The DMV

Ah, the tedium of going to the license bureau. It always takes much longer than you expect, as the contract employees lull their way through the day. There is no sense of urgency in the DMV office. Minutes pass like hours, hours pass like days.

Monday I spent 150 minutes at the DMV. 30 others went before me. That's five minutes per person. Which, actually now that I break it down that way, isn't as horrid as I thought.

It didn't help either that the first DMV I went to was having computer/printer problems and referred me to the other one - so they had a bigger backlog than normal.

My new, six year license includes a hideous photo which I'll have till I'm FORTY-ONE. This troubles me. E reminded me that I could always 'lose' it. Course that would require another few hours at the DMV that might be better spent elsewhere - particularly when I accept that fact that I'm no longer one of 'them' (as in someone who gets carded at the grocery store or bar). So its circulation will be diminished as compared to past ids.

At least this time my eyes are open. Before they used digital cameras, I had three drivers licenses in which my eyes were closed but my mouth smiling. As a 21-year old the bouncers often recycled the same joke: "Wait, close your eyes. OK, go in." Sooooo funny.

I really can't complain too much. My friend Mary's last license made her look like a stroke victim. I'm not sure what happened exactly, but the card machine malfunctioned, drooping the left side of her normally symmetrical, 30-something face. She asked them to redo it but they refused. I wonder if she "lost" that one or lived with it till it expired.

I still can't believe that I'll be in my 40s when this damn thing expires. I like the convenience (no more three year stints), but suddenly I feel like Sally in "When Harry Met Sally": "But I'll be 40 .... someday." And someday, as Jbo has mentioned in the past, is now coming sooner for me than it is for Sally - but of course Sally is preserved in 1989 so I shouldn't begrudge her for being younger than I am, in the year 2006. Plus, let's face it, she finally showed men the world over that women can fake it. Not that we want to fake it, but there are times when we feel the need to prod the male ego. . .