Some rare praise

I went to get my passport renewed today, and I can honestly say that I do not have a single complaint. In fact (and brace yourself for this one), I'm actually rather impressed. This morning, I went to the state department website. It told me what I had to have (ID, old passport, money to pay for it, and the correct form). I filled out the form online and printed it out. Then I hopped in the car and cruised up to the mall, where there is a "country store", where they do various government-y things, such as vote registration, passports, and I'm certain any other number of convienant things. This is a wonderful idea, especially because it means that instead of driving into Camden or Philly, I had to drive two minutes up to the Cherry Hill Mall.

I didn't have to wait - literally, not for more than ten seconds - before someone asked if they could help me. They took my picture, filled out their part of the form, took my money (okay, minor complaint: a renewed passport is $97. That's insane.), and told me it would be about six weeks.

Total elapsed time in passport-getting? About twenty minutes. This is how things should work far more often.