the up side

my license picture is actually pretty good.

that's something, right?

today has sucked. a lot.

i knew it was going to suck. i had anticipated it sucking for weeks. i was not looking forward to it at all. it was the day i had set aside for going to the DC DMV to register my car and get my license.

here is how it all went. which is need to vent, but i probably should not, and you should certainly not bother reading.

i wake up early. i cannot bear to go in. i finally head down there. i get to the metro. there is something wrong with the red line trains and they are single tracking them and we all have to run over to the other side of the station to get our silver spring bound train. i am much aggrieved by the 10 minutes i have to wait, but it turns out, this was nothing.

i make the trek to the DMV. i arrive. i get to the front of the line where you get your number. i realize i have not brought my proof of residency. despite all of my lists and checking the internet and making a folder, i left those things on my couch. shit. i would like to give a big boo hiss to the man who checked me in, telling me i would only need a social security card to get my license and tags. i was tempted not to tell him i had forgotten my proof of residency, but i realized that would only suck for me.

i head home. i wait 10 minutes for the green line. i get to the red line transfer point and the last train is pulling off in the distance. this is when it gets bad. i wind up waiting over 30 minutes for a train. only it never says 30 minutes. it says 18 and ticks down to 12. then it goes up to 17, then 15, then 17 and i am becoming quite sure a train will never come. i am about to get a cab (i had thought about this, but it seemed silly to pay the rate from where i was to home and then i had decided i was going to cab back to the DMV and i have a huge aversion to cabs, so baby steps, guys, baby steps.)

anyways, i get home. i get my paperwork. i get my cab. i get to the DMV.

they are on A137. the number i had previously been given was A135.

i know, i should have tried. but you know i am not like that.

this time, i am given C119. the fact that i was not given an A number will plague me for the next few hours. they TEAR thru the As. they are calling As left and right. i am elated when they jump from C106 or so to C114. but in the next hour, they do not make it to C119.

finally, this woman who has been “pulling people out of line” for special tasks makes it to those of us who are registering and getting licenses. they are at C117. i don’t know which will be faster, but go with her and figure i’ll keep an ear out. she puts the girls with the As in front of the other C girl and i. i later ask, just to know, what time their tickets are stamped. 3:23. mine was 2:31. they let me go in front of them, but our special line is still not going anywhere. finally i see that C119 has been called, and i go to the window, to be reprimanded for having taken so long.

also, only to find out that the rep at window 11 cannot issue registrations. so i wait a bit and she passes me off to window 10. but no one had ever given me the form i was supposed to fill out and i am not allowed to fill it while standing there, which will take me about 2 minutes. i have to sit down while she helps the next person, who of course has problems all their own. and then b/c the man now at window 11 also needs tags, window 10 helps him while i’m just standing there. and then we do everything for me.

only then, she realizes that my car is not only in my name, but in my mom’s name. she had looked at the title about 10 times w/o noticing this. i was hoping it would not be noticed b/c i had already watched a woman be told that she had to get her ex-husband’s signature and the divorce decree.

so i could not get my registration. and now i have to mail the car title to my mom and have her send it back and then go back into the DMV and hope that this time it works. as tho i hadn’t already been paranoid enough about the fact that my tags had expired, now they will continue to be expired and i will continue to fear the arm of the law coming after me and arresting me for my expired tags.

also, the lady in the divorce was going to be taxed an extra $1000 b/c having the ex sign over the title to her was a “taxable event,” unless it was in the divorce settlement. i am now worried the same is going to be true of my mom signing over the title to me and i do not want to pay another $1000. that will piss me off. i am kicking myself for having not asked that. kicking myself.

finally, i would like to say that i showed up, the second time, at 2:30. over 100 people came in after me before the place closed at 4:00. i have no doubt of that.

there were literally 3 people left in the building when i finished.

without my registration.

this has sucked.

as an upper, now i get to do all the reading for our training the next few days. when all i want to do is….i don’t know, i think it’s sleep even tho i’m not tired b/c i think that’s the only way i won’t be so frustrated by the whole thing. but anyways.

today has sucked. i had a better story from yesterday, but instead i went to get my toes painted and now i have forgotten how i had mentally composed it. maybe i’ll try that later. anyways. hope your days didn’t suck so bad!

today's laura moment

so i have now amassed 7 pairs of shoes under my desk. i'm wishing i hadn't bought a second shoe rack for my apartment, b/c i have nearly emptied it by dragging all its shoes into the office one at a time. well, one pair at a time.

anyways, i had just shoved my feet into the first two shoes down there while i was sitting at my desk, which happened to be a 3 inch heel and my comfy aerosoles flats. well this was all fine and dandy while just sitting at my desk reading documents. only after sitting there for a bit, i had totally forgotten about it, and when i went to go to the printer, it truly took me til i had one foot out the door to realize that i was walking like a pirate with a peg leg on my two totally different shoes. it's funny how i had felt completely normal walking to the door, but on my way back to the desk, i felt like a total idiot.

