Ridin' Dirty

I don't know how it escaped me. Not just for days or weeks, but months.....nearly six months to be exact.

I was enjoying a little chuckle from the hokey elves I created from the www.ElfYourself.com website today at work when my coworker, Nicole, walked by and asked if I knew my car registration and inspection were expired. She admitted that because hers were expired too that she's noticing that stuff on other people's cars too.

A conversation in my head went a little something like this:

NO! That can't be right. Jason always takes care of that stuff. I don't remember ever changing the sticker on my window or seeing the reminder come in the mail. Maybe Jason just did it and I never saw it. No that wouldn't happen either. Jason always makes a point to tell me when he's doing something for me, especially when it comes to my car, which isn't his and he doesn't feel he should have to take care of these things. I should go look at it. Nicole has admitted she has "old lady eyes".

I go outside to check my stickers. Sure enough - vehicle registration expired in JUNE! Inspection, thankfully, is still ok. It doesn't expire until the end of the month, so with the grace period I can still skirt by for about 3 more weeks on that one.

Back in the office Nicole is giving me the run down of where I need to go if I'm in Dallas County like her (which I am not) and that I can ride with her tomorrow when she goes to take care of her car registration. Since I am not in Dallas County and don't have a friendly sidekick to share my legal woes with, I research online where I need to go for Collin County and find that lo and behold! Its only 2.5 miles away! I'm excited by this, but also feel like even more of a loser for not doing this sooner since its in my back yard.

Upon announcing that fact, Joey, our copywriter, who has witnessed this discovery from his open office, encourages me to disappear to take care of it NOW because although I've gotten away with it for 6 months, now that I'm aware of it, I am GOING TO GET PULLED OVER. He's right. Its karma or dogma or murphy's law or whatever belief system you follow - its that.

I call the tax office to make sure the registration isn't paid and somehow my sticker just got lost in the mail. I'm still in disbelief that I've overlooked this very important annual update. Nope, I'm 100% expired, but with my insurance card and my checkbook (what? who uses a checkbook anymore?) I can get it taken care of prontisimo!

Now I'm thinking about my insurance card. Our insurance policy gets renewed every May and November. I don't remember putting a new card in my glove box. Ten bucks says that damn card is expired too! Back out to the car to confirm my suspicions........I pull out my recent oil change receipt, an old insurance card from May 2007, warranty receipt from my speaker replacement a few weeks ago (because getting a distorted speaker replaced is an URGENT matter), and yep, my most recent insurance card that expired on 11/20/08. DAMMIT!

Joey shakes his head at me and asks if my kids are still wearing burlap sacks as underwear. ???? I'm mildly embarrassed because this is shocking to me - I've never let this happen before (to this degree). Last time this happened, it was my expired inspection that was only about 3 months late and the nice policeman was the informant. He only charged me about $200 to tell me that.

Odds are he'll find me again in the morning when I'm on my way to the tax office on my way to work.