Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Don't Drink the Water

I just returned from a quick weekend visit with Hanna and the kids while Kyle came to the US to take his USMLE exams. It was quick but as it turns out it was just the right amount of time. It was fun to see their new house and see how the kids are growing. Hanna and I made authentic mexican food and it was a sucess, diarreah and all! That's how you know you done did good!

Enjoy a few of the pics I took while there and hopefully my next trip will be to boston, after the ghouls night out, of course.

Tami

Thursday, September 6, 2007

You can never be too sure!

So, it may be hard to imagine, but our youngest son, Dax, was finally ready to take the drivers test and be numbered amongst the millions of teenage drivers on the road (dangerously I might add). We entered the waters of the MVD very carefully as we all know you must do. Check in, take a number, wait in the plastic seats, wait some more, and wait some more. We watched and waited until our alpha-numeric number insistently was an hour or more later. Then with our hearts pounding, as you never know what piece of unknownst documentation you may have forgotten, we carefully approached the window (don't want to set anyone off, tempraments are high at the MVD).

Upon reaching the window, we tried hard not to make eye contact, and then it happened, the ever so kind woman smiled. Yeah, I said that, she smiled. We handed her our paperwork and guess what, it was in order, just had to give her a copy of my drivers license and a $25 fee (which by the way is hard to come by when you are unemployed) and Dax could begin his new wait in line for a road test. After a short wait he was off with the driver and the anxiety started up again, what will I say to him if he doesn't pass, "it's ok son, lots of people don't pass the first time"....I started practicing in my mind....but the truth is, I NEEDED HIM TO PASS THIS @#$% TEST.

While waiting for him to drive, Sam and I decided to change the address on our licenses (your supposed to do this within 60 days, but better late than never). Sam did his first, he just sat down at the kiosk and clicked here and clicked there and then walked over to the window to get a new picture. Looks simple enough, let me try! So, I sat down to the same kiosk and clicked here and clicked there and then it happened! The inevitable, the carma from the MVD and anxiety of American Bureacracy came crashing down. In BIG RED LETTERS, and flashing on the screen and a loud announcement burst out into the whole room, "YOU CANNOT DUPLICATE YOUR DRIVERS LICENSE, LICENSE WAS SUSPENDED 1/07/07" (ok, so it didn't really announce it to the world, but it may as well have). I thought to my self, what a crock, I hate rules, I hate people who can't do anything right, I'm gonna march right up there and tell them what I think, and so I did (after I waited in line again, of course). When I got to the info desk I told the lady there was a mistake, it say's my license is suspended and I don't drink so that's not possible. She looked at me (she was holding in a smirk, I could see it) and entered my license number in the REAL system (kiosks are stupid, we all know that) and she confirmed my license was suspended. But, she made me feel so much better because she gave me an application to reinstate my license and guess what else.......yep, you guessed it, another alpha-numeric number and sent me back to the plastic chairs..................I HATE THE MVD.......grrrrrrr.............

Long story short, I learned something new that day, if you get a ticket for running a red light, you get to pay the ticket to the courts AND you get to attend traffic school. It was the latter part I was unaware of and a ticket from more than a year ago has finally found me in it's grasp and I will be busy saturday morning from 8:00 am to 1:00 pm..........thanks for asking.

So in retaliation for the abuse I suffered at the hands of the MVD, I am posting this message and to all of you who live in the good ol' USA, there is a lesson to be learned........send your husband with your teenager to get his driver license, and that's all I have to say about that.

PS..... he passed!