The Weather Pixie Isn't Stuck
It's still cold and snowy.

But it's a good day anyway. This is the first Saturday in months that I haven't had to work in the morning, so after Mass I met a friend for breakfast. Just like we used to do every Saturday. We managed to get to Einsteins' before the sweaty members of the local running club............although there we some bikers (as in bicycle) who were sitting there with their shoes off, which I thought was just revolting, but I didn't have the nerve to say anything to them. After breakfast, we ran over to the rummage shop. Not a whole lot happening there. I found a leprechaun snowglobe that I intend to give to the Irish Princess for St. Patrick's Day or her birthday, two cotton kerchiefs for the boys with hieroglyphic prints and a $.25 copy of the Cliffs Notes for The Catcher in the Rye. I never read Catcher in the Rye - I don't know if I want to. But I'll skim the Cliffs Notes. My 30th high school reunion is coming up this year and I want to be well informed. The other thing that I avoided throughout the course of my entire education was reliance on Cliffs Notes. Now I buy them whenever I can - for a dime or quarter at used book sales. I think I'm better off for having actually read what was assigned to me, but those little yellow books are great for settling arguments, answering trivia questions etc. I'm a little ashamed to have them visible on my book shelf.......


Then I decided to bite the bullet and go to the Secretary of State's Office to renew my driver's license. It expired last Saturday. I've never let a license expire before....I'm really starting to walk on the wild side. There was no penalty, no raised eyebrows. But trust me, sitting in the mass of fascinating humanity for an hour with no reading material (nobody's fault but my own!) was punishment in itself. That ordeal being over, I can now get my hair cut. Letting it grow out a little for the picture was a good idea - I look only half as dangerous as I do on my passport.


The DMV is the only place I experience what would probably be described as 'test anxiety.' When I took the written test to get my Illinois license (about 12 years ago, having lived in Illinois as long as possible while retaining my Wisconsin license), the room started to spin. I thought I was going to fall out of my little desk. And I didn't have a pencil....A 400 pound man was obscuring my line of vision and totally blocking out the bucket of pencils for our use. So I took the test with a purple crayon that I found in my purse. I was so tense, I snapped the crayon in half. Of course, I thought through each question with an exactitude that might have impressed my college philosophy prof, Dr. Snapper. (love that name!) The Secretary of State doesn't really want us to think to long about these questions. The only question that I got wrong was "what is the fine for not having a baby in the required restraint." I didn't ever quibble over the fine amount, figuring the price of toying with the laws of physics is death or dreadful injury, that being enough to make me always strap in the kids. So the difference between $175 or $225 was of little consequence to me. Thank heaven I didn't have to take a road test. I would have fainted and/or vomited. I don't know what freaks me out about the drivers' testing facility - it is instantly apparent that the waiting room is not filled with Rhodes Scholars or Mensa members looking for a meeting. They have what I am lacking - confidence. Devil may care, any-idiot-can-do-this confidence. I can muster that for the SATs or a Jeopardy try-out, but to obtain a simple Illinois driver's license it all drains away.