Do you remember the movie Beetlejuice? And the scene where he descends into the waiting room of Hell's Purgatory? He was sitting next to the witch doctor that had the number like 4 and his number was something like 1,234,689 and the number on the screen said, "now servicing number 3". Well that was my experience yesterday at the DMV.
So one of the really cool things is that my boss bought me and Tony season tickets to the Sounders - and they are really good tickets. But one of the issues about going is - I can't really walk far without it being a chore. So we realized that walking in general and all that was only going to get worse for me over the coming months and so we figured that I might be able to get a handicap parking permit while I am pregnant due to my condition. Turns out - I can!!! So I look online and it says what to do for disabled permits and such - which I already had the paperwork for. Then I look for locations - just to check and I see that the locations are showing a zero wait time. Fantastic I think to myself. So I go home, get the paperwork and head to the DMV.
Well by the time I got there - of course there are 20 people ahead of me. So I go up to the little number ticket and choose my option for permits and out prints a number. Now if you have ever been to the DMV you know that the numbering system is completely flawed and makes no sense. They assign different series of numbers to different items and then they just jump around from teller to teller so right when you think - oh this is it, my turn. NOPE! They jump to a different number series. Then throughout this series of waiting, you see all the people take their 10 minute(smoke) break so the tellers go from 4 to 1. And of course there is always the problem cases that take 10 minutes a piece. Mix that in with the guy who is trying to do driving tests for people, and you there you have it. The clusterfuck they call the DMV.
And as you are waiting in this lobby of uncomfortable plastic chairs feeling like Beetlejuice and the never going to get to you number while the slow and completely bored workers go through their paces, they make sure to conveniently remind you of this important piece of information......... a sign on the wall that says, "Important. Threatening or intimidating a public servant is a felony!" Now I have to admit - I in no way see them as a "public servant". A public servant is one to me who does something for no pay. Not someone who is employed by the government, gets paid a decent wage with benefits and gets every federal holiday off. That doesn't sound like they are "serving me" much. And going back to my knowledge of the Constitution and instruction on my rights, the Freedom of Speech clause was enacted so that I as a member of the people had the right to say whatever I wanted against another person acting as an agent of the government. My Freedom of Speech does not allow me to necessarily say anything against a regular civilian, but an agent of the government - which is anyone who is employed by the government - it does. So how can it be a felony if I tell one of these jokers off???
Anywho that is just a side ramble as I was sitting in that room. So then I start to notice....wait a minute that joker came in AFTER me. Then it continues - 4 more people who came in after me were serviced before me. Then I take a breath and think - well there are a couple of jokers up front who were here before me and they haven't been served yet. Until I realize that the tellers then called out to those guys names and so they had been served before I even walked in and were simply waiting on paperwork. And you know it is bad when the lady next to you goes - you were here before those guys even. Then, it happens. My muber magically displays and the imaginary computer lady says, "now servicing number 531." My pregnant self gets up and waddles up to the front. I pull out my form and tell the lady I need to get a disabled permit. She looks at me in her - I have been working at the DMV for way too long stare and I don't really care about your issue and says "you're going to have to go to a vehicle licensing place, this is the driver's license office. We don't do permits here."
Are you fucking kidding me????
So the pregnant woman very calmly takes her form and walks out - meanwhile fighting back tears because I always cry at dumb crap like this. The frustration and incompetance is like just too much for me for some reason. But I was determined I was not going to cry over the DMV today. Now seriously, if I thought for a minute I had to go to the vehicle licensing place or anything on the web site said to take it to a vehicle licensing place - do you think I would have wasted my time with the DMV????
That would be a big fat no.
So I now go to the vehicle licensing place and of course there is only two people ahead of me and they are both with a teller. So then the one person leaves and the teller to the far right goes "I can help the next person with Renewals". I take one step forward as she says this and then when she says Renewals, I step right back. She looks at me with eager interest and says, "Renewals?" I shake my head no and she asks the guy behind me. He too shakes his head and so we just stand there. The lady then just continues to stand in her position while me and this other guy just wait for the other teller to finish. Was this chick on like day 2 of her job? Was she really not cross trained to do anything else other than renewals? Meanwhile we all stand there like bumps on a log. Finally a woman came in who had a renewal and she was able to assist her. The guy in front of me finally leaves and I go up to the lady and hand her my form and tell her I need a disabled permit. Of course she too looks at me all bored like but does her job and gives me the pass. And get this - I didn't even have to pay!!!!!
So after this fun 2 hour excursion away from work (glad the boss was out), I did what every other pregnant woman would have done in my situation.
I drove 100 yards to the Dairy Queen and got myself a Blizzard.
No comments:
Post a Comment