Next, please!

Today is my birthday.  It is also the day that my driver’s license expires.  Between school, moving and holidays, I waited til the last minute to go to the DMV.  On a Monday.  It’s like buying tires (for me, anyway)…spending money on something I’d really rather not. 

Well, you know me…I LOVE people-watching and the DMV is ripe with it!  For a Monday, it wasn’t terribly busy, but there were about 18 people ahead of me.  PLENTY of time to park myself and let the entertainment begin! 

At first, I just buried myself in a word game on my phone, but the conversation behind me was just too good to ignore.  A couple, sitting near an older woman, were discussing how they were there because the wife’s purse had been stolen from her car, which was parked in their driveway…unlocked…all night.  They were mortified and simply bewildered that someone would do that to them.  Really?  I admire your faith in humanity, but let’s not tempt them unnecessarily, shall we??

The woman they were sharing with was equally naïve.  She shared how her son, a fabulous attorney somewhere, scolded her for leaving her garage door open all the time, as well as leaving her garage door opener and blue tooth “on” in her car.  This is still 2012, right?  People ARE educated on basic safety measures, aren’t they? 

My fun started when I realized I should probably get the cash I needed for the fee from the ATM since the DMV will not accept debit or credit.  I stood in line behind one other person who was muttering something about the cash fee being ridiculous and another woman, dressed in nurse scrubs, sitting near the machine started talking to me as if we had been conversing all day.  “…so she’s here for the second time this week since they wouldn’t accept her old license as a valid ID reference!”  I looked around, thinking maybe she was talking with someone else, but she was staring right at me.  Not entirely sure who “she” was, I smiled, said something like, “I hear ya!”, got my cash from the machine and returned to my seat, across the room. 

Nurse lady got up from her seat by the ATM machine and parked in the seat next to me to continue our lengthy conversation.  “…she has to take the test and get her picture and it’s just taking forever!”  Mm hmm…do I know you?  I didn’t really want to ask who this “she” is that she kept talking about, but listening to her for awhile, I deduced that it was an older woman she was helping.  A client, I think.  Anyway, I let her just rattle on about the long, drawn-out trouble she had to go through to get the appropriate ID to get her license renewed and then noticed that my number was next.  It’s amazing to me the personal things people will divulge to a perfect stranger. 

I excused myself, handled the renewal at the counter, then walked to the other end of the room for the photo.  Nurse-lady followed me.  I leaned on the wall near the camera area and she sat right in front of me.  I never did see the woman she kept talking about, so I wondered if she was even really there with anyone.  My name was called fairly quickly, so I sat in the chair as directed for my photo and nurse-lady stared…directly at me…silent. 

Needless to say, my photo reflects the awkward, uncomfortable situation.  THIS is why most DMV photos look like mug shots.