Breakdown

This morning I had a breakdown.

But the story actually begins long before that... Remember this day?  The day I kept forgetting my drivers license and money, etc?  And ended up getting three separate tickets?

Well, as a little refresher, I got the tickets for:
1) Not having a Texas Drivers License after we had lived here for longer than 90 days (sidenote, I had no idea this was a law, but the police officer informed me it was my responsibility to look up the laws when moving to a new state.  Gee, thanks ma'am.)
2) Not having a Texan registration.  Texas pride, ya'll.  This is the reason she pulled me over initally.
3) Not having an inspection sticker.  In Utah, that is the same thing as having your car registered.  If you don't pass safety and emissions, you can't have it registered.  In Texas, it is not the same.  Still can't have your car registered if you don't pass inspection, but it requires it's very own sticker.  Totally clueless on that one too.

As a result of that- and of buying a new car- Parker and I had a lot of busy work car stuff to do.  And we got working on it.  We even spent our Valentines date working on it.  Eventually though, we got both cars inspected and registered in the blessed state of Texas... kinda sad day to remove our Utah license plate... and got our Texas drivers licenses.  Though I do maintain it is really, very rude to make someone take a new drivers license picture at 7 months pregnant.  Especially when she has one that is not expired.  Anyway, I digress.

We had 15 days from the day of citation to take care of everything and then, as I was directed by Miss Police Officer, made my way to the municipal court of Flower Mound to talk to the prosecuter regarding my charges.

I think I showed up on day 13.  Turns out though, I had to go in person so I could schedule a court date with said prosecuter.  The next available time, if you'd believe it, was almost a month out.

Today, in fact.  At 9:00 AM this morning.

And so, I put it on my calendar and went about my way doing the other stuff we do in our life.  This morning, Ruby and I were outside getting ready to make some "gold" for St. Patrick's Day (more on that to come).  Ruby had been all fed and bathed and dressed, but I was still in my jammies.  I decided to take a picture of our craft in progress so went inside to find my phone.

I had a text from Parker- sent at 9:06 AM: Are you at the court?

Current time: 9:30 AM

The only thought that came to my mind was "oh my gosh!!!!"  Frantically, I tried to make myself look semi presentable, raced to find my wallet and keys, and within five minutes, Ruby and I were on our way to the Flower Mound court.

On my way to the court, I called hoping and praying that something could be done about my missed court time.  The lady on the phone informed me that, unfortunately that was not possible and that, since I had missed my scheduled time I would need to pay the fines or I would be at risk for a warrant.

The fee for each ticket?? (not to mention everything we had already paid so we could be "in line" with the law?)  $171.

At first the lady thought I only had one ticket, then she saw another.  I told her there were three and I just totally lost it.  Guys, I never do that.  I can seriously count on like one hand the number of times in my life where I break down over something totally stupid.

But I was bawling.  I considered pulling over just so I could calm myself the freak down and see the road.  All I could think was that this stupid thing was costing me $600 that I did not think I should have to pay.  I kept telling the lady how sorry I was and blamed it on pregnancy (that's gotta be part of it, right??) and just kept crying.

As luck would have it, it appears sometimes ridiculous breakdowns pay off.  The lady asked if she could put me on hold to which I agreed.  I made it to the court before she came back to the phone and had calmed myself down so I wasn't a complete embarrassment.

I don't know what sort of voodoo magic she worked- I think she took pity on me in my pregnant state with my adorable and busy 1.5 year old in tow and somehow did something.   Even after the first two people I talked to at the court said the same thing that she originally had said.

Within five minutes of arriving, she directed me into the court room to meet with the judge.  When it was my turn, the judge looked at my file and then up at the clock and finally at his watch.  Then I heard him making jokes about how he thought the clock was wrong and that it hadn't been changed for daylight savings.  If my face wasn't blushing red by then, I would be highly surprised.

And then, to my delight, he handed my file to the prosecuter and she called out "Laci Enc-ey"  (I get this all the time.  I grew up with Ences and never would have guessed that would be such a hard last name to pronounce.  Now I know.)

She reviews my file and asks if I fixed everything.  She asks for the receipt from my inspection and registration.  I run back out to my car, but only have my registration receipt.  So I take a picture of my inspection sticker and just keep praying.

She lets it slide!  Somehow she totally dismisses the citation for my license and says I can pay a $20 dismissal fee for the other two tickets.  In my mind, I just went from paying $600 to paying $40... I was delighted!

But it gets better... when I went back out to pay the fee, the lady told me to wait while she went to make copies.  I noticed the lady I originally had talked to- the one that I had the horribly embarrassing breakdown to- followed her.  Both ladies were gone quite a while.  Like at least ten minutes.  When the lady helping me came back, she told me that she was able to get one of the other fees dismissed and the remaining fee cut in half so I only owed $10!!

Happy day!  Well, as luck would have it, I only had my American Express because my Visa was in Parker's wallet.  The court doesn't accept AMEX, naturally.  So I had to sign something promising I would be back before 5:00 and drove to Parker's office.  Fortunately, less than five minutes away.

Parker had the thoughtful idea that I get the office something for all their help when they certainly didn't need to.  I thought that was a great idea so it actually worked out that I was able to bring back some Nothing Bundt Cake bundtinis with me when I went to pay my fine.  Oh, the things that make us happy.

And so, although there was a lot of stress and embarrassment worked in to my morning, I'm certainly grateful.  Grateful for anyone who pulled strings, grateful to darling Ruby for being so flexible this morning and such a good tag-along who said "hello" to everyone we saw (I'm sure that helped), and grateful that the hour and a half I spent on citations this morning turned out to be just a waste of time and not a waste of time and money.

Maybe now I can go shopping for our baby boy with all that extra money I "saved" ;)