Wednesday, November 3, 2010

What goes around...

Happy to say that going to court this morning had a good outcome. Back in September I had received a few tickets for some trivial things that could have been overlooked by a compassionate officer, but no. Instead I faced $400 in fines at a time when I'm counting change out of the basket for lunch. Fortunately, having resolved the things in a timely fashion the judge accepted my explanations and dismissed them all. Yay!!! But of course the story is the thing, and not the outcome...

You know how they say things happen in threes? I kind of think that is a convenient number but not always accurate. In my case the number has been cranking upwards like a taxi meter in NYC. So imagine the karmic moments when a friend says "Well, the bad karma can't last forever," and 10 mintues later I'm being pulled over for my front license plate not being on. (It had gotten knocked loose several days prior and rather than lose it on the freeway I pulled it off. Little did I know that it was illegal to not have it on) That was ticket #1.

Ticket #2 was having forgotten to get my safety check renewed on the van. It had expired during the interim that I was moving out of my house, putting things in storage, and otherwise going through a difficult emotional period. Total oversight.

Ticket #3... After enjoying 15 minutes of sarcasm and accusatory tone of my officer (saying that I've got too many stories offered up for #1 and 2. ?????? I was answering his questions...????) He asks for my license... which was sitting in my work pants at the house-sitting location and not with me. Ugh.... "Another story" according to Officer Compassionate and he says "Now you have to prove who you say you are." This was a clear case of "WTF? Could this get any worse??" And apparently it could since showing current mail in my bag, his extensive computer search on me and the van (a good 20-25 minutes), nor being a well spoken human being who happened to drive an old van through a posh neighborhood could persuade him from NOT giving me the tickets. :(

To cap it off he says to me, "maybe you'll have better luck telling your stories to the judge." Greeeaaatttt. Now did he go over any edge where I could have complained? No. Was he a complete assh@*e? Yes, and the only saving grace was this morning's outcome as the judge did indeed think that my explanations were reasonable.

But it does go to show how dangerous assumptions can be. I had assumed I had reached rock bottom prior to the pull-over and chuckled heartily with my friend's "it can't last forever" quip. Alas, rock bottom can be a very relative position. And if you're convinced of its location you are once again the ding dong when something new comes up and you find yourself saying "I didn't think it could happen to me!"

In any case I am not $400 poorer for the moment, and it's a rainy day so will probably be slow here today. But it gives plenty of opportunity to reflect on what else I have in my mind that is built on assumption rather than the reality of it. We'll see if any insights pop up, but I won't hold my breath on that one.

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