Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

I went to the German consulate this morning and applied for a German passport. The process took less than ten minutes. While the German government website had told me to bring "original and one photocopy" of my birth certificate, marriage certificate, naturalization certificate, and American passport, the clerk made photocopies on their machine instead of using the photocopies I'd brought with me. They did use my photocopy of the application form, and I suspect that they wanted color copies. (As of a few days ago, our printer/copier is only good for black and white, having forgotten how to use the cyan ink.)

The clerk asked me whether I wanted to pick up my passport or have it mailed. I opted to pick it up rather than pay a fee to have it mailed, both to save a bit of money and so I don't have to worry about the passport being lost in the mail. (The round-trip subway fare is $4.80, versus I think $22 for having the passport mailed.) The clerk said that my passport should be ready in about six weeks. They will let me know when I can come pick it up, and I won't need an appointment, just show up any morning between 9 a.m. and noon.

It's a biometric passport, for which they scanned my index fingers. Interestingly, "Please bear in mind that due to privacy protection, the German Mission can only save the fingerprints for a brief period of time and will then delete them." I like the GDPR. My best guess about the fingerprint information is that it will be stored in some form built into the passport.

I finished filling out the form this afternoon, after re-copying one page several times because of annoying small errors (like "December" instead of "November"). I'd stopped to take a break after finishing that page, then picked the file up again and saw that all I needed to do was check a couple of boxes, and sign and date the form.

I did that, scanned the file, and sent it our contact at the German embassy in London. (We're going through the embassy in London rather than the consulate in Boston because that's where my mother lives.)

I sent copies to my mother (who gave me a lot of the information for this) and my brother (so he can use it).

I've been spending a lot of time lately on application forms, some more complicated than others.

My mother left this afternoon--I went with her to the airport, where I asked for and got a gate pass so I could accompany her and have a little more time together. She could have managed on her own, but I know she benefited from having me there to tell her what people had just said.

It was a very good visit, though I am somewhat tired, and cattitude moreso. He and my mother both love, and like, each other, this was mostly about having had someone here from Tuesday afternoon through Saturday afternoon.

On Wednesday, I got notarized photocopies of my birth certificate and passport, to accompany my (re)naturalization application. Most of the questions were straightforward, but she had me email one of her oldest friends to ask the name of the town where my mother and her family lived in France in 1939-40. There are also a couple of questions where we decided the right answer is for my mother to go to the German embassy in London with the not-quite-completed form and ask them what to put there--including at what point in the Nazi regime my mother and her family lost their citizenship.

Today's mail brought me two certified copies of my birth certificate, from the New York City Department of Health.

Two so I can just give them to the German consulate, once I've gotten copies of my mother's relevant paperwork (which we'll have to get notarized). Though if I'm going to a notary anyhow, I might keep one of these, make one photocopy, and have that notarized.

My state-issued photo ID will expire next month (on my birthday). A few weeks ago, they kindly sent me a renewal form, with the information already filled in. (You can also download the form and fill it out yourself.) To renew, I needed the form, the old ID card, my social security card, and $9 (cash, check, or credit card), and I had to go to the DMV office. But not every office: round 1, I tried the one at Herald Square, and found a sign explaining that they don't do license renewals, go to the "License Express" office. OK, a mild nuisance, but it was on the way to work.

The License Express office is at 34th and Eighth, so also on my way to work. I got my boss's okay to be late to work, and went this morning. I showed the woman at the information/ticket desk my form, and told her that yes, I want a new photo. (The old one is something like a dozen years old, because they reused it last time, with a renewal by mail.) She sent me to the photo area, where I waited for one person before me to be photographed, and listened to someone else read a line from the eye chart (for an actual driver's license). The photographer looked at my paperwork, took my picture, and gave me a ticket (the same principle as taking a number at the deli counter). I walked over to where I could see the numbers displayed, and mine appeared about a minute later.

At that window, I paid cash, and asked about the organ donor option, which they had signs up about. She confirmed that I wanted it, and made a red X at the appropriate place on the form. I now have my old ID back, and a temporary card to, in theory, use while I wait for the new one, which I should have in the next two weeks. If the new card doesn't arrive by my birthday and I have any expectation of needing photo ID, I'll use my passport for a few days, rather than fuss with "here's the expired card, and here's the state's assurance that I'm getting a new one."

