Overbooked and Underpaid: Notes from a Yes-aholic

A DMV Miracle

So I head over to the local DMV yesterday to get the learner's permit for son #2. 

Long experience with DMV's in a variety of states has taught me to be prepared. I had knitting. I had a book (In case it was too humid to knit - can't stand sticky fingers and needles). I had my ipad. (In case the wait was soooo long I might have to blog from there.

So we went in and stood in the five minute line to get a number. I love how you have to wait in line to get a number to wait in another line. 

Actually, to camouflage your proposed wait time they have hit upon a couple of strategies: 

First, as in casinos, there usually is no clock on the wall or else they've put it in an obscure place. I am sure they are hoping that you will forget when you came in and therefore, how long you have been there. 

Next, instead of having you wait in an actual line - that you can obviously see the length of - you, the waitees, scatter yourselves about into variety of uncomfortable molded fiberglass chairs. At this point, any possibility that you will lose track of time, thanks to the hidden clock, is countermanded by the hardness of the chairs. The chairs make it perfectly clear to you exactly how many minutes your butt has spent in them.

Lastly, the number system is completely random. Numbers like A113, and G87. Apparently, any counter can call any number at any time. Sort of like roulette. Over the course of 10 minutes, you might see counter #5 handle A113, then S32, and then B343. What we have here is an obvious ploy to keep you from knowing your actual place in line or forming any reasonable guess as to how long you will be there. This it manages beautifully. It does not, however, keep your toe from itching with a desire to kick a little DMV employee behind if it would help get everything moving a little faster.

So, we got our number and sat down and I prepared to settle in for the two and a quarter hours it took to get son #1's permit.

Let me state for the record that I firmly believe that people have a certain kind of luck assigned to them at birth. My eldest son has, unfortunately, inherited my Murphy's Law brand of luck. My second son can only be described as "born under a lucky star". 

I don't think his tush even touched his chair before they called his number. We hopped up to the counter, presented all the appropriate ID's, and got his testing ticket. He went over to the testing area while I resumed my seat and took out my knitting. I think I got about six or seven rows done before he was finished with his test and getting another slip of paper with another unfathomable number on it. This time, I thought, this time, he'll have to wait. Nope. He did at least  sit down. Maybe 10 seconds later they call his number, ask me to pay the fees, and send him over to the photo area. Three more minutes and we're walking out the door with his new learner's permit.

I never got to knit another stitch.

So I know who I'm taking with me the next time I have wait in any kind of line.

Come to think of it, maybe I should rent him out to overbooked people.

Talk about Timing

Sometimes the universe lines up in funny ways. After I posted about my bathing suit, I opened my dailyink and read this comic by my good friend Sandra Bell Lundy.