Social Security?

When Miss Baby was born we filled out a form at the hospital to get a social security number (because really, shouldn't she be paying taxes already??) Well the social security card came shortly after we got home from the hospital and I stowed it away somewhere safe and of course that means, as it always does in my family, that it's in a place so safe even I can't find it. Since we need the social security card for obtaining a passport I decided to just break down and order a replacement card from the Social Security Administration. And, while I was at it, I figured I'd get a replacement for myself since I haven't had my card since I don't even know when. I went to the SSA website to find out where to go and by putting in my zip code the website directed me to the closest office. That meant the office in Trenton. Yeah, okay, I made the mistake of getting my NJ Driver's License at the DMV in Trenton and I decided then and there that I wouldn't be traveling to Trenton for anything else. Does the SSA website have a link for you to locate all of the offices within a particular state or locality? (You know, like if you were on the Gap's website and wanted to find all of their stores in NJ)... No, of course not, instead I have to sit there and jockey between the Post Office's zip code locator and the SSN's website trying to figure out zip codes of local towns that are far enough away from here that I wouldn't be directed back to Trenton. We're not even going to discuss the office in New Brunswick, instead let's just say that today we went to Somerville. The folks at the Somerville office were very helpful and the experience was much quicker than I expected (even given the whole "step right up and take your deli ticket number" atmosphere).

The first thing that happens when I step in the door is that I'm asked by a senior citizen volunteer if I have an appointment (can you even make appointments??) No, I say. Then I'm asked what I'm here for-- I say, replacement cards. Do you have proof of identification? To that I state that I have my daughter's birth certificate, immunization record and insurance card. Then I'm told: "Well, you know, a birth certificate isn't proof of identity."

Okay, a birth certificate certified by the health department in the locality where she was born *isn't* proof of identity? (Granted-- I knew this already from the SSN website, and hence that's why I had the immunization record) Isn't this a little bizzare? The immunization record was all of one printed page with Miss Baby's name on it and the name, address and phone number of the doctor's office with a notation as to when she had her DipTet shot. I could have typed it up at home. It wasn't on letterhead, it even vaguely looked like it had been printed on a dot matrix. I'll give you that the insurance card is a little more reputable, I mean, after all, it is laminated. Certainly by having an insurance card I'm showing that a) I'm not on medicare and b) I have gone to the trouble of reporting a birth to my insurance company and am paying some sort of premium for this little person, but then again, how does Oxford actually know she exists? The people at the Health Department actually have access to the birth record from the hospital, so shouldn't the "birth certificate" carry a bit more weight than either the immunization sheet or the insurance card??

Note also that the birth certificate doesn't prove "identity" for purposes of the passport either, yet a baptismal record will. Can anyone explain to me why it is that the Federal Government apparently puts no value on documentation provided by local and state municipalities? Isn't this a little odd? They'll trust Oxford and a baptism certificate but not the health department?

I can't wait to find out what kind of a debacle obtaining a passport will be.