Friday, April 29, 2005

CLEAR THE ROADS!!! HEAD FOR THE HILLS!

Nightmare at the DMV ... Colin (who was out of school today for a teachers' workday) and I headed up to Mooresville to apply for his learner's permit.  When we got there, there were bazillions of people waiting; we drew lucky number 118 and 119 (I also needed to have my license renewed .. thank goodness, my old picture looks like something from The Creature from the Black Lagoon).  After only waiting 1 hour and 15 minutes, we went back.  Colin scored a 23 out of 25 on the written test (road test not necessary, since he took drivers' ed) and is now the proud holder of his permit.  He and dad just left to pick up Quentin at play practice.

I did not fare so well.  My parents did me the ultimate injustice by giving me a first name that I never used (Margaret).  Over the years I've gone by several name combinations:  Elizabeth Dixon, Liz Dixon, M. Elizabeth Dixon, Elizabeth Branch, Liz Branch but never Margaret in any shape or form.  Unfortunately the government knows me as Margaret Elizabeth Branch (the Dixon having been eliminated legally when I married David), my passport being in that name, and of course, all of the girls' adoption papers since they had to match my passport.  My social security card is under Elizabeth D. Branch.  Now the DMV has linked its database with the Social Security Administration, so all the names had to match.  I didn't have any type of ID which reflected my maiden name ... my old license said Margaret Elizabeth Branch but I signed it Elizabeth D. Branch.  No one cared before .. but now ... so I left emptyhanded, told to return by 4:30 with a copy of my birth certificate or marriage certificate.  Now, this would not have been a problem except for the fact that the DMV is a 20-25 minute drive away.  But I made it ... lucky for us we had dozens of certified copies of the marriage certificate for the adoption.  I burned up about a zillion gallons of that high priced gasoline.  Maybe by one-handedly increasing the demand for gas in this county, I can drive the price down.  Or is that up?  I dunno, I flunked economics.

Dit dit da dit dit da dit dit .... WE INTERRUPT THIS BLOG FOR THIS NEWS BULLETIN:... Colin Branch breaks the world record for shortest time between obtaining learner's permit and having his first WRECK.  Yikes ... On the way to pick up Quentin,  traffic slowed, and abruptly came to a stop, Colin learns allabout rear ending someone.  <sigh>  He feels really bad, but we're not worried about it.  The police officer didn't ticket him or anything, and the other guy was pretty nice about it .. his car wasn't too badly dented.  WHEW what a day.  Let's hope tomorrow is dull and monotonous!!

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