a long rant about my day

What is public school teaching us these days?
When I was in high school, I took a drivers education class. You know what it taught me? Road signs. They wouldn't actually 'teach' you how to drive unless you already knew how(and then whats the point?), and they sure as heck didn't teach me about re-newing stickers and registrations and inspections.

Well, sometime the beginning of this week, I went out to my car to find a citation sticker on it for not having good tags. I made a mental note to pay it, and ask my mom about it later. The next day I come out to a BIG YELLOW STICKER on my car saying it's parked illegally. Grrrr.

So this morning I drove my car to my mom's house, and my mom decided to come with me and teach me the things that I should already know but no-one bothered to tell me. All it all it went really well, except for some minor issues. I shall…recount the adventures for you
My car passed emissions, but didn't pass safety inspection! Among the list of fails: brakes on front tires, light bulb, and windshield wipers. Among the list of 'be worried about this, but it's not necessary to pass inspection': brakes on back tires and major oil leak.

I'm sorry, I just don't understand that. My windshield wipers are a hazard to my(and other peoples) safety, but a major oil leak isn't? Yes, I understand if it's raining and I don't have good windshield wipers on my car I could hit someone. But couldn't I also hit someone if my call stalls or just..stops working in the middle of a busy intersection or highway cause the oil is gone?

Anyways, to make a long story really short, we take my car to Sears for them to fix everything(except the oil leak, cause they don't do that) Cost of fixing everything? $700. Yeah. I don't have that kind of money. I got $400 from Micron 401k that I didn't want rolled over to my own IRA. So driving back to Sears to pick up my car, I tell my mom this and she states–well, your father and I decided for your birthday we were going to give you $700. So lets just pay for your car and that will be your gift. Of course, I am way more than happy with this–God provided me the money! Yay! Of course, I am…not so happy that I had to use birthday money that I technically didn't even get yet. And I realized this happens alot–whenever I somehow get extra money, something bad happens to my car and it steals it from me.

So thats the car story. On to the DMV trip!

Because the emissions passed, I got to go to DMV to renew my registration and get new decal stickers for my license plates. Turns out–get this–I couldn't get my registration renewed because DMV suspended my license without even telling me! DMV made a BIG mistake and somehow forgot to contact my car insurance company(which it is their job to do) to make sure I had insurance on my car. When the system didn't see any insurance, they suspended my license! What if I had been pulled over by a police officer? I would have been in MAJOR trouble. Lucky for me, I called my car insurance company, and after explaining the situation to them, they were really upset(seeing as how I've ALWAYS had coverage on the car) so instead of filing the financial report the DMV wanted me to, they faxed them a mean letter. Which seemed to take care of the problem, except that I still had to pay $45 to get my license un-suspended! And it was their fault! But no, there was no talking out of that one. Lucky for me, the DMV lady I got was really nice. She helped me out, and even renewed my driver's license(it was almost time) so now I have a new license with a new picture! Also, I was somehow supposed to give them my birth certificate so that all of this could be done, but we didn't have it on us(it's in a safety deposit box in my bank) so the lady–how do I say this?–fudged some numbers for me.

That kinda completes my story. Tomorrow I go back to get my car re-inspected, and I go over to the courthouse to pay my car tax fees and get some city stickers on my car.

Sigh. One of the best parts of the day was this evening, when my mom and I went and saw 'Take The Lead'. It is…an awesome movie! Definitely solidified in my mind that I am having dancing at my wedding and I am taking dance lessons as soon as I get my second chance with Rhema(assuming I even get a second chance, LOL!)

And now this post has come to an end. Happy dreaming everyone, and please, don't pay any attention to that monster under your bed. Just make sure you don't…hang an arm or a leg off of your bed or I will the monster will eat it.