When I made the last-minute decision to join the other 31 Dayers for October, and the even more last-minute choice of “real life” as a topic, I was concerned about having enough blogging material. Would my life—my. real. life.—be interesting enough to fill 31 days?
I really hoped so until last night, when it got a little too interesting.
Flashback: In August I was invited to a blog press day with the author, director, and two actresses from The Help. I left the house just in time to make it into Atlanta, but forgot something and had to circle back home. I punched the gas when finally leaving my subdivision; unfortunately, a policemen waited half a mile down the road.
He promised to get me on the road again in a hurry. I hoped he’d see my record—only two tickets ever, one in high school and one in the early 90s—and send me on my way. Unfortunately, he just wrote up a ticket lickety split.
I needed a little help . . .
Once the initial fear/paranoia/repentance cycle wore off, I promptly forgot about it. October, the due date, seemed like an awfully long time away.
But guess what? October comes.
At the grocery store Thursday night I had the startling revelation that it was in fact October and that my ticket would be due soon. Afraid of forgetting again, I made a mental association: the thick chain necklace around my neck was like the chains of the law. Dramatic I know, but it worked. I found the ticket lying in my nightstand drawer where I placed it in August.
There may be 31 days in October, but apparently my court date zipped past me on the 4th. The back of the ticket said, in all caps: IF YOU FAIL TO APPEAR TO ANSWER THE CHARGE, A WARRANT WILL BE ISSUED FOR YOUR ARREST AND YOUR DRIVER’S LICENSE SHALL BE SUSPENDED BY THE GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF DRIVER SERVICES.
We called both a lawyer and a policeman, family friends, who assured us that this does happen. It didn’t really make me feel much better. “A warrant will be issued for your arrest” is an unsettling phrase, especially when it applies to you.
I imagined driving to the clerk’s office to pay the ticket and being cuffed. The hubby and I saw Courageous this week, so it was a good time to remind him that he was responsible for me (for better or worse, right?) and to please not dare go to work in the morning and leave me here afraid to leave the house.
He called a co-worker to explain the situation and they had a good laugh at my expense.
“So she’s on the lam,” his buddy joked to my husband.
That’s me. A fugitive from justice.
My husband called the county clerk’s house first thing in the morning and paid the ticket, the $65 late fee, and thankfully the 4% credit card processing fee to handle it immediately over the phone instead of through the mail, although they said he could.
I hope you won’t mind if 31 Days of Real Life is a little less exciting next week.
Have you ever forgotten anything this big?
How about this one… I didn’t realize my drivers license had EXPIRED. So expired that I had to RETAKE the driver’s test. This I failed TWO times before finally passing the third time and getting my license. Not fun…. but funny later that I had a temp at age 39….
Kristal, yours may be worse (although my husband told me I was one step closer to jail. lol)! 🙂
Oh Dawn! You poor thing!! Glad you got it all taken care of. Praying you have an uneventful upcoming week. 🙂
that just made my day a little bit better. my mom in fear of a warrant out for her arrest.. ahh, the joys of staying in-tune.
Oh my word!! I can’t even imagine the panic you must have felt! It’s definitely a funny story now (providing lovely blog entertainment 😉 ) but I’m sure that was NOT fun to live through! Glad it all worked out!!
Mine was much worse. At least I thought so. At the age of sixteen I got in a small accident and I didn’t have my insurance in the car with me at the time, so I got a ticket for that. Well, I somehow lost the ticket and totally forgot to do anything about it. Never hearing another thing until I was nineteen and I rolled through a stop sign. He arrested me on the spot. Pat down and everything. Talk about a freaked out nineteen year old. (my license had been suspended for three years and I had no clue). I am pretty sure you could have filled a couple of five gallon buckets with the tears I shed that night. And, IT ONLY GETS WORSE… Paid bail, (I shake my head that I ever have had to do that), and had a court date just like yours. Funny enough in October too. I didn’t forget again, but I had a scheduling conflict, I needed to change the court date because I was supposed to be out of the country then for a mission trip. I called the appropriate people and they said, “hey no problem we will just change it”. So, I get back from my trip and guess what? They didn’t change it and there was a warrant out for my arrest because I missed my court date. Luckily, the good Lord was looking out for me. The arresting officer didn’t show up to the court date either and honestly couldn’t be found because he had quit his job and moved to Georgia. So, they couldn’t fulfill that warrant and all charges were dropped. Crazy, huh?
Kelli: that is awful! At least it sounds like you never actually ended up in jail, right? (hope not)