Vanity has a price....

...and mine is 4 hours at the DMV.

I have lived in California now for 4 years and have been well aware to two facts since I arrived; 1.) That I would now be residing in the state of California and should have proper ID and 2.) That my Virginia driver's license would expire on June 30, 2008. Neither of these very important facts, however, were important enough to get me to go to the DMV for my new license until the VERY last day possible. Why, you ask? Sheer vanity. I LOVED my old photo. I looked so cute; perky and spunky with a nice summer tan and long shiny hair. I was proud of that photo. I internally thanked the little old lady who worked the stationary camera at the Fair Oaks DMV branch every time I had to produce identification.
When I moved here the first thing I thought was "Oh no, now I'm going to have to give up my cute photo!" Imagine my relief when I saw my license didn't expire until 2008. That seemed ages and ages away. I'd eventually get to it, right? Then, last week I realized time had run out. I had no choice, it was time move on.

I mourned my old license as I drove to the DMV this morning in grave silence. It was when I pulled into the parking lot at 7:45 am (15 minutes before they even open) did I understand the consequences of my procrastination. The line to enter was alread wrapped around building TWICE. The last day of the month (and a Monday no less) seemed to be peak hours. If I hadn't been so vain, I could have taken care of this (quite literally) years ago. I could have made an appointment even! But nooooooo, I had to keep that picture as long as I could. Lucky for me I brought at book to pass the time, unluckily I did not realize they would need an original copy of my marriage license to issue my new ID, so I at one point got to go back home, get my marriage license and then start over. Eventually, I made it up to the window, over to the camera, and (twice through) the test taking area. I'd love to say that the DMV employees were ridiculously slow or dimwitted and caused me all kinds of aggrevation, but it's simply not true. They were courteous and nice and helpful and really I had no one but myself to blame for being one of the lucky people to grace the DMV halls on the last day of the month.

It's done, its over. I feel complete in my grieving process and no longer need to hold on to my photo of yesteryear. From what I can tell, this picture isn't too bad; it's no nice old lady picture from the Fair Oaks Branch--but I'm sure it will do. Of course, we can't reach a final conclusion until my license arrives in a week to ten days-- wish me luck!