The Plaid Pladd

This morning I celebrated my mom’s birthday by spending three hours at the DMV to get a North Carolina Driver’s License. This DMVodyssey actually began two days ago, when I realized that we would have to retake the tests before getting a license. I spent the day feverishly reading the handbook and trying to remember the exact distance you should be from the curb when parallel parking. Then yesterday when we started off on this intrepid task, we realized quickly that we had no idea where we were going, having forgotten to look up the address. We decided that we’d definitely seen signs for it around, so got comfortably lost for about an hour, when we finally realized that the signs we’d seen were for “License Plate Agency” not “Driver’s License Agency”. Apparently to increase productivity and frustration, North Carolina splits up their DMV services amongst several smaller offices, all in strip malls of varying sketchiness. At that point, we gave up and bought baked potatoes instead.

Then, this morning, I knew success was at our fingertips! We got there at 9am, with all appropriate paperwork, armed with library books (yeah, library card before driver’s license, that’s how I roll). Unfortunately, fifty-three other people had arrived before it even opened and only two people were working. Since there was no room to wait inside, Steven and I spent the majority of the three hours sitting on the concrete curb outside. Luckily, lots of people gave up! And, finally, our perseverance was rewarded:

Yay!!!! It's like a Biblical fable, really. If you just wait long enough in the smell of cigarettes and desperation, you too can have a piece of plastic with your picture and organ donor status.

Steven tells me that this is actually MORE efficient than DMVs in Texas, which are smaller, more crowded, and make you wait to receive your license in the mail. As a frequenter of Largo, Florida’s new, gigantic, and automated DMV, where the longest I’ve ever had to wait is 30 minutes, I’m already a little homesick.

On the plus side, Steven’s bookcases finally came yesterday, so I got to spend last night happily organizing by subject and last name:

Alphabetization: my favorite thing!

We’re planning on taking the shelves out of the middle section and putting in something dramatic, but we’re not sure what. Also, notice the Rice-pride throw rug I inherited and the couch that’s apparently made of down. I may or may not be allergic to it.

Also, here’s what I decided to do with all my hats:

My favorite is the viking hat with the horns sticking out

Now they are always within easy reach in case of a silly hat emergency.

Also, STAIRS

I haven't been able to hang any pictures yet, but I have managed to decorate with every scarf I own plus some Christmas lights

And, in a stroke of Mom Ladd-genius, we got a coffee table dining room table!! You sit on giant cushions to eat, just like what I imagine hippies do! In Japan! In the future!

Mom Ladd is probably annoyed that I didn't clean off the library books and paperwork before taking this picture

Not only are their stairs IN our apartment, but you have to climb stairs to get to it as well! Outside, we have this little deck thing:

Just like at Wiess! But with a parking lot instead of an acabowl!

I’ve already decided to buy bar stools to take advantage of the railing and the view into the pool of the apartment complex across the street a la Wiess. It would also give you a commanding view of Trixie, who’s slightly apprehensive about next Monday’s errand of getting her new license plates. She seems to think that a North Carolina license plate will look much less flirty than a Florida license plate. One implies bikinis and beaches, the other Tomato Festival and tobacco.

Speaking of Tomato Festival, it’s tomorrow! Get psyched!