My fabulously productive day at work

With abject apologies to my boss. . .

-Arrive at work before 8 a.m.
-Do actual work for 1 hour
-Talk to one of the researchers about pseudo-despotic regime programs~15 minutes. Tells me I should apply to pseudo-despotic regime programs, because they are much easier to get into than despotic regime programs.
-11:00: take a "short" break to fill out a gazillion transcript request forms (one for each of the 5 schools I attended times a gazillion programs I'm applying to).
-12:00-I'm still filling out damn forms; decide that I need to get this done and figure I'll either make up the time later today or take PTO for the time I didn't work.
-at some point, I do some real work for a short time
-2:00-I walk over to the registrar's office to hand deliver my own school's transcript requests.
-2:03-I arrive and find out that the office is closed for Thanksgiving holiday and nearly have a breakdown.
2:03 and 30 seconds-A wonderfully sympathetic staff must've seen how dejected I looked and opens the door; I explain that Princeton's despotic regime program needs transcripts by 1 December and start pleading with them. They agree to process my request.

I am eternally grateful. Beyond words.

2:05 woman behind counter starts processing my request for 12 separate orders. She says she'll do this while I wait, since some of the instructions are a bit involved. Thinking I can watch her and make sure she gets all of this right, I stick around.

3:05 An hour has passed and she has processed just four out of the 12 I need. I tell her that I need to run and ask her to process just the ones that are sent to me.
3:15 I'm still waiting for my 6 transcripts.
Meanwhile, I ask her to fill out one of the forms that is supposed to accompany one of the transcripts. She tells me she can't fill out the form, b/c my school doesn't issue class ranks. I ask her if she can just indicate that on the form and fill out the form anyway.

3:20 Still going back and forth; still waiting for the 6 transcripts; I'm losing patience and cursing myself for not bringing my linear algebra book with me.
3:30 Back at my office. Eat lunch while reading about deficits. Do some real work again for a while.
4:30 Decide to walk to my car and drive it closer, since I expect to be here late.
5:00ish-back at my office.
5:15 or so--am interrupted by an email from my dad who tells me that the institution where I did my junior year abroad 1)will not take transcript requests unless a)I show up in person, or b)I mail them a form. He claims they won't accept faxes. Incredulous, I look up the info, and sure enough, he is right.
5:30 Make a frantic call to the transcripts office in Tokyo and explain to the person that I wasn't aware of this new protocol; that I've ordered transcripts via my parents many times before, and explain that I need one of the transcripts sent by 1 December, so I wouldn't be able to mail the request to them on time.
Gracious person on the other side tells me that if I enclose a photo ID, sign it, etc., I can fax it, and then mail the forms later.
6:15 I finish filling out forms, writing a fax half in Japanese and half in English, typing out detailed instructions. I fax.
7:00 I get a confirmation slip telling me my fax didn't go through. I try again.
7:30 Fax finally gets through. I call to confirm that they received it. Marvel at how I've been here for 11 hours, of which I might've done 1-2 total hour of work. I try to get some work done.
8:00 Decide this is futile and head to car, planning to go to gym.
8:05 Decide I'm too tired/hungry to go to gym and head home.
8:35 Finally home, wondering how the hell it took 12 hours just to process transcript requests. (Granted, it was a lot of transcripts (close to 100 total) and I had to fill out a form for almost every single damn one, but still. . ..)