Week Three

Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.  ~P.J. O’Rourke

The only relation that quote has to my experiences this week is that it has the word government in it. I just like how the quote relates power, money, and government to whiskey, car keys, and teenage boys! But I did deal with the government this week. So on that note….

During this last week I emailed and received responses back from various government officials in regard to various documents I am dealing with. I had contacted both the AZ and WA state governments in regard to where I had to get my degrees notarized and apostilled and received an answer back from both states that I could get them notarized in either state, but had to get them apostilled in the state that I got them notarized. To understand the whole apostille process we have to go through, check out my friend Renee’s blog where she talks about it. I am pretty amazed that I had never heard the word apostille before going through this process and actually looked it up to see the correct way to pronounce it (AH POS STEEL).

I was pretty impressed at how fast I got an answer back from both states, so I decided to whip off another question to the WA state department about apostilling federal documents and received a response back the next day! They are pretty good about response time. The answer was that I had to get a federal document apostilled at a federal level, which is okay because that process supposedly only take a week. But.. I am still waiting on my FBI fingerprint check, so I have some time until I have to do that.

I also contacted both my schools (for the BA and MA degrees) to ask if they offered a notary service and only heard back from one; they did not. Oh well. That isn’t as big a deal now that I know I can get it done in either state. So now I have to decide if I want to just do it here in WA and get it all done myself but pay a little more (WA charges $15 per document and I need four documents apostilled plus the charge for the notary) or send my original and copies to my mom in AZ and have her get the notary and then send them off to AZ state department to get the apostille done (AZ charges $3 per document).

So even though I would save money sending it to AZ, I would save hassle and time just doing it myself in WA since I would have to explain all the steps for my mom and it would be a hassle for her as well. Decisions Decisions, Decisions!

So that’s about it on what I got done toward my process besides disposing of more worldly possessions (finally sold that PSP I haven’t used in forever) and getting my hair cut!