Rick and I are now in possession of Illinois State driver's licenses (which has made this whole "move to Chicago" thing seem even more real. I'm starting to actually feel like I LIVE in Chicago, as opposed to just feeling like I'm temporarily hanging out here...). I was, of course, less than thrilled when Rick cheerily informed me that we'd be taking a fun little field trip to the DMV yesterday morning. On my "things I hate doing" scale, going to the DMV probably ranks somewhere between going to the dentist and scrubbing toilets... actually, I'd probably rather do both of those things than go to the DMV...
Surprisingly, however, yesterday's trip was relatively painless. We decided it might be a good day to go, seeing as many people are still digging out from under this week's blizzard, and our decision proved to be a good one -- there were hardly any people in the waiting area when we arrived. At first, we had our doubts that things would go smoothly -- we had a slight setback when we were informed that our lease agreement was only ONE of TWO documents we needed to prove our residency. But before we gave up and dragged ourselves back home, the man at the information counter informed us that there was an internet cafe across the hall. If we paid any bills online (and we do) we could just print out a statement and use that. Okay, so our wait was about ten minutes longer than it COULD have been if we had been totally prepared... but at least the crisis was averted...
Once we had our two documents in hand, we went back to the information counter, where we encountered slight setback #2: apparently, since all of our online bills are in Rick's name, they weren't good enough to vouch for ME. Also apparently, I am the only married girl in Chicago who doesn't have a million bills in my name. (I believe I do have at least one credit card in my name; however, it's not paid online and I'm not sure a statement has been mailed to my current address yet... so it was no help whatsoever.) The information guy told us that Rick would have to take care of HIS license first, and then he could sign something that said "yes, this crazy girl lives here," and then I'd have to go through the whole license thing myself. Nice and complicated.
Uh, yeah -- forget THAT. When Rick's number was called, I went up to the counter with him, making sure to be my usual sweet, smiley self. And lucky for us, the clerk we were working with was also very sweet and smiley -- which are two adjectives I've NEVER used to describe anyone working at the DMV. We explained the issue, and with a little "no problem" wave of her hand, she told us she'd take care of both of our licenses at the same time. She was actually friendly... she was joking around with us... she almost seemed like she liked her job -- or, at the very least, didn't HATE it. It was such a rare moment in the history of DMV World. Rick and I were so grateful about not having to get back in line and do everything over again that we grabbed a couple comment cards and gave our clerk rave reviews. That is the first time in my life that I've ever felt like a DMV employee deserved to be recognized for excellent service.
After that, it was just a matter of taking a quick, common-sense-question written test, posing for the ever-glamorous license picture, and waiting two minutes for the finished product. This is superior to Austin's system, where you're given a "temporary" license (a piece of paper with a stamp on it) and have to wait another two or three weeks for your actual license. I sort of look like a chipmunk in my new picture... but it's still better than my old Texas license -- when I last renewed it, I was able to do it by mail. Which meant they kept the same picture, and just updated the information. But for some reason, along with the updated info, my picture got darker -- my skin tone looked about five shades darker than normal. I sort of looked like the Mexican version of myself. Rick started calling me Consuela...
After driver's licenses, we got our license plates, and then Rick took care of procuring a parking sticker today (which Chicago requires you to have -- I think it's just a way for the city to make more money...), so we're all set!
We may now proceed to drive and park with abandon...
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