Elapsed time, about five minutes. Add a couple for walking the extra couple of blocks, and I was at work maybe five minutes late.

I pulled everything together over the last few days, and when I head out this morning, I will be mailing TIAA-CREF an envelope containing lots of paperwork and a check. That will move the IRA I opened in haste last April from my bank to them, and add money for tax year 2007. The investment/IRA advisor at TIAA-CREF, who I talked to again yesterday, made a note on my account and will be keeping an eye on it and let me know if there's anything missing or awry.

Sorting this out required some annoying interactions with the bank. The first was just a friendly waste of time, going in and being told no, I had to wait until after the CD I had stashed the money in matured before I could give the "don't roll it over" instruction. My friendly banker (I've talked to her before, and she is friendly and helpful) also said I didn't need to come in to the branch, I could call either the branch or the 800 number on the "your CD is maturing" letter. Tuesday morning, I called the 800 number. I got someone who told me that he couldn't do this for me, it had to be in writing. And did so in such a way that I asked him "well, what can you do?" I had already said I didn't want him to close my account, just move the money from a CD to their money market while I decided what to do next. [Closing the account will be handled separately, but I didn't tell him that; he may have guessed.] He said something about handling paperwork, and I asked why they had him answering phones. A moment's more annoyance, and a new voice cut in. She explained she was a supervisor, and said that if I had access to a fax machine, we could do it that way. She gave me their fax number and instructions on what to include in the fax. I thanked her, opened a word processor file, and they had a fax 20 minutes later. [Worst case, she lied to me, and I'll move the money to TIAA-CREF six months from now.]

This is going to TIAA-CREF because I have pension money there already, from when I worked at ACM, and it's a good deal if you're eligible (in terms of fees and the rate of return they've been managing). Eligibility is a bit complicated, but it includes anyone who works at an institution where they offer a pension plan; anyone who works at an eligible institution (nonprofit colleges adn universities, elementary and secondary schools, government entities, teaching hospitals, and museums are listed as examples); anyone who already has a retirement plan with them (that's my eligibility); or the spouse or domestic partner of anyone in one of the above groups. The limits on that are legal and historical, and connected to their non-profit status (my pension plan is at a .org domain); they're pretty clearly casting the net as widely as Congress will let them.

It's going to take a lot of chocolate to comfort me after wading through Form 1040 and assorted related forms—including discovering that the one I'd never heard of, but that a worksheet wanted, is completely irrelevant to me—and coming out owing the government a chunk of money. If I got the numbers right. I've already spotted one place where I'd made an error, which would have cost us extra money. This is why I do everything on scrap paper, and why I'm not even looking at the state forms tonight.

Line 1 of the worksheet is where I put my expected annual income for 2002. First, we ignore the advice that I look at my 2001 income tax forms: neither Andy nor I has the jobs that provided most of our 2001 income, nor have we had them for even one day of this year.

The problem is, I sort of assumed that I could toss the attached paperwork for the unemployment check any-old-where, because the feds will send me a form 1099. Now I need to stop and figure out how much they've sent me this year; it's so much a week, minus the weeks I worked or was otherwise unavailable. And the one week where they only sent me one day's payment, without clear explanation: I think that was where I rolled over from regular to extended benefits.

Okay, we can do this: the unemployment is the inverse of the weeks I worked, allowing for the week I was out of the country and thus unavailable and not collecting benefits.

<fx>: consults calendar, scribbles on assorted sheets of paper, does simple arithmetic</fx>

Okay, if I'm multiplying a not-at-all-round number by 15.3%, I'll give in and use a calculator (or, this being 2002, the nicer of the two calculator apps on my Palm).

Oh, here's a nice one: "16: Subtract line 15 from line 14c. (Note: If zero or less or line 13c minus line 15 is less than $1,000, stop here. You are not required to make estimated tax payments.)" This is amusing because we haven't previously done this calculation. It's also convenient: in my case, 13c-15<1000, so I can stop here, rather than writing a check.

And make a note to do it over in a few months.