First the post office, now the DMV

Aside from perhaps the security line at the airport, everyone's least favorite line always seems to be the DMV (What is it with government services and lines anyway? And do we really want universal health care? But I digress...). This week, after realizing that my Washington plates were about to expire, I decided to go into the DMV for a double-dip of car registration and driver's license. Needless to say, I was looking forward to this as one looks forward to a spinal tap. Here's my story:

I called the DMV and actually got to talk to a person (one point for the DMV!) to ask what I needed to bring with me to take care of my two tasks. I also asked what would happen if my Washington tabs were expired by the time I registered in California, and was told that I had better walk to the DMV if I didn't want to risk a ticket. Fortunately, I had exactly one day to avoid this dilemma -- Wednesday. Wednesday also happened to be the day that the DMV doesn't open at the normal 8am, but rather 9am. There is a DMV around the corner from my apartment, and when I showed up there at 8:45am, the line was 60+ long. I'm not kidding. I decided to go to work and wait till the lines subsided.

Another major perk of the DMV here is that they will show you wait times online. This allowed me to identify patterns, and at 11:15, with the estimated wait at 14 minutes, I made my move. Now, the way it seems to work at DMV's is you wait in line to get a number, and then you wait in a chair until your number is called. Apparently that 14 minutes is the time you need to wait to get a number only -- after that it was another half hour wait, before I could register my car, get my new plates (a surprise), take my driver's test, and get back to work. All in all, it took about an air-conditioned hour and a half -- not too bad, considering this was the DMV -- and only cost $210 for all these fine services.

The highlight was clearly talking to the woman who processed my applications. She told me that the registration fee was as low as it was ($183) because the governor before Arnold dropped the prices, and then Arnold vowed not to raise them again -- a promise he followed through with. By this point, I was very excited, and started liking Arnold more than I already do. But rather than sharing my happiness, the woman seemed to be disapproving out this move, saying that Arnold "doesn't know how the rest of us live. His watch is worth more than these people earn in a year. He's just an actor, and wants to be liked." At this point, I liked Arnold more than the "rest of them", so I think she had a good argument. I think $183 is quite a bit for a pair of license plates, some stickers, and the privilege of taking 45 minutes out of my work day to run in place, but apparently the woman did not share my sentiments. Sometimes it's hard to believe I ever worked for the government...