And now a word from our sponsors

a thought, and a story!

So here I am, enjoying a Swedish fish and typing out my blog, which brings to mind a Swedish fish joke that I like to say:

A man walks into a candy store and asks: "Do you have any good candy?"
And the candy store man says: "Well, we have some candy fish."
And the man says: "Is it sweet?"
And the candy store man says: "Well, it's Swe-dish!

And I was telling Tiffany that joke and she said "I've heard that joke a million times. It's boring!"
And it's true! I tell it every time I see Swedish fish (which isn't exactly every day) so I decided to make a new Swedish fish themed joke, right now:

What kind of fish waged a series of wars in the mid-to-late seventeenth century that left the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in ruins?

Swedish fish!

******************************

Alright, so here's an interesting story: On Friday, I needed to get my passport renewed (for what reason? Maybe another post will tell) so I jaunted over to the nearest post office on Shattuck, which offered passport renewal services, though they stopped at 3PM. I got out of class at 2, and by the time I was able to get to the post office, it was 2:45PM (That was due, in part, to the fact that the first address I used led me to an apartment complex.) When I got in line, the lady asked me if I had an appointment. Confused, I said no, because the website told me there was no need for an appointment. As it turned out, an apointment was necessary to get the renewal. I was disappointed, but she offered me two choices: either I sign up for an appointment and come again another day, or I could go down to 7th street and renew my passport at the walk-in office there, which thankfully closed at 4PM. I took the second option.

7th street is apparently in the middle of downtown, scary looking Oakland. I parked, covered up anything that looked remotely valuable, and headed for the huge post office building. Right at the the entrance was the walk-in office (more of a counter, really) and the line was short! Plus, the worker was a 40something Filipino lady! The combination of these things were certain to get me through in no time. When it was my turn, the lady noticed that my parents were from the Philippines and asked where they were from. We had a casual conversation as she processed my papers, and she was in a good mood, which was a plus. Then, at the end of the process, I had to swear an oath that stated everything on the application was correct, that the picture was my picture, etc. and I responded with a simple "I do." As i was signing the papers, I jokingly said:

"So, heh, when do get to kiss the bride?"

I laughed at the small joke, but I noticed that the lady didn't really laugh. So I took my reciept and left. As I was walking to my car, I suddenly thought: "Did I just hit on a 40something year old Filipino lady?"