Tales of the Expired License

So, Sunday was my birthday! Happy birthday to me! My friend Amy and I share a birthday, so she cooked up this awesome idea that since we would both get into Disneyland free for our birthdays we should go. Fun girls weekend, I'm in! Not what this story is about, I'll post on our fun trip later. To get into the park free you have to register your birthday on Disneyland.com, then they will email you a voucher to print off and take to the ticket office with a form of ID proving your birth date. So, before we left, I decided to inspect my drivers license to make sure I wouldn't have any problems once I got there. During my inspection I discovered that I have been driving on an expired drivers license since March 1, 2008!!!!! It was too late to do anything about it then, so on Tuesday, March 3 I drove across town, had a friend watch my kids and went to the DMV. I got through the first line in about 8 minutes. The guy that I talked to told me that because it had been more than a year since it expired, (one year and two days to be exact) I would have to take the written test, but depending on who I got I might get pushed right through without having to retake my driving test. So after I had passed the written, I was given a number. When I had been sitting there about an hour, I started thinking that they must just be pushing me through, otherwise the guy at the counter would have had me make an appointment to get my driving test. 30 minutes later when my number was finally called, I was told that I would have to schedule an appointment to take the drivers test. What??? Why did I just wait for an hour and a half to have a two minute conversation???? The lady told me it was because I could choose to go home with a learners permit. Well, Whats the difference? She told me the difference was that if I got pulled over driving with a learners permit, without another adult, I would be fined, and it would be another 6 months before I could get another permit (and another 6 months after that before they would issue me a new license). If I got pulled over driving on an expired license I would just be fined. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I waited an hour and a half to have you give me the most ridiculous options on the planet. Well, lets see, what do you think I should do? DUH!!! She made me an appointment to take the drivers test today and I took my expired license and left. (I actually got lucky there, because someone must have cancelled an appointment at the Henderson office, because the next available appointment anywhere in the city was for April 9.) I took my test this afternoon, and it went great. The lady had me drive around the block to basically prove that I'm not an incompetent idiot! After waiting for another 40 minutes or so, I walked out with my paper saying that my license will be mailed within 10 days.

After wasting too many hours of my time, the moral of the story is... check the expiration date on your license. Oh, and if you move, be sure to update your address with the DMV on the internet so that you'll get your renewal notice.

Be sure to stay tuned for more adventures of a scatterbrained crazy lady!