RMV, Etc., in 1,575 Words

Good evening! I did write this morning but it is on the computer upstairs and will most likely go in the Daniel blog so be on the lookout for that probably tomorrow.

So. Thursday I went to the RMV. I needed to get home because Laura and Joanna were both going to be going to work. I got there five minutes before they opened and the line was half-way down the sidewalk along the side of the building. I went in and went to the bathroom. Then I looked to see if the woman I’d spoken to the day before was available and she was busy. The guy next to her was not busy but couldn’t do registrations, only driver’s licenses. The guy next to him was finishing up some paperwork and would have been able to do a registration if not for the other story line.

. . .which was a funny smell. To me it smelled like hair spray or nail polish remover. Ick. When I got out of the bathroom, the manager or supervisor or whatever was telling everyone that as soon as the fire department arrived, the building would be evacuated. My thoughts: “Seriously? Come ON!” Other people, who didn’t have a fast pass to the front of the line said, “Hey, open up more windows. Let’s get more numbers rolling here!” My thoughts: “Seriously? Like THAT’s going to solve anything.” The woman I’d spoken to the day before was annoyed with that one, I could tell, and started yelling (she’s actually got a reputation for being, you know, kind of a female dog, but I think it’s mostly because she won’t put up with crap from the idiots who go in and say things like, “Let’s get more numbers rolling here!”

Of course, this meant that I was keeping a very close eye on the people working because I wanted to get done and be done. I’d already been there the day before and waited a total of an hour and a half. Wasn’t that enough? Apparently not. The manager/supervisor said, “We’re going to go ahead and close up. The fire department should be here any minute.” I wasn’t too thrilled about this but wasn’t going to stick around to see if they opened back up so I was outta there. I stopped at the library on the way home to return Eragon  and Here Be Dragons and check out Eldest and Falls the Shadow. Then I went home and discovered. . .

 . . .that I couldn’t access my laptop. Are you freaking kidding me? Cedric had wanted to get on the computer and I let him because he’s usually good about just looking things up. Well, this time he went to miniclips which he knew he wasn’t supposed to do and guess what? Virus. FBI virus to be specific. This mama was NOT a happy camper and let her offspring know exactly how not happy she was. This is why there has been a lack of blog posts for the last few days. I called Jeremy West who gave me a suggestion or two which I tried but not being the computer expert that I am, I wasn’t successful. I could get in if I used safe mode but that was just kind of a pain so I didn’t bother trying.

That afternoon, Amena had been invited to the Beaudett’s house for a get together that Rachel had planned. I wasn’t exactly thrilled about the idea of going back to Fitchburg when I’d already been to Leominter (you remember about the RMV), especially since I would have to not only drop her off but pick her up as well. You know, I don’t mind driving over that way because it really isn’t that far. Once a day is perfectly fine. Even twice in one day is doable depending on the circumstances. But I was looking at maybe three or four times because I wanted to try the RMV again. Yikes!!! Anyway, Joseph had found the first Star Wars (as in Episode IV or The Last Hope) so my thoughts went something like this: “Well, I can drop Amena off, we can go by the RMV and then we can deliver Star Wars to the Mylers.” I was, of course, hoping that the RMV would be open by then.

So off we went. Laura and Joanna and Paul were all at work and since I was dropping Amena off, the boys had no choice but to go with me. We took the truck. Amena was dropped off at the Beaudett’s. We drove by the RMV; it was still closed. We went to the Myler’s; three quarters of them were home and half of them were outside. We dropped Star Wars off and visited for a while and then went to pick Amena up. Because there was a pizza in the oven, and because Amena wasn’t done doing what she was doing, of course we couldn’t leave immediately so we stayed and visited for a while. What a day. Only two trips though. I didn’t bother going back later because I checked the RMV website on my phone and discovered that they were still not open.

And other than that, I only got 200 pages of Eldest read as well as other domestic-type things. What a day.

Friday, I wasn’t in much of a hurry. I knew the lines would be long and Laura didn’t have to go to work until 3:00. I wasn’t worried about the long lines but driving the truck does have disadvantages when it comes to parking. I showered and got ready and left. I drove to the RMV. There were a couple of places I could have parked, and would have had I been driving the Jetta, but I decided to just go to the overflow parking. Of course I missed the turn into the parking lot and briefly considered just driving over the curb but figured that it probably isn’t legal and because it probably isn’t legal, there would probably be an officer of the law witness my doing it and therefore I just kept going and turned around in the Marshalls parking lot across the street. Finally I got parked and walked over. The line, for those of you familiar with the Leominster RMV, was to the corner of the building outside. I walked around all the cars and snuck through the line at the doors and went in.

The woman I’d spoken to two days earlier wasn’t there. The guy who couldn’t help me was there. The guy next to him who could help me was there but busy. So I stood there, waiting. Then the woman I’d spoken to came out and I zipped over and handed her my papers. She asked if I’d been there the day before and I said, “Yes, and the day before that.” So we chit chatted about the idiot who wanted to open more windows and get the numbers rolling. She admitted that she’d been very close to losing her temper. I just expressed my opinion that there is always something to make life interesting even if we don’t like it. She said that they really didn’t need to be closed the day before because they were going to pay for it that day as it was Friday and the following week was a holiday. Having worked for the welfare department, I can imagine.

I was in and out in about 5 minutes. It took me longer to park than it did to get everything done. And then I was on my way home.

It was a rainy day so we didn’t go swimming. It was rainy but not consistently. It would rain for a while, usually coming down hard and fast, and then it would stop, the sun would come out, and then it would rain again. We went through this cycle all day long so of course the goats didn’t get out. Then between 3 and 4, the goats let themselves out through a hole they made in their fence. I told Amena, Cedric and Seth to just go ahead and take them out to the back field because they obviously wanted out and Joseph helped me fix the hole.

I finished reading Eldest and read a few pages of Falls the Shadow. Even though Laura and Joanna were not going to be home, Paul and I went out. Amena and the boys watched a movie and all went fairly well at home while we were gone. We went to a Vietnamese restaurant we’d been to just once before and I had a spicy basil dish with lots of seafood in it. Very good. They give you the option of white or brown rice, which I like because I really prefer brown rice. The only problems at home were that Cedric snuck into the sherbet (so I told Amena that everyone could have what was left) and that they were all still up watching something (I don’t remember if it was another movie or the same one repeated) when we got home at 10:00.

And that is that. Due to a phone conversation and other fun things, it has taken me almost two hours to write what I’ve written so we’ll leave Saturday and today for tomorrow. In the meantime, I hope you’ve had a wonderful day and have a restful slumber tonight.

PS I forgot to mention that Joanna took my laptop to the West's Thursday evening.