"Fine, Except for the Paperwork."

June 21, 2011 at 4:06 pm (By Amba)

I treasure that smart-ass answer a young woman just out of college fired back when I asked her, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, "So, how do you like adulthood?"

The occasion of my remembering it now is that I just spent 3 hours at the DMV changing my license from NC to NY.  There must have been thousands of people there, waiting for hours in lines or on benches.  Idiot me, I didn't bring anything to read.  I've been complaining about not having time to read, this was my big chance to knock off War and Peace!

I did have a notebook with me, so when there were still 35 people ahead of me and desperation set in, I wrote:

There ought to be a word for the trance of bureaucratic boredom.  Stupor, really.

If we were British we could call it "queuepor."  But we're not.

So I began to entertain myself by thinking up words for it.

nouns:

• overwait
• bored or line personality
• officialdumb
• linodopy
• bureaudumb

adjectives:

• stupofficial
• offish
• sopofficious

This got me through to 15 people ahead of me.  After that I was okay just staring at the board till my number came up.

Please contribute your suggestions.