oopsie

I wasn’t feeling well yesterday, and in fact, woke up at 3am miserable enough to figure out that since I didn’t have to be anywhere today and probably wasn’t going to get any quality unmedicated sleep, I might as well throw on some clothes and go hit up the 24-hr WalMart for some drugs. Which I did, rather enjoying the nice cool night and quiet of the streets.

And yet then on my way home, the streets were apparantly too quiet, because within 2 miles of the comfort of my bed, I noticed police lights behind me. Greeeeat.

When I asked the nice officer what the problem was, he informed me that one of my front headlights was out. Which I knew, and I proved that I knew it by sheepishly holding up a brand-spanking new front headlight sitting next to me on the passenger seat, apologizing, and explaining that I had bought it that day and just forgot to install it.

Ahh, no problem, he said….but let’s just see your driver’s license and registration while I’m here.

So first I opened my wallet and noticed with a sinking heart that my current license was MIA – no doubt in my boyfriend’s wallet, where I left it after we had gone out the previous night and I didn’t want to carry a bag. So I dug out my expired license, sheepishly explaining the whereabouts of my good license. Ugh.

And then I opened the glove compartment and found the registration sitting right on top and as I handed it to the cop, I noticed the expiration date like an evil little glint of light: April 2009! Awesome. I hoped he might just not notice but OF COURSE HE DID. And as he informed me that my registration was indeed past the leeway due, I remembered with perfect clarity the renewal notice that I received back in February and put in my “to do” file with a mental note to do it RIGHT AFTER FINALS! But then you see, I started ICU and forgot about all other responsibilities. So I just sunk deeper into my seat.

And then he asked for proof of insurance. Phew! This one I could totally handle because I DO have current car insurance and I most definitely carry a card in my wallet. After some furious shuffling through the wallet revealed no insurance card, I just shuffled through my glove compartment and was really dumbfounded when that search also turned up nothing. So feeling like the biggest idiot, I just mumbled something about how I had no idea where my car was, but really, seriously, i was totally insured…UGH.

All in all I ended up with a warning for the insurance issue and a $100 citation for the registration issue. By the end of our visit, I think he had forgotten about the initial headlight issue. So it could have been worse. But also, maybe I should have just gulped some Nyquil and stayed in bed. [Feeling a bit better today, by the way. And I got the car registered today, too.]