Day 3, Thursday, January 29, 2010
11:55pm. I pass the DMV on the street, enter the illegal lot and park. (I have got this down!). I waltz in, 3 minute wait for B 210 and Im outa there.
1:30pm. I return, this time, for the first time, remembering to ask my spiritual guides to provide me with help: a legal parking spot, a seat inside, and, dare I ask it? actual calling of my number while I’m there!
I pulll up and out pulls a pick-up providing me with a dream parking spot. So far, so good. Before I take remove my plates, I run inside to check the numbers, B170–OMG, I’m only 40th in line for this particular transaction! I pinch myself. Can this be happening???!!!
I get inside and there’s an empty seat. I pull out my ipod and headphones and listen to a good lecture on Platao’s Apology–how time flies.
1:50pm. We are already to B208. It’s time to pack up and be ready to run to the right window. I compulsively check my form, my plates. It’s all there.
2:10pm. I’m getting nervous. I’ve got to leave at 2:20pm to pick up my daughter from school. We’ve been on B209 for the longest time–what can be happening? I walk near window 16 and assess the situation. The customer has a Spanish translator who is patiently running a steady back and forth between the DMV intake person and the customer. The DMV intake person is frantically typing and occasionally grunting. The Spanish-speaking customer’s children are attempting to peel mandatory notices off the walls. It looks like it may never end.
2:20pm There are no other Bs being served. Window 22, which had been solidly B for 20 minutes, has mysteriously gone A. Window 16 is still going strong. Can it be that I will have to leave the DMV yet again? I feel hysteria rise in my gullet. I am grateful that the only weapon I have access to is a philips driver–I mentally place the flathead’s location in my car and wonder whether I can make it to the car and back in time to…
2:22pm “Now serving B210 at window number 16” Window 16! Window 16! I skip with joy and practically hug the employee (who looks like she could use a 6 month vacation from hell). I practice zen patience as slight obstacles in my paperwork arise and are overcome.
2:32pm I emerge from the DMV victorious and attach my old personalized plates (FORES10, if you must know) on our new car. Halleluyah Halleluyah!!!!
2:40pm Arrive at my daughter’s school. She’s not there.
Okay, I don't have anything really interesting, witty or insightful to say about Sara's DMV experience. Except I'm still wondering if Emily got home okay. And if she was mad, did the blog entry suffice for a valid excuse for being late? I know children hate waiting; they confuse it with being abandoned. Or now that I contemplate it, maybe it's me that hates waiting. Or being abandoned. That reminds me … I have to renew my car registration … ONLINE!
So the real point of this response is to show Sara that I do know how to hit 'reply all.' And I'm pretty sure her offer to help – technologically – was nothing less than a 'shaming tactic.'
Mark