So tonight Doug and I took the children to the Price Club (also known as Costco to most of the free world) to have our passport photos taken. It has been five years since we were issued passports so they have just expired and we need new ones. William also needs to have his very first passport issued. So off to the photo studio we went. Have I mentioned I am not a fan of having my photo taken? Never have been and things like my driver’s license and passport explain why with no words at all. Well the first word that came to mind when I saw the finished product tonight was, “Yuck!” I look like hell and I can say that for two reasons; first because this is MY blog and secondly because I really look awful in it 🙁
It actually reminded me of a driver’s license photo I had taken many moons ago. It was the end of summer, close to my birthday and very hot outside. I was wearing a lovely white blouse because I had just come from a job interview, my hair was nicely coiffed, I had this awesome tan and I think I looked pretty darn good 😉 My mom happened to be with me when I went to get the license renewed and photo. Thank the Lord she was to. I started to feel unwell while waiting for my turn at the counter. The heat was getting to me and I had probably not had anything to eat that day. When it was my turn I went to the counter and started the transaction. I am not sure what happened next, but the next thing I knew my mom was half holding me and half dragging me across the waiting area to a chair!! I had fainted!! I mean fall on the floor and embarrass yourself fainted!! My mom finished up the renewal for me, but then they called me for the photo. OMG, it was truly awful. I had no time to check how I looked and I felt like throwing up, but they could not or would not wait for me. Picture this, pardon the pun, there’s me, wearing white, beautiful blonde hair and tan. In the photo I am as white as my shirt, hair flat to my head from the instant sweat I had broken into and my expression looked like I was stoned. It was the epitome of Yuck! I can laugh at it now, but I had to live with that photo for years and in the prime of being carded at every bar or dance club that I went to!
So the passport photo is not as bad as that, but we still all look like a bunch of convicts, staring ahead almost defiantly. Whoever made up the rule that you can’t smile was not thinking at all. Passports are used by practically the entire world when they travel. With all the terrorists out there how are they gonna tell the good guys from the bad. We all look guilty in these pictures 🙂
Now comes the fun of filling out the applications. Oh what joy, what bliss…….
FT&PD
Suz
Thanks for the laugh Suzanne….i just got my new health card in the mail a couple of days ago (after thinking I had lost my wallet 2 weeks back). Up until that point I had held on to the old health card for dear life and refused to hand it in for the new one for that very reason of having to go through the dreaded picture! I was not disapointed! The picture looks too big for the card and makes me look like I have a square head….never mind about the goofy look on my face. Luckily this photo will not adorn my new license….oh no…I’ll receive a new license with the old goofy picture seeing how it techinically hadn’t expired!!!
And the kicker……found my wallet a few days after I thought I lost it. What really hurts? I had to cut up my old health card!! *sniff sniff* Have a nice weekend!
Yuck to losing your wallet Lauren, that would suck! Thankfully you found it, but still the pain to replace things is not fun. Those blasted photos they make us take are shameful 🙁 I hear ya on the license photo to. I loved the very first one I ever had to take, way back in Grade 10. I asked if I could keep it as a reminder of good times when it had expired and they said absolutely not! No fair!
OMG, Suzanne, what a great laugh!!! That was soooo funny! You have a gift for writing. Yes, I agree on that not smiling rule too. Especially when people like you are smiling 90 % of the time! Thanks for the laugh!
Awww, thanks Gem! Still don’t like myself in photos though, smile or no smile 🙁
Hi Suzanne, thanks for the memory, I remember that day very well!! lol!! I was looking for the photos I thought you would show them off!!
LOL Mom, are you kidding?! They are awful!
Suzanne, I’m just catching up now. You’re right about the pictures though. If you can’t smile, how will they know what kind of teeth you have?
LOL, so true C 🙂 Those photos are nasty. Must be depressing to be a border guard, having to look at nasty photos all the time…
OMG Suzanne…..I love your post,you just made my Thursday morning!!
I know how you feel about your photo, mine looked like a prison mug shot and all I could think of every time an official person looked at it was “do they think I broke out of prison”