Although I was given a great tip for a topic today by a friend and reader (thanks Ran!), the past 48 hours have been so fraught with tension and misery that I thought I ought to do the more therapeutic (and entertaining) thing by relaying it all to you. But due to the fact that I have to get to bed soon in order to get up early (and because the dog's ass gas is causing me to feel faint and nauseous), I'll try my best to keep it brief.
First off, has this ever happened to you- You are going about your day as usual, thinking about a whole variety of things: what to make for dinner, when a certain bill is due, if I can afford to go back to school, or more appropriate for this time of year, what needs to be done for the holidays...These are some of the random thoughts that I had been playing with and bouncing around in my head, concerning myself with an assortment of things, and therefore never seeing the curve ball that was about to bean me right in the head...
I was driving home from work on Monday, pondering these kinds of thoughts, when I noticed a cop a few cars back in my lane. I had taken brief notice, muttering to myself about how much I hate when I have a cop behind me because I immediately panic and think I did something wrong. Normally this feeling passes as quickly as the cop does, going into another lane or turning away from me. Unfortunately, this was not the case this day.
He gets close behind me and it is then that the horrible realization dawns on me that he does not simply share my route, but that he is following me. And with that, the lights go off. I break into a cold sweat and my palms begin to quiver. Thankfully I have broken out of that phase where I would just immediately break down into tears. Instead the terror just resides in my throat and shaking hands. He walks over with his sunglasses on, and asks if I know why he pulled me over. I squeak out a "no", and he then tells me my brake light is out.
"oh...oh...ok," I say. He then waits as I fumble in the glove box searching for my registration and suddenly realize I do not hold a current and valid one. I simply hand over my license and he asks when I moved down here from New Jersey.
"I...uhm..I've, uh, been living here, um, at this address, for um, a few months...."
"Is this your current address?" he says, indicating my driver's license.
"No, I um, just moved...."
"What?" he asks.
"No, I just moved here back in July." He tells me to hold on and goes back to his car. I wait for what feels like an eternity, getting bitterly cold as snow begins to drift down, but I dare not to touch anything or do anything. He comes back finally and hands me a piece of paper
"I'm going to be nice and let you off with a warning for the brake light," he says, and then pauses. And just as it had had before, when I thought fortune really was smiling upon me, I have my face slammed down into the mud.
"But if I see you in this car driving, without proper Maryland registration and plates, I'll give you all the tickets you should be getting and have your car towed." I muttered out a thank you, and went on my way home, thinking about what he said. Banned from using my own car? My mind jumped right into all the questions: how would I get to work? What did it take to get transferred from New Jersey registration to Maryland, and could I even afford it? When would I get a chance to do all this without being screwed out of pay for work?
When Joe got home he set to work on trying to calm my fears as I looked up the requirements on the motor vehicle association website, and it didn't seem all that complicated or expensive. There was just one glaring issue: the state inspection. I would need to drive my car to get it inspected. What if I got pulled over again, and by the same cop? Worse, what if I got there and found out my car didn't meet the requirements? Worst of all, what if I couldn't afford to get everything fixed?
These were the new thoughts that plagued my brain all the rest of the evening, during dinner, during X-Files, in the shower, and as I tried to go to sleep. What was going to happen in the morning...I didn't really want to find out. But if you are interested you will, tomorrow...g'nite all!
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