My husband’s claim that I could easily renew my license online without a trip to DMV turned out to be untrue. He had done it himself and was quite sure it would work. I’ll spare you the details of several fruitless efforts that ended up each time with a claim that the DMV had no matches for the license I was renewing.
So on Wednesday morning, once my date with my coffee pot was complete, I headed out to the local DMV. A small problem arose in the large room as there were more people filling out forms than there were clipboards to write on. A gracious lady, waiting her own turn, took it upon herself to hand out clipboards as they were returned to those who were trying to fill out forms on their laps. I had already compensated by putting the book I had brought behind the form.
I returned my completed form, took my number, opened my book, and settled down to wait. I glanced at the order being served and realized that the numbers on the board were preceded by a smorgasbord of letters from the alphabet and three digit nonconsecutive numbers, making it impossible to know how far down the list my number (C506) was. No matter, the room was half-full of fairly cheerful people, and I had a new book to read.
Soon my concentration on my book took a hit. The lady resolving her problem at the window closest to me had not been in my kindergarten class and learned that there is an inside voice. She began by cheerfully thanking the clerk for remembering her. I could not see the clerk, so I could only guess at her reaction as the lady continued to regale her with family stories and trip adventures. By the time her license issue was resolved, I could have written her memoir. I also had a good idea why the clerk had remembered her!
The second person at the window did know about an inside voice, but he still talked loud enough to make overhearing quite easy. He came with a sheaf of papers, a courteous attitude, and a big problem. Evidently, he had lost his license due to unpaid traffic violations at some point and believed that he had resolved all of them – hence the sheaf of papers. As I listened to the concern on the part of the clerk and the polite responses from the man as they sifted through his papers, I empathized with both. As he left, still in a positive mood with one more issue to be resolved, I had hope that he would learn from this problem that he had obviously brought on himself and become a better driver when he got his license back.
By this time, they called C506 so I was able to take my form to the window with a pleasant, knowledgeable clerk. I made this judgment of her right away since she wore a smile and complemented my nice handwriting. (Fourteen years of printing on the chalkboard for second graders might have had something to do with my skill at filling out readable forms.) After a fairly decent mugshot and a swipe of my credit card, she printed my brand new driver’s license, good for four more years.
I only got to page 27 in the book, but I had an interesting people-watching morning – and I got a new license and a blog out of it.