The DMV

I meant to post this yesterday, so for a few minutes pretend its till Thursday...unless that's just too painful :)

School starts Monday for Josh & Em. Since I've been putting off the inevitable trip to the DMV with Josh I decided to go today and get it over with. I'm not usually one to postpone important things, but I completely procrastinated on this. He needed to get his license switched over from Oklahoma. No tests or anything, just the dreaded eternal wait in an overcrowded room filled with angry people who would rather be pretty much anywhere else, including the dentist, or even an IRS audit.

We decide to combine trips and go with Becca on her way to work. We dropped her off and headed to the DMV. "DMV, that even sound boring." Josh quips. Not sure what he was expecting. I asked what he thought it should be called. "MPG" he answered. Which would stand for.....? "Military propelled grenades." I've got to admit that would make the place pretty exciting, not sure what it has to do with driving, but okay.

We walk in the door, scan the crowd and grab a number. It's standing room only. Our number, 19. The number on the screen, 72. Quick math brain that I possess puts us at 47th in line. At 5 min per person, we're looking at just under 4 hours. Oh brother. We stand around for about 10 minutes to gauge the employees' efficiency....okay, redo the math, 10 min per person...put us at just under 8 hours....uh....they'll be closed by then. What to do? We take our number with us and decide to run some errands. We ran and got another load of the free firewood, ran to the feed store to window shop and pick up an axe and hit the grocery for some pop and bread. 2 hours had passed, so we decided to check back in at the DMV. Up to # 94, wow 22 people in 2 hours, these ladies were moving right along. at 5.5 minutes per person I figure we have another 2 hours or so, so its out the door and on to Best Buy. I used a reward certificate to buy a Christmas gift, and then we ran to Dick's sporting good and checked out he rifles and shotguns, among pretty much everything else in the store. Finally on the way back, we ran to the pawn shop and looked at some dirt bikes and four wheelers that had caught Josh's eye.

We walk in the door at the DMV and they are on #1. Okay what happened? 7 people in about 90 minutes, boy did they hit a snag somewhere! A nap, lunch out, a scrapbooking party? My mind contrives the possible scenarios. We decide to stay put. A couple of seats have opened up, so we seat ourselves and people watch.

Everyone there has better things to do than spend 4 hours waiting, it shows on their faces. A couple of women with small fussy children give up and hope they will have better luck a different day. As they leave, one kindly hands her number to an elderly gentleman on oxygen. For a fleeting second I see myself tackling him and wresting the number from his clutch, but then I come to my senses and smile at her, acknowledging her kindness. A small child sits on the floor in her bright red shirt and white pants, her dark eyes glow with happiness. She tugs at her dark pigtail with one hand while chewing a fingernail on the other. She is taking in the sights, smiling at another girl her age and chattering in Spanish to her baby brother in mother's lap.

Finally our number is called. The woman scarcely makes eye contact as she inputs Josh's info. Josh also makes no eye contact, he continues to text on his phone just out of her sight. She looks up, scowl on her face and quips, "I can waive all restrictions with one condition." Josh looks up and meets her eye to eye. "Yes?" "That you sing the Oklahoma song." He stands stunned for a moment, trying to decide if she is serious. "uh, well, the schools weren't very good there, they never taught us that," he answers with a puzzled look. She chuckles and continues entering info, he returns to texting. Finally after 4.5 hours and $21 we are done and out of there, and all we have to show for it is a piece of paper.

Becca had a short day, so we picked her up and headed home. That was the day in a nutshell. No wonder I procrastinated. It wasn't what I would exactly call a productive day, we left home at 9 and got home at almost 4 . But it is done and hopefully we wont have to repeat that experience for a long while. Just in case, maybe I should refresh my memory to the words of Oklahoma.