Standing In Line At The DMV

We made a quick trip down to the DMV to pick up some paperwork for Cindy’s Dad yesterday, OK I can hear you now pointing out the oxymoron with me using quick and DMV in the same sentence, I’ll give you that one and admit that you are right because yes we were in line a whole lot longer than we were actually inside the building, and quick had nothing to do with the whole process other than our departure.

We pulled into the parking lot a little after 9AM and the line leading to the door ended at the corner of the building, the corner opposite the corner that you go around to get to the door that is, it didn’t take me long to realize that we were going to be here a while, Cindy likes people watching so we began our typical people watching routine, which helps us get through these little escapades Cindy and I usually end up going through together, standing in line with us were people from youngsters who knew it all and were explaining loudly to their parents how it wasn’t fair that they had to stand in line to get a drivers license to the elderly who I wondered bless their hearts why they were standing in line to get a drivers license anyway, and going back to the youngsters I still wonder why they were not in school, I figure they probably got a little time off for good behavior which I really don’t think was the case judging by their manners.

We got to the corner of the building and made the turn to where we could finally see the door at about 10:45AM, a man walked up and approached the gentleman behind me searching for to the best of my Spanish speaking abilities someone who spoke Spanish, he stated something similar to “you hablas espanol?” and “no habla english”, they engaged in a short conversation which went quickly and ended with him going to the next person in line to which he then all of a sudden spoke perfect English, he was asking for gas money and according to his sad story he had just ran out of gas down the street and needed a little cash so he could put a some fuel in his tank, he staggered his way down the line and along with the odor of alcohol combined with the gestures made by people he had just spoken with of taking imaginary drinks did not help his cause to gain cash from any of the people he asked, I was actually impressed at how quickly he learned English and how fast the lingo changed depending on who he was speaking with, I kind of felt bad for the guy but really have a hard time believing what type of fuel he was actually after.

Finally we made it to the door and waited our turn to be called in, I had been visiting with the gentleman behind me the whole time, we had discussed everything from the car dealer who got there way after we did and somehow got into the building and walked away with his business done while we were still standing in line, the troubles this dealers company is going through, to the current amount of earthquakes that are hitting right now, he had an appointment and was told that even though having one he still had to stand in line to get to the start line, we discussed how this just didn’t make sense, we were only there to pick up paperwork that needed to be filled out by Cindy’s Dad for his license renewal and we had to stand in line to pick this up also, so standing in line didn’t sound too far fetched, Cindy’s Dad has an appointment for another day we were just there to save him standing in line for the paperwork part. The DMV worker came to the door to summon two people in, one would be the man in front of us and the other would be Cindy and I since we were together, she says No only one can come in since I only have one chair, Cindy says we don’t need a chair we are just here for paperwork, she then had the nerve to say, “Well why are you standing in line” OK I took a deep breath as we had just stood in line for this paperwork for well over an hour and a half, Cindy tells her which form we need and she asks why, Cindy explains and you know what she had the nerve to say then, “Well he doesn’t need to fill out that form the letter he got in the mail replaces it” Cindy then asks “What time does he need to get here to wait in line for his appointment” you know what she now had the nerve to say, “five minutes before his appointment time and he just needs to bypass the line and sign in”

Cindy had made calls to the DMV before we went and was told that the paperwork was required and standing in line at the DMV was the only way to get it, also when the appointment was made she was told that even though having an appointment gives you a set time it doesn’t get you out of standing in line. I took another deep breath and we made our way out the door, we had only been inside about five minutes and now we are walking right by all the folks we had shared the last couple hours with, I did not have the heart to tell the gentleman I had been talking to that he had gotten some bad information about standing in line at the DMV.