Only in California could they make it this difficult to pay outrageous car registration fees. Not only do they drop tickets on your car like rain, but they strive to be as unhelpful as possible when it comes to trying to unravel the mess.
I had tried to make an appointment online to get my registration paid. I knew it had to be on a payday so that was my only requirement. I would have been happy to go at any hour of the day. I got to the right website, picked today from the drop down and voila! Not a blessed appointment available. And that was over a week ago. I decided to see if there was anything really available, and hit the next available appt. button. Yup, if I wanted to go the day before in the mid morning there were things available. I doggedly tried every single 1/2 hour slot for today before I crashed the website. Crap!
So, with both bosses out of the office, I decided to take time out mid morning to go to the DMV. According to the website the one in my hometown was closed. Huh? That makes no sense, but whatever! So I located the one in the town I work in. According to the website the wait for non-appointment service was 16 minutes. Great! I figured I could get over there and take care of it in an hour. I mapquested directions, endured the highway traffic (where are people going at 10 a.m. on a friday?) and got there without getting too lost. This office is in about the worst possible place for a public building.
I have no idea why I'm still this optimistic about the DMV after driving in California for the past 25+ years. I should know that any interaction with them is going to be painful.
I got there and there was a line wrapping around the waiting area just to get a number to wait some more. After I got over the shock of being lied to by the website I joined the line. It took about 1/2 hour to get to the front of it. I then talked to a nice elderly man and told him that since I had moved during the year my renewal notice had not gotten to me. I wanted to register my car. He nodded, handed me a form and a number.
I found a table in the corner and sat down to fill out the change of address. Every walk of life was present in the waiting area. Young, old, many colors and hues, a few different languages, rich and poor. Apparently California is an equal opportunity abuser :) I waited awhile after my form was filled out. My number was about 15-20 from what they were calling. After about 1/2 an hour they had only called 5 more numbers so I decided that I needed to use the bathroom.
I found the bathroom but it was locked, with a sign to contact the security guard to be let in. I had seen him lurking around, but of course since I needed to use the bathroom he was conspicuously absent. I waited by the door thinking maybe he was on one of those fabled 10 minute breaks I never seem to get at my job. Nope. By now a man was looking for him for the same reason, different bathroom. Finally as my bladder was about to explode I stepped to the front of the line to ask an employee where they were keeping the security guard. I should have known that the minute I said something he's magically appear. I do mean magically too, since I swear no less than 5 seconds before he had been completely gone.
That little issue taken care of I rejoined the waiting crowd. If I would have had to guess I would have said there were in excess of 100 people waiting for 15 or 16 service windows. I couldn't fathom how so many people were free to be at the DMV on a weekday morning. Did they have bosses that were taking time off too? Hmmmm. After another 1/2 hour or so I got called to a window. I handed in my form and explained that I needed to take care of the registration.
The lady tapped on the keys barely looking at my expired registration or the new form. Somehow she brought up my information and told me how much I needed to pay. I was almost happy there for about 2 seconds. It was about 1/2 of what I had feared it would be. Then she told me that there was an outstanding ticket on the car. What? I knew there were two (yes I got another registration ticket since the thrift store incident) registration tickets, but that is not what she was referring to. Crap!!! Oh well, it's just money.
I handed over my ATM and mentally pared down my weekend activities. It was a painful but neccesary expense. I was handed 1/2 a ream of papers that I'm assuming are my new registration papers and told to go to another window to get the coveted sticker that would free me from the evil eye of the ticket police. This whole process is so much easier to do online, but without the renewal notice you are condemed to do the "time". I marched over there and waited in line for another 15-20 minutes, got my sticker and practically skipped to my car I was so happy to be done.
As I stopped to put gas in my car on the way back to work I realized in horror that somehow I had managed to lose the card key I need to get into my building from the little zip line holder. Shit! Shit! Shit! *sigh* I called the two or three people who sit closest to the door and not a blasted one of them picked up. I had to go to the front desk, confess that I am a loser and I have lost a key so that I could get a new one.
This day just keeps costing me. I hope the weekend is a little better.
