Reason achtzen I hate this country...

I saw my passport today... it was within my grasp... all I had to do was take it and run! But no such luck. I was told to go to Heiligenhaus this afternoon to pick up my passport. Since the person I needed to go with was leaving at 3pm she wanted me to meet her at 2. So I miss lunch as I was working today and sprint through the rain to my Smart, which was good since it was the 1 time today I was kind of warm. Drove the 40 minutes to Heiligenhaus, pick up my colleague and drive over to city hall. As we're pulling out our umbrellas to make the frigid walk inside she asks if I have my temporary form. Of course I don't and I didn't bother grabbing it since I was told to show up and pick up my passport... so we went inside where I got to see my passport and get turned away without it since I didn't have the proper forms. Then my colleague felt the need to tell me, "that's soo German." "I know," said I, "and I can't wait to go home." Now that the launch has begun I can't really leave for Heiligenhaus and don't know when my next chance to pick it up will be. However, they of course offered Saturday as an option... haha... My other option was to go back today before 6pm, which I may have been able to do, except for when driving back to Köln I look at the autobahn going the other way and see a 20+ car accident in a construction zone! Needless to say I have to pick another day.

When we got back to the office I figured it would be a good time to collect my allowance. So the guy who signed off on the last two forms for it decided he didn't believe I get any allowance. We called a few people as all the players are on Holiday for the next week or more and got a hold of no one (What a shocker). Eventually we got in touch with the cash desk lady who explained that it was indeed the same guy who signed my last two forms. We went back to him, explained the situation and he signed off right away.

Did I mention my shoes are missing? Yeah, I have to wear 'safety boots' in the plant and so changed into them at the office. When I was hurrying to make it to Heiligenhaus I looked all over and guess what? No shoes! So God still cares a little bit more about me than Al Bundy since my favorite European song came on the radio when I was getting really pissed off thinking about all the crap that is Germany. Are they playing 'The Anthem,' by Pit Bull in the US? OK, time to try and find a laundromat... I have 4 days of clean clothes left, and they're not even that clean... but they do smell better than the average European....

Random image of the day... from the top of the Köln Dom tower...