Katie Doyle, Girl About Town

Monday, Aug. 01, 2005 - 11:41 p.m.

Ever do that thing where you have to take defensive driving for a ticket, and then the day before the ticket is due for resolution, realize you forgot to take traffic school?

Yeah.

What with job hunting, the end of unemployment benefits and the stress that brought, I totally forgot to take traffic school. So off I go to court tomorrow, and hope they will grant me a second extension, which they are not wont to do here. They are, in fact, very UNwont to grant second extensions for stuff like traffic school...and expired plates. So my Texas title better get here before the 20th, or I'm in trouble. Of course, I'm in trouble anyway, because without a job, I can't pay for the CA plates, because in addition to the $45 I already spent on smog check, I have to pony up $120 for plates and 5% of the sales price of my car, which was $5300 (I scored that car, hard), which runs into $265, and that's a total of like $430 (plus late fees and penalties...did I mention the penalties? those are the real fun).

Course, now I really wish I'd prioritized that money back when I was working, because I sure as hell don't have it at the moment. Life woulda been a lot easier with a little foresight, that's all I'm sayin'. Unfortunately, I am not really good at foresight when it comes to stuff like this. I am, however, really good at pretending a problem doesn't exist and ignoring it for as long as is humanly possible. Just another fringe benefit of growing up Doyle. And frankly, I can be a little scatterbrained and unfocussed when I'm stressed out, and I spent the better part of the last 5 years pretty much the most stressed out I've been since escaping the gulag known as Chez Doyle. (which should scare the hell out of those of you who knew me right around 1987...)

But anyway.

I mailed off for my title today (I know, I know, but the DMV guy in Texas assured me it was a 2-week turnaround, TOPS), and it was 107 in the shade and humid as all get out. Imagine, if you will, living in the gullet of a dragon, and you pretty much have the unholy moist heat that is my little neck of Southern California these days. So anyway, I'm driving around in this stuff, first on the way back home from Pacoima (yes, I said it, pacoima. the pitstain on the t-shirt of crap that is a large portion of the san fernando valley) at 2pm, and then to the bank to deposit a loan one very excellent friend made me today, thus allowing me to skip debtor's prison for at least 19 more days, and then to the post office to mail my $2 check (god bless texas) and application for replacement title.* Said application also required a copy of my driver's license. Imagine how plussed I was to find when I reached the post office that they no longer have a copy machine in the lobby and I would have to go all the way to the Big Chain Copy Store to get one. It was not good, my peeps. So I nipped into the chiropractic office across the street, where the kindly doctor and his sympathetic nurse/receptionist person were nice enough to make me a copy. ...And bust my chops for being from Texas, and then bust 'em again for voting for Kerry. But they still made me a copy, and then I went back across the street and mailed the application and checked my PO Box, where I discovered my brandnew (but with the old number) CA license waiting for me, complete with an actual decent picture. All the joy was a little overwhelming, so I came straight home.

And okay, fine, yes, I had a large Drumstick today, but it was hot, with the dragon and the gullet and all, and okay, I know ice cream isn't on the Timmu-approved Katie Diet, but it was gullety, so sure, technically I slipped off my diet, but I'm pretty sure I sweated all that off with the heat and all, and anyway, I've only had about 4 hours of sleep in the last 36 hours, so um, I'm a little woozy, and I needed the ice cream. So...there. And goodnight.

Peace out,
Katie

*ps. I would like to take this time to point out the irony of a form one fills out to request a replacement copy of one's title that asks for the original title number. If I had the original title, which I would have to have to know that number, why would I need a replacement copy? I'm just askin'.

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