Mission: Accomplished

I successfully applied for my replacement Social Security card! The new one should arrive in two weeks. It was much easier in person than how the Social Security website explained it to be. Still, it was not a pleasant experience. It took hours. To borrow from Tom Petty, "the waiting is the hardest part." I amused myself by checking out my fellow tax payers.

My favorites were the trio of older Asian women. They all looked to be well over 70. They spoke little English, and a special civil servant fluent in their language had to be summoned. As we all waited, I decided the ladies had to be Japanese, because I know American baseball is popular in Japan and the oldest woman was wearing both a Cubs cap and jacket (and she looked just adorable, like my grandma did in her Cubs gear). There was a fashionista in the trio. She was wearing black ankle boots, black leggings, a black infinity scarf, and a long, oversized blouse. On closer examination, I saw it was a NY Yankees jersey! I wonder if she understood that she had gone all Carrie Bradshaw on a baseball jersey. It got me wondering about how knowledge affects how we see things. When she opened her closet (or, perhaps, her grandson's closet) did she merely see a black-and-white striped tunic that afforded her unlimited fashion possibilities, whereas I saw the famous Yankee pinstripes -- which would have restricted me to blue jeans?

On my way to the water fountain, I was shocked to see these portraits. On the one hand, of course! The Social Security office is in a Federal Building. Naturally the official photographs of the President and Vice President would be on the wall.

On the other hand, I still can't get over it that these two are our President and Vice President. It still rattles me that nearly half of my fellow citizens looked at Trump/Pence on the ballot and said to themselves, "Yes! That looks like a good idea!"