are you kidding me??

yesterday i went to go pay a traffic violation. i had had a fairly emotional morning and i was sitting at my desk at work when i thought i should pay my speeding ticket(i wasn't speeding, and the moto-cop already had his blinker on to turn out when i passed him, but that is another story for another time) so i pulled it out of my purse and realized i only had 14 days to pay. i haven't received a ticket(excluding parking tickets, oh my fidelity investment days...) in almost four years and i thought that i had 30 days to pay it so i rushed down to the police department building because i realized it had been 17 days.

so i arrived and parked my car and headed inside. i had already cried once already that day(i'm pregnant and i told you, i had an emotional day) and i get there determined to be pleasant and get this taken care of as fast as possible so i could get back to the office. my boss was out for the day and i was fielding all of her calls and emails. I went through the security gate and the machine started beeping. i had no idea what was setting it off. the only thing i had in my pockets was seven dollars and three bobby pins, they told me that the bobby pins would not set it off so i was thinking great, and i asked if a safety pin could make it go off(a safety pin was keeping my jeans zipped up as i prefer to use my bella band and regular jeans than try to find maternity jeans that are long enough, and i was thinking how fun it was going to be to even get to the safety pin in public) and i was told that a safety pin won't set it off either...but the machine keeps beeping at me so finally i took out the bobby pins, set them in a tray and walked through...and guess what? no beeping. i was pretty frustrated.

...so then the rent-a-cop started going through my purse and i was still pleasant and smiling, but he was scowling and looking down at his finger. i looked down and he was holding a cubicle clip(i order the supplies for my office and have about a million of these little suckers in my desk, but i had no idea that i had one in my purse) so the cop starts freaking out and asks me if I have any other “weapons” in my purse because he was really going to get mad if he was “stabbed” with anything else. are you freaking kidding me?? so i get in there to start rummaging through it and he barks, "get back" ...um, you just asked me if i have anything else that is going to upset you in my purse, i am just checking to make sure...what i wanted to say is, i'm sorry officer freaking friendly, i didn't know that the big, bad cubicle clip was even in there, let alone going to put you in mortal danger...geez, what a jerk!

i finally get through security and i grabbed a number. There were fifteen people ahead of me and the number didn’t change once the whole time I was there so I just got in line to see the cashier instead just to pay the darn thing and get back to work even though i didn't think i deserved it because i follow the laws of the land and take great care to drive safely and the clerk charged me fifty dollars for being three days late even though I explained that I never get tickets and i thought i had thirty days, as soon as i saw it was fourteen days i came right in. she said i could take it up with the hearing officer if i wanted to. are you kidding me?? what if i don't have two hours to spend in this building because their only open when i am supposed to be at work? i just paid and told her to have a good day. It was $132.00 for a plea in abeyance charge and fifty more for the late fee and it will be another fifty when I go to traffic school(because you bet your sweet bippy that i am not going to let this ordeal affect my insurance rate) good thing that costs more than the crib we have picked out. i got back in my car and cried all the way to work. it was NOT a good day.