Back in April my purse was stolen. Narrowing it down to the small window of opportunity I figured it was either stolen out of my unlocked car at church or out of my unlocked car in my garage when the garage door was left open all night. Hmm. Neither one makes me feel good.
I've had my Alaska license for a long time. The Alaska DMV has been good to me these past 10 years by sending me renewal stickers so I've managed to avoid horrendous lines at the DMV (in a state I was thousand of miles from) and keep the same picture and weight (If only that were true!) But then my purse was stolen and I realized that something much worse has been lurking waiting to be discovered.
Yep, it turns out I've been driving illegally for the past 2 years. In 2004 I got a Guam license. (only because I was guilted into being honest) No where else we have moved have we been required to get a new license because we are not residents of that state as we keep our Alaska residency. . . but Guam made me do it. So even though I got a renewal sticker on the back of my AK ID that told me it was good to go for 4 more years it wasn't really true. And the Guam ID I put away and never used again expired in 2007.
Only thing left to do was get an Illinois license.
The minute I walked into the DMV I thought I'd entered the Twilight Zone. Besides the people behind the desk I was the ONLY one there. No lines, no waiting. NO way!!
I walked up, presented my case and was immediately told that the person I told my story to over the phone had given me wrong information. Isn't that usually the case? Despite much pleading I turned my head down in defeat. I was not only going to have to take the written test but ALSO the driving test. I immediately felt 16 again. But wait I wasn't prepared. I studied for the written test for 2 days. I'm wasn't prepared to take a driving test!
After it was all over I didn't even ask how many points I was docked. I just wanted to know I had passed. It seemed the guy was scribbling on his pad the whole time. The first time was as I was driving out of the DMV parking lot and he told me to turn right. As I made the turn I realized that, "Hmm, maybe I should have used my blinker?" Shoot!
Scribbble, scribble.
Then I come to a stop sign and stopped right at it. Shoot! Oh, that's right I'm supposed to stop before the Stop sign. Can you tell I'm getting a little nervous about passing this test. Then as he's directing me into making turns and stops it all starts coming back to me-The REAL rules of the road. Okay, so I've tweaked them a little over the years. How many of us really stop before a stop sign. Next time you're on the road pay attention. You'll notice most of us stop AFTER the stop sign because the signs are a million miles from the place where you can see oncoming traffic. But now I'll stop before the stop sign and just keep scooting forward. Eventually I'll get there.
As we pulled back into the parking lot the guy turns to me and says, "Now that wasn't to bad, was it?" I didn't turn to him because I was still driving but I said, "That all depends, "Did I pass?"
I asked that question because sadly, I really didn't know the answer. It turns out I did. Whew! Even though I've been driving for 20 years I did better when I was 16.
I just wanted to share a conversation I had with Jenna today. We were doing our daily clean-up around the house. Unfortunately, Jenna was doing more messing up than cleaning up much to Kate's dismay, especially since they share a room together. Because she wasn't helping I asked Jenna, "What are you doing?" Her reply, "I just being a man." I laughed. Where did that come from?