i made dinner!

yes, it does just involve seasoning and noodles from a box and the tofu and peppers i bought about 3 1/2 weeks ago. but it still involved one pot, one pan, a heated stove, and a cooking tongs. and i can convince myself it has some nutritional value. IT'S LIKE DINNER!

i did drag home a stack of lexis printouts and i need to have something more than i've got now when i get into work, but i'm taking what i can get.

i'm a happy laura.

but lest you think i no longer have quirky little interior monologues or moments of delight in my life

so yesterday, at the office, i went to the bathroom. only as soon as i got inside, i was worried that i had turned right when i should have turned left and that i was now in the men's bathroom.

but i didn't want to walk out and have someone see me emerging from the men's bathroom.

but i also didn't want to stay in the men's bathroom.

i looked for clues.

there were all the usual amenities of the women's restroom on the sink.

but men could want to moisturize their hands and make their breath minty fresh during a trip to the restroom.

there were no urinals.

but i've never been in the men's bathrooms at the firm before. maybe they don't have urinals.

so i wasn't making it anywhere w/o actually walking outside and checking the sign.

fortunately no one was waiting outside the restroom to watch me walk out, look at the sign, and turn on my heel and walk right back in. (yes, i was in the women's room.)

update

my grocery store is so worthless as to render it completely not worth going to.

i still haven't eaten.

my pictures are taking FOREVER to move to the external hard drive. and not the kind of forever where my computer is doing the work, but where it quits doing the work and i have to click open three things all over again and start all over, folder by folder.

i still haven't started the reading i brought home. for the project that is supposed to be turned in "mid-week." tomorrow is wednesday. i have not started. well, i have started a bit. i have not started as much as i would have liked and i have not found anything very helpful.

this better not be happening...

so we all knew that our computers would die just as soon as we left school and our warranties expired and derek leach was no longer right there waiting to help. i think most of us were glad to make it thru the bar. well, jared's went this weekend, which prompted me to buy an external hard drive, to start storing all my pictures. only (1) it turns out that for some reason, i can't transfer a whole file at a time w/o it stopping and telling me something is not possible to transfer and then it just sputters out and gives up. let alone just tranferring everything at once. which would be like heaven. (2) it is really starting to look suspiciously like my computer is about to die. which might just be me being paranoid (shocker), but if it does happen, i am going to freak out. and call derek leach on the batphone. oh if only i had a derek leach batphone number...

yes, i am still alive

but now i am a very busy lawyer-type and will not be posting much. if ever. but i had wanted to post the fact that i was very pleased to discover that i enter/exit the dupont metro station on its north end and i exit/enter the gallery place metro station also on its north end. so the point is that at no point do i have to walk the duration of a metro station to get to the side i need to be on. it is very convenient.

but then i decided that i would also post a smidge about my life. i hope this smidge does not violate my very sincere efforts not to post anything that would get me in trouble.

anyways, i started work exactly three weeks ago.

since then i have not made myself a real dinner (or even been to the grocery store, for that matter), or unpacked my apartment (ok, so that is more b/c i am really averse to doing so), or made it to the gym, or met up with friends (tho jared was in town the first weekend and i have been on a train out of town the past two fridays). do you get where i'm going with this?

and i'm not even really busy yet. and i'm at a really life-friendly firm.

all the things that were once an everyday part of your life that you didn't even think about. there just isn't time. i mean, maybe during finals i felt like i was too busy to go to the grocery store, but now it's like not only is it too late to go to the grocery store, but then i can't even figure out what the point is, b/c it's not like i'm ever going to be home in time to make a real dinner. or maybe i will be, but i don't know when that will be and all the meat will be rotten and all the produce gross. i can't even figure out what i'm going to be eating for dinner for the next year.

i mean, say that i get into the office at 8:30 (which really is what i think i can do b/c i was trying to make myself a morning person and it just really didn't go well,) and then i work straight thru, eating lunch at my desk (which i am going to have to start packing b/c getting lunch is so frustrating) and then there's a gym class at 5:45. well, i'll have to leave at about 5:25 to walk the 4 blocks to the gym and change my clothes, then the class is over at 6:45 and i need to shower and whatnot. well, by now it's after 7:00 and do i really want to go back to the office at 7? but i can't just leave the office at 5:15 and be done! and even if i did, i mean, it's 7:30 by the time i get home and i cook dinner and then i eat the dinner and maybe watch an hour of tv and call jared and it's already almost time for bed! do you see this?

oops, this wasn't supposed to end up being a complaint. it's not a complaint. i'm just saying, i think it would be tough enough if we had a normal old 9-5 job, but this isn't a 9-5 job and well, it's not easy.

speaking of which, i brought home a ton of reading to do tonight and i still haven't started that either. (nor have i eaten.) if you've got any pointers (but don't say drop the gym, b/c i feel sooooo gross and i really am serious about going a few days a week), i would really appreciate them. if anyone is still reading. =)