birth and can head to the vital statistics office tomorrow to get a new birth certificate and be done with all of this. Ordering one in person can put the document in my hand the same day. Ordering online takes weeks!

Plus, while I still have time, I don't need to mess around and get this passport application filed too late.