The Land of Inconvenience...Ireland

Okay, so calling just Ireland inconvenient isn't fair. It's really everywhere besides the US. But I'm living in Ireland right now, so fair or not that's what I'm calling it.

I finally had my first break down today at the utter lack of convenience. If you've been reading the blog or my facebook status updates, then you're thinking to yourself, "The laundry's finally gotten her. We may never get her back." And while, the laundry is the absolute bane of my existence, it's not what did me in.

I don't have a cell phone yet. And before you say it, yes I could get the pay-as-you-go kind and be done with it. But for many reasons not interesting enough for the world wide web, I've decided to get the pay monthly plan. Mostly this allows for an "unlimited data" plan where you don't have to pay per kb for checking e-mail and feeding my facebook addiction. But to get a cell phone on a pay monthly account, I need a utility bill or bank statement.

Okay fine. I finally have our utilities set up and they say they can't send me a utility bill until the end of the cycle which in Ireland is two months. They assure me they'll send it in May. But they did send a letter with our account number requesting a deposit. I took this to the cell phone store who promptly turned me away and said it must be a utility bill. I pointed out the letter had our account number on it and this didn't seem to make any difference.

The mobile store informed me a bank statement would work as well. I can't get a bank account until I have a utility bill (May) or a letter from the PPS office (the Irish social security office). I've been to the PPS office twice now to collect this vital piece of paper and it still hasn't shown up in the mail. So no bank account.

I've been stuck in this cycle of paperwork since we arrived. All of it attempting to get our lives set up. And if it all went according to plan we'd be finished with everything we needed at our fingertips two weeks ago. But no.

To make things simply laughable, we can't get internet or cable set up at the house without an Irish phone number and bank account. So it's all very chicken and egg. And long story short, I have to go because writing this blog is costing about $2 with the pay-as-you-go internet aircard we bought.