Tuesday, August 05, 2008

Aww, shucks, y'all.

My 28th birthday started out pretty good - I woke up to see a sweet card from my husband on my night stand, and jumped right into a spirited conversation with my boy Dave via text. Then my birthday got hella lame. I left the house a little later than I'd intended and got to the driver's licence place at about 9:30 to get my license renewed.

(Side note, what the heck is that place called here? It's called a DMV/BMV everywhere else, but there's no such thing as a department/bureau of motor vehicles here.)

Anyway, got to the... International House Of Driver's Licenses at about 9:30. Got my number, 03, they were on 86. Waited about an hour. Heard my number croaked. Got up to the desk, handed the lady my license, said "RENEW PLEASE" and wrangled Ace as best as possible. Super "nice" IHODL lady growled "twenty dollars" in my general direction. I said "y'all take cards, right?" Quoth the hag, "No, cash or check."

Crap.

I had ten bucks on me. You can use your card to renew your license online. You can use your card EVERYWHERE ELSE IN THE CIVILIZED UNIVERSE. You can't use it at the IHODL.

I spent a desperate second considering begging for a dollar from everyone who was thus far enchanted by Ace (I don't think they understood he was actually yelling "IDIOT" the whole time we were in there) (at least he wasn't yelling "NUTS" like he's been doing the past few days) but I composed myself and walked out the door.

As I was walking out the door (it took a while since Ace was on his canes), roughly 134958 people asked if Ace had surgery, and a few asked "what's wrong with him." Grr. One dude actually took a moment to lay hands on Ace and pray over him. It's a sweet thought, but I wasn't in the mood. Neither was Ace. He looked at the guy for a second and kept on walkin'.

(Side note number two, since it's my birthday and I can have disorganized blog posts if I want. I don't mind people asking "what's wrong with him," normally. My nature retorts "nothing's WRONG with him," but my respect for natural curiosity realizes people are curious and don't know how else to ask why a 2-year-old is walking with canes.)

My mood was black, dear readers. Foul. Angry. Till this song came on the radio, and I rocked out.

I did a little homeowner's association bidness and left the house to do a deposit. I treated myself to Raisin' Cane's for lunch, but on the way back talked to my husband about the block party my homeowner's association is doing tonight for the National Night Out. About how I totally don't feel like it. About how it was the president's idea and I told him I'd be out of town and couldn't do any planning, but I'm doing all the dadgum planning anyway and will have to do all the setting up. About how I need him to pick up cookies and ice. Then I got all in a whiny mood again.

Then I got home and ate my freaking delicious chicken fingers with their freaking delicious sauce and got online and checked my e-mail, blogs, and myspace, and saw dozens of happy birthday wishes from dozens of strangers and friends.

And now I'm in a crazy good mood, and I'm going to pretend that the block party is my birthday party and my whole neighborhood is coming. And I know the slip and slide is for the kids, but by George, it'll be a miracle if I don't hop on that sucker fully dressed.

Time to go set up for this block party thing. Y'all have a great Stacey's birthday, and thank you all so much for lifting my spirits on here, via e-mail, via myspace, via text, via call, via your own blogs. I'm so blessed and happy. Woohoo!

10 comments:

Melinda said...

International House of Drivers Licenses? bwahahahah! You nuts!

AM said...

Ha! You so silly...I actually thought about getting you a cake and making like it was yo party too! But then I picked up GB and the Diva and came home...and there went that. I got wine...got a plastic cup?

Style Expert said...

happy bday!! I wish you many more!

Waterfall said...

ACK! I'm late! Hope you have a Happy-364-Days-After-Your-Birthday!

Bob Everett said...

Glad you had a happy birthday afterall.

Just curious. Did you use the drivers license station on Hwy 49 south?

mayberry said...

Glad your mood perked up! Getting your DL renewed ANYWHERE in the state of Mississippi is a pain in the butt.

Susan said...

Happy belated!

And you think the 20 bucks is bad? Our car tags are cash or check only, but if you use a check they wait 14 days and mail it to you. Talk about having to plan ahead, who walks around with a few hundred bucks in their pocket?

Supermom said...

That SUCKS about the driver's license.

Hope you had fun last night at the thing.

From the Doghouse said...

Hope your Stacey from the Block Party went well.

BTW, if you're just renewing, you can do it online.

Webmaster said...

You rock, Stacey. Happy birthday. :)