Astra's Computer Use snags a last-minute NYC marriage bureau appointment
Ten days before the wedding, the officiant's paperwork was unresolved and every appointment was booked, so the author had Astra check the NYC marriage bureau portal hourly until it found the only open slot.
*How Astra with Computer Use Saved My Marriage* ten days before our wedding, a bored clerk at the brooklyn marriage bureau—as if reporting that their printer was out of toner—informed us that our officiant (kelly, a lifelong friend in california) isn't legally going to marry us. she could, in theory. she just has to go into the manhattan marriage bureau office in person first. which is appointment-only. and has no appointments. I pull up the portal to confirm: a wall of fully booked days. the earliest available appointment is sept 25th. the wedding is sept 19th. fuck. I was responsible for handling paperwork with the city for my wedding. fiancee status: not speaking to me to make matters worse, our officiant arrives only one day before the wedding, so I don't need just any appointment. I need one on sept 18th. now I'm calling the marriage bureau, our council person, the city clerk, anyone and everyone. if you worked for the city of new york in september and your phone rang, it was probably me. at which point it occurs to me, I could set up an agent to check the portal every hour on the hour for that specific date and email me if something opens up. it's a long-shot, but maybe? I spend a few minutes setting it up and move on. days go by of emails and calls with bureaucrats telling me they want to help but their hands are tied. at this point I have accepted that our wedding will be a legal charade. it was important to both of us that kelly actually married us. we'd been planning it for two years. I feel like shit. fiancee status: has forgiven me, which is somehow worse then, at the 11th hour of sept 17, I get an email on my phone: "an appointment at the manhattan marriage bureau on 10am, sept 18 has opened up." I hurtle into my office chair and race to the portal to see for myself. nothing. it's the same wall of fully booked days that I started with. is my agent fucking with me? I find the agent session that sent me the email. "I just looked at the portal, there's nothing open, why did you say there was an opening?" "because there is — I'm holding it for you." sure enough, I open up the browser it was using and there's the appointment, like a goddamn christmas miracle, selected and awaiting my confirmation. it had grabbed the slot the second it opened, which is why it looked booked to everyone else, me included. in the end, kelly actually married us, and the wedding was spectacular. fiancee status: wife thank you to @OpenAI and to whichever couple called it off on sept 17th. you did the right thing.