Faster Than A Speeding Bullet

(Also able to leap capital E in a single bound.)

This morning, after Cassi woke the kiddo by going ape at the UPS man dropping a box off for us, I decided to try and make some lemonade out the situation by heading off to the DMV earlier than I had planned. So I got the kiddo changed and dressed and gathered up the frame that I needed to return to Michaels and piled us all into the car and we were off.

We pulled into a front row parking spot (I took that as a good sign) at right about 10:50. There were two people in front of us in the line that lets you figure out what line you're in. (See, it's the new-ish system - well, new since I was there last, but that's...8 years ago? Anyway, you go to this one guy at the information desk and tell him what you need and then he prints you a numbered ticket - where each service has their own little queue. I'm not sure exactly how they decide how to call them - it kinda looks like each teller handles only one kind of business - regardless, it seems to help them keep things moving, so I'm for it.) The guy tried to engage the still sleepy kiddo in conversation, checked that my form was filled out, and printed us a ticket. The current matching letter/number combo was only 2 away from my turn. Before I could herd us all over to a seat without stepping on someone or dropping something, the person in front of us had been called. I think we sat for about two minutes before it was our turn.

The lady checked over my form, had me read the top line of the eye chart and took my payment. Honestly, it took longer for them to run my credit card than anything else, and that's because there appeared to be a bit of a line for tellers to use the machine. We sat down and waited to get called for the photo and then they started calling my number again. Confused, I figured she just made a mistake. So I just waited, trying to keep the kiddo from running off and joining the circus (I'm pretty sure there was a line for that.) After the third time they repeated th,e announcement and flashed my number, I went up and said, "That was me?" She laughed and said her coffee machine was broken this morning before moving along. And then they called me for the photo.

That took two seconds (though I got chastized for moving around...but really, you try to keep a 1 year old still while you sit waiting for a photo when all they want to do is run around) and then another minute or two til I was done.

Total time: 20 minutes.

Seriously, when was the last time you did anything at the DMV in 20 minutes?

Since we made such good time, we zipped over to Michaels to return the frame that we bought yesterday. The frame that we bought yesterday that broke when I tried to put a picture in it. Yeah. Quality workmanship, that. Anyway, there was one geriatric ICU patient working the register (honestly, she moved so slowly I wondered if she still had a pulse) and every five minutes they kept calling for Joe or Jennifer to come to their register, but neither Joe nor Jennifer ever surfaced. The line was all the way back to the back of the fake flowers. I had planned to exchange or replace the frame, but by the time I made it to the register, I didn't want to wait in line again, so for now we'll just do without. Maybe the next time I'm at Target they'll have something that interests me.

All I have to say to Michaels is this: it's sad when a trip to the DMV is more pleasant than visiting your establishment.