renewing your driver's license

on thursday i had my day all planned out.

oh wait, i forgot to say - wednesday when i went to the bank, the kind teller informed me my driver's license had expired last month. great.

i had planned to go out of town to visit a friend for the day. i guess i was going to be doing an errand before i headed out of town now. the officer was not too keen on me driving without a valid license or coming to pick me up if i got stopped by the police.
the officer said he was pretty sure i had to have a birth certificate to renew. i thought, "surely not - it's not even been 30 days. don't i have a grace period like they do when you renew your tag?" the officer didn't think so, so now i have to plan a trip to the bank.

so here's the plan thursday morning:

• call the tag agency to see what i actually need to renew license.
• possibly go by bank to get my naturalization papers (don't actually have a birth certificate).
• go by tag agency to renew license.
• grab a quick breakfast and be on my way by 10 a.m.

here's what actually happened (and i realize it's really not bad in the grand scheme of things!):

• realize tag agency doesn't open until 9 a.m. so can't call until then.
• call tag agency at 9 a.m. "what do i actually need to renew license?" i asked. "you need a birth certificate." kind lady replied. "don't actually have a birth certificate, will my naturalization paper do?" i ask. she says, "i don't know you will have to call the department of public safety." she gives the the phone number and i call dps. they inform me the naturalization papers will suffice.
• i leave at 9:15 a.m. to go to the bank to get my naturalization papers.
• i arrive at 9:30 a.m. to the tag agency. yea - it look like there is no customers inside so i think i can get in and out quickly. however, i go inside and the kind lady i talked to this morning informs me - "oh we can't take those papers right now. first you have to go to dps. they will take the papers then, take your picture and your fingerprints. then you come back here and we will do the same thing." even though no one mentioned that this morning, i am going with the flow. kind lady tells me where dps is and i'm on my way.
• i get to dps by 9:45 a.m. there are a few people in here. i pull my number and it's #1. they are on #90. okay - this is do-able. once it's gets to 99 it rolls over to #00 and then #1. i know i am now not going leave town at 10 a.m. though. i sit there with 9 other people for an hour and 15 minutes. each person is called up and there are several minutes that lapse between the time the person leaves the building and they call the next person up. there are only two older gentlemen working. at 11:15 a.m., they call my number, i am in and out pretty quickly. i am just thankful i didn't have my kids with me. they would have been very bored.
• at 11:20 a.m., i am heading back to the tag agency. there are people there now. however, they have all been helped already. they did the same thing. they looked at my papers, took my pictures and took my fingerprints. i was in and out 10 minutes.
• i'm grab some quick lunch and head out of the city, calling my friend at 12 p.m. to let her know i am just now leaving the city. i had called her after dps and said i would be there as soon as i could.

moral of this story - don't let your license expire friends!!! it's a much longer process if you do!