passport renewal part 2 / blueberry bliss smoothie

Last night I picked up our mail and was pleasantly surprised to see an envelope from the Department of State. Must be my new passport, right? After an evil post office woman, four hours, a $110 check, and yelling obscenities in the privacy of my car about the inefficiency of government run businesses, I was actually receiving my passport in a timely fashion. I nearly felt guilty for my previous post (see Passport Renewal), but then I opened the thick, manila envelope. New passport? Nope. It was my old passport, all of my filled out paperwork, and a fresh white letter telling me that my passport renewal had been denied. I looked in the envelope for the returned check. No luck; the bastards took my money anyway...and, on top of it all, they had the audacity to tell me in that my check amount was incorrect. I was supposed to send $135 dollars instead of $110 dollars. Super. So why had it been denied? Apparently I had already applied for a passport in 2003.
#$%*@#?! (translation: I am a little bit frustrated) because I sent them my old passport, marriage license, social security number, a hair sample, and even a unicorn friend to vouch for me...and they still turned me down (not to mention my unicorn had to be overnighted which was rather expensive).
Luckily, my husband's passport is up to date, so he just needs to renew his green card (he's from outer space!!!). Isn't it strange how they call non-citizens aliens? Every time I see his "legal alien" card I envision a purple, bug-eyed creature with antennae and sticky fingers like E.T.- not a cute englishman.
And speaking of aliens...Dragon (samwise gamgee) has been mewing all morning and staring at the ceiling as though a demon (no doubt invisible to the human eye) has infiltrated our apartment. I think it may have something to do with the fact that we removed the AC unit from our bedroom window. This is rather catastrophic (no pun intended) for a cat like Dragon. She lives in our apartment, every second of every day, and isn't allowed outside (for reasons I think you may be able to guess...she gets lost in open spaces, remember?). There was a large, grey object that made loud noises and now there isn't (translation: demons are in the apartment and she must alarm everyone to their presence). I also made the mistake of leaving the closet under the stairs (mordor) slightly ajar. Frodo went inside (naturally, because he's got to throw that ring into the fires of mount doom already!) and when Dragon approached the dark, menacingly entrance...she panicked. She could hear the crinkling of bags (translation: roar of mount doom's inferno), and feared for Frodo's life, so she pooped outside the litter box and has been running like a maniac around the apartment for the last ten minutes.
Needless to say, I've been slightly distracted and unable to edit my novel very much this morning. Solution? A raw smoothie to energize my spirits (and an excuse to turn on the blender and further confuse Dragon). Raw food used to scare me because I love cooked, hot, cozy food, and whenever I thought of the word raw I envisioned cold, gazpacho soup, goosebumps, a food dehydrator, and an unsatisfied stomach. But you know what? Raw food is pretty r-awesome. Yup, I just said rawesome...deal with it, haters.

Blueberry bliss smoothie

1 large banana, peel removed
1/2 cup frozen or fresh blueberries
1 cup soy milk (I use Edensoy Extra Original) or non-dairy milk of your choice
A few pinches of ground cinnamon
3-4 ice cubes
1/2 tsp raw agave, if desired (I think it's plenty sweet without agave. Bananas have a lot of natural sugar!)
**For a protein boost, I add a small scoop of hemp protein powder (I use Living Harvest Organic Hemp Protein...nothing but cold milled hemp!)

In a high speed blender, combine all ingredients and blend until smooth. Serve to two sluggish unicorns without passports.