To start things off, in my previous post I had explained my frustrations with the Air Force base hospital and how they gave me the final answer of "yes, we can do your overseas screening". Well, a day before my follow up appointment, they called and said, "turns out we can't do your screening after all, so we'll cancel your appointment and leave your paperwork at the front desk to pick up". So I went in to pick up my paperwork, sent a message to my ombudsman to inform her of this in case anyone else was in the similar situation, and she told me to contact a medical representative on the ship that was handling all the paperwork. After not reaching her, I was again in a state of limbo. I picked up my paperwork, was told that if the answer changed again, I could just make another appointment. From there, I thought I would drop by the records office to pick up my civilian records that are hopefully there, that indicate the vaccinations I received before the Navy life. Due to an impending "snow storm" (which in Virginia meant some wind, and an inch of snow later that night), the Records Office was closed for the day.. which, as a Western New Yorker, is frustrating. 2 feet of snow in NY and hardly the schools close. This was all on Tuesday.
Today is Thursday. I finally heard back from the medical representative, after a follow up email, and I do have to go to the Navy hospital after all. I also have to go to the Navy Dental Clinic, even though I was told the civilian one would be fine. I hope they just look over the report from my dentist and simply sign off on it.
On a separate note, but no less frustrating, I'm trying to get my motorcycle license. I took the Basic Rider Course through the Motorcycle Safety Foundation on base here in Virginia, and was told the licensing was different state to state. When we went to Maine for Christmas, my husband, who had also taken the course, walked into the Maine DMV and 5 minutes later walked out with a new license, complete with the motorcycle endorsement. When I went into the NY DMV later that week, I had to take the written permit test, call a number, fill out a form, pay some money, then left with only my permit. I called the number they gave me, and I was told that NY did have an agreement with the military to accept the out of state BRC (Basic Rider Course), and I had to email my military ID, NY State License, BRC card, a memo saying I passed my written and riding course, and I think that might've been it. I would then receive a waiver in the mail that I could forward to the NY DMV to get my license sans riding/driving test. When I sent this email, I got back a disappointing response, the gist of which was that since I wasn't active duty and only a dependent, I could not get the waiver.
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| This is the type of motorcycle I got to ride for my course. |
My husband has a dream to ride motorcycles around Spain while we are there, so I had to look for my next option... which is to transfer my NY license to a Virginia license. Today I went to the DMV here in Virginia to do that. I knew I needed a couple forms of ID and something that proves I live in Virginia. So I showed up with my SS card, my NY license, my military ID, and my car insurance cards which have my name and address on them. The first time in, I was sent away because the SS card wasn't good enough. I needed my passport or birth certificate. Okay, fine. Drive back to the apartment, obtain passport from filing cabinet. Back to the DMV, round 2. Oh, the car insurance cards are one of the only things they don't accept for proof of address. Do I have anything else? No, I pay all my bills electronically, and everything else is in my husband's name. Well, I'll have to print out a bill from one of the credit cards or insurance bills that I have.
Frustrated and emotionally tired from all the back and forths I've dealt with this week/month, I made it to the car before I started crying.
Time for a break, some Starbucks, making sure my eyes and nose aren't red or puffy for the license picture, journaling my frustrations into this blog, and then I will go back to the DMV for round 3: FIGHT!
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