Stand in this line, then stand in that line, then go back to this line...

Government is hilarious. And by hilarious I mean frustrating, inefficient, infuriating, and backward.

We went to the City Clerk this morning to get our marriage license. We were there before the building opened and we were the first in line. Theoretically we should have been in and out in 20 mins. I even remarked as we waited for 8:30 to roll around that it was looking good for us to be out of there quickly. Which, of course, made Matthew smack his forehead and grimace. "No! No, you can't say that! Now we're screwed."

Apparently the acknowledgement of good chances of having a positive experience in a municipal building is the equivalent of requesting your own doom. We had our forms filled out, our money order stamped, everything was in order. We were walking up to the window, beaming with pride and smiling from ear to ear... when we were told that no one could get onto the network and they had no clue how long it would take to fix it.

Network. Down. Crap. This is when a manual system seems like a welcome switch. Matthew kept remarking that if someone had a typewriter we'd be done by now.

On the bright side this unexpected speedbump allowed lots of time to people watch. Take my word for it, the people watching opportunities in Brooklyn Borough Hall are on par with the greatest freak shows in the world. People of all creeds, all walks of life were waiting there with us. And they were all getting married. Wowzers. Humanity is fabulously funny. My favorites were the odd couples. The people who seemed like polar opposites who had chosen to spend their lives together. Mad props to those folks.

When the network came back online we got our forms processed and we thought we were done. Oh no, silly us! We had to wait in the cashier line - the line we waited in when we first got to the office to get our forms. By this time there were 40 people ahead of us because it was 11:00, not 8:30 like when we got there.

3 lines, 1 money order, 3 hours, and countless amusements later we have our marriage license and a handful of funny stories to boot. 9 days to go and we're legally allowed to get married now. Whew!