Caterwauling

Spent the morning in traffic court for a $140 ticket thanks to a suspended registration. Yippee.

I was dressed up and looking calm — it was interesting to see how many people wore their laundry-day best and looked annoyed to be there. C’mon — we were ALL annoyed to be there. No one was special in that regard.

There was an article in Slate recently in which they compared the uber-cool Bugs Bunny to the temperamental Daffy Duck in a political context. And while I think I’d rather have a president who is emotive because you can actually see that they care about the country, I’ll save that argument for April 22 (the Pennsylvania primary) if need be.

Oh, where was I? Yeah. I was trying to go the classy, cool and grateful route.

And it worked.

I was doing fine until my cop showed up. Yeesh. I was hoping she wouldn’t, not that she wasn’t a lovely person and all but because I didn’t want to pay my fine. (It was for not getting emissions done, which I did three days after I got the ticket for a splendid $400 fine.)

So, the judge called my cop’s name and brought 17 of us to the front of the room. And NO ONE before me got their fees waived. This judge wasn’t taking any crap from anybody.

Then it was my turn. I bid the judge good morning and stated my name (as these sessions get recorded). The judge asked the cop what she had to say about me. And she knocked off my bobby socks when she told the judge that she had nothing to say about me and that my charge should be dismissed.

!

!!

!!!

Holy shit!

I had all my paperwork ready to go, but nobody wanted to see it. I’m thinking she must have accessed my record and saw that I took care of everything in a hurry, because I was out that door in a hurry. Whee!

I remember her name because it’s a “Melrose Place” character name, too. Is it inappropriate to send a cop a thank-you note for not fricasseeing your ass when you probably really deserved it?

I had to stick around for a moment to get some paperwork from the clerk, and while I waited, I heard the next case. The guy was pulled over for the EXACT reason I was, and he didn’t fare so well.

The cop seemed surprised that he’d gotten his emissions done, and she asked him when he did it. She looked at his paper and said, “Yesterday? You waited until YESTERDAY?”

Needless to say, he had to pay his fine as I FROLICKED out the door.

To reward myself, I drove my ass straight over to Bed Bath & Beyond to get a duvet set that I’ve been coveting. I had seen it at the new Columbia Heights location last week and didn’t want to pay the full $150 for a lousy cover and two pillowcases. But today, I had a 20%-off coupon in my bag and spent the money earmarked to pay for my ticket on the start of my new bed ensemble. (I can’t justify parting with $50 for each sham and pillow right now.)

So, even though I consumed some meat today (seriously, the Fractured Prune is da bomb! And I took a Reese’s cup donut to go. Nom nom nom), it’s a Good Friday indeed!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 21st, 2008 at 10:36 AM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.