When people first hear about my travels and experiences, they normally say something along the lines of "Wow! You have such an exciting life."
I politely smile, nod, and say "it seems pretty normal to me." All the while I am thinking to myself, "you have no idea!" It seems that even when I do what seem to be the most mundane things, I find a way to make it just a little more exciting. I can just hear some of you out there begging for an example, so here you go.
Having obtained a job, I found myself back in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, affectionately known as the UP. This was a bit of a surprise for me as I had mostly ruled out coming back up here because of the pervasive cold and snow that I am not too fond of, but find myself up here I did.
One of the first things I needed to take care of was getting my car registered. My plates expired near the end of December, and it was already the second week of January. I was told that they police normally don't catch this sort of thing, but I was weary of it nonetheless. At the first opportunity, I stopped at the Secretary of State office to take care of this issue.
I pulled into the almost empty lot, turned off the car, took a deep breath, and headed into the office. It resembled the parking lot in that it was mostly empty. As I walked through the door, I heard the person at the counter say "You dropped your glove." Sure enough, there it was lying on the floor right behind me. I picked it up, thanked her, and walked up to complete my business.
She looked up my plate information and told me that it had been blocked. I had called a couple weeks earlier and was told that it was blocked, but they also told me that they were releasing that after I provided them with the information they requested. Apparently, that release had not taken effect! She suggested that I just get a different plate as that would be the easier route. As much as I didn't want to have to try and memorize a new plate number, I decided to take her advice. "I guess I can have a fresh start to the New Year," I commented.
I had given her my insurance card when I first arrived at the counter. She had made a copy of it and was in the process of handing it back when she said, "oh, this isn't effective until tomorrow. Do you have proof of insurance for today?"
I rolled my eyes realizing that I was still having a difficult time keeping track of the days. Perhaps a calendar would be a good addition to my life, even though I do have one in my phone! Anyway, I pulled out my phone and attempted to obtain my insurance information online as I thought it would be quicker than going back out to the car. Boy, was I wrong! Apparently, there were issues with my data plan or my signal or something because it just was pulling up my information. Finally, I decided that it was taking too long, and I went back out to the car to get my insurance card from there.
I figured this would be easy because I knew exactly where the insurance card was. I grabbed it, turned around and headed back toward the building. Thud! Down I went. I started getting up only to slip again. I made it to my feet on the third try and slowly worked my way back into the building. I handed the card to the agent; she looked at it and said, "This isn't the right one."
I took the offending piece of paper and scrutinized it. Sure enough, it was for my brother's car! We both have Ford Fusions, though different styles and years. All I could do was sigh. The next step was to call the insurance company. This took a bit of time. The call itself was easy, but it was all computerized, and there were a lot of steps to go through. Eventually, I made it to the end, and the recording stated that they would fax my insurance information in 15-20 minutes. Fortunately, it only took about five.
I left as quickly as possible and wondered how, and when, I would put it on. I had no screwdriver, and I had purposely left snow over the plate to kind of hide the tags that were then expired. I did manage to change the plate, so all is well now, but one should not have such difficulty doing something so "normal" and easy.
I politely smile, nod, and say "it seems pretty normal to me." All the while I am thinking to myself, "you have no idea!" It seems that even when I do what seem to be the most mundane things, I find a way to make it just a little more exciting. I can just hear some of you out there begging for an example, so here you go.
Having obtained a job, I found myself back in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, affectionately known as the UP. This was a bit of a surprise for me as I had mostly ruled out coming back up here because of the pervasive cold and snow that I am not too fond of, but find myself up here I did.
One of the first things I needed to take care of was getting my car registered. My plates expired near the end of December, and it was already the second week of January. I was told that they police normally don't catch this sort of thing, but I was weary of it nonetheless. At the first opportunity, I stopped at the Secretary of State office to take care of this issue.
I pulled into the almost empty lot, turned off the car, took a deep breath, and headed into the office. It resembled the parking lot in that it was mostly empty. As I walked through the door, I heard the person at the counter say "You dropped your glove." Sure enough, there it was lying on the floor right behind me. I picked it up, thanked her, and walked up to complete my business.
She looked up my plate information and told me that it had been blocked. I had called a couple weeks earlier and was told that it was blocked, but they also told me that they were releasing that after I provided them with the information they requested. Apparently, that release had not taken effect! She suggested that I just get a different plate as that would be the easier route. As much as I didn't want to have to try and memorize a new plate number, I decided to take her advice. "I guess I can have a fresh start to the New Year," I commented.
I had given her my insurance card when I first arrived at the counter. She had made a copy of it and was in the process of handing it back when she said, "oh, this isn't effective until tomorrow. Do you have proof of insurance for today?"
I rolled my eyes realizing that I was still having a difficult time keeping track of the days. Perhaps a calendar would be a good addition to my life, even though I do have one in my phone! Anyway, I pulled out my phone and attempted to obtain my insurance information online as I thought it would be quicker than going back out to the car. Boy, was I wrong! Apparently, there were issues with my data plan or my signal or something because it just was pulling up my information. Finally, I decided that it was taking too long, and I went back out to the car to get my insurance card from there.
I figured this would be easy because I knew exactly where the insurance card was. I grabbed it, turned around and headed back toward the building. Thud! Down I went. I started getting up only to slip again. I made it to my feet on the third try and slowly worked my way back into the building. I handed the card to the agent; she looked at it and said, "This isn't the right one."
I took the offending piece of paper and scrutinized it. Sure enough, it was for my brother's car! We both have Ford Fusions, though different styles and years. All I could do was sigh. The next step was to call the insurance company. This took a bit of time. The call itself was easy, but it was all computerized, and there were a lot of steps to go through. Eventually, I made it to the end, and the recording stated that they would fax my insurance information in 15-20 minutes. Fortunately, it only took about five.
I left as quickly as possible and wondered how, and when, I would put it on. I had no screwdriver, and I had purposely left snow over the plate to kind of hide the tags that were then expired. I did manage to change the plate, so all is well now, but one should not have such difficulty doing something so "normal" and easy.
