A year without a license

This weekend, I moved so that I don't spend as much time (if any) on the bus. Don't get me wrong, it was fun and interesting, but I could think of so many more things I would rather do with four hours of every day. As a result, I may not have much more to contribute to this blog in the future.
That doesn't mean I won't still have amusing stories of things that happen as I get to deal with interesting people in transportation settings.

Take this weekend for example. We had reserved a U-Haul truck to put our life into and when I went to pick up the truck, the guy was entering my information into the computer and looked at my driver's license. Looked over to me and back to the license. "Do you have one that isn't expired?"

I had no response immediately. Like he thought I just carried around an expired license unless someone was serious, and I'd pull the current one out of my pocket. "Ta da!" I imagined he thought I'd say, flourishing my license with Siegfried and Roy flair.

"Uh, nope. That's the only one I've got. It's expired? Really?"

He handed back my license and it had expired in June of 2007. Good thing I've been taking the bus, because my license expired over a year ago.

While I waited for my wife to come back and get the truck, I looked up the hours of the DMV so that I could get that fixed as quickly as possible. I had to wait until today to renew my license, dreading having to spend time at the DMV, a department universally reviled for its inefficiency and abysmal customer service.

Today, I went to the office, which we had trouble finding because it had moved in the last 7 years. But once we found the entrance to the building, I had prepared myself for a long wait. I had my book, my phone, and I was mentally prepared to spend a lot of time there. I was pleasantly suprised that I only had time to read one page of my book before I got to the information desk, kind of like the concierge of the DMV. He handed me an application, a road rules book to take the written test again, and a number. I got to a place to sit, so that I could fill out the application, when a number I vaguely recognized popped up. "Hey, wait, that's my number!"

I got up to the desk and the guy asked "How are you doing today?"
"Great. I haven't had any time to fill this out, though."
"Well, I've got nothing important to do and we're not that busy today, you've got a desk and a pen, go ahead and do it right here."

It was great. Then I got a number, took the test (open-book with a touchscreen computer that scores the test immediately after you finish), I passed, and then I had to wait for them to call my name and take my picture. Waiting for my picture was the longest I had to wait and even that was only a few minutes. It was impressive. Other than the fact that I had to go in to get a new license, my experience at the DMV was pretty good. And now I can get a U-Haul truck. But I don't think I'll need one for a while.