Some people stop at nothing, if you're searching for something...

I believe my official conversion to a Florida resident has been... maybe started (?): I went today to the DMV (not to be confused with the DPS of Texas--way cooler), and got a Florida driver's licenses (and had to sacrifice my Texas license to do so). My visit managed to live up to most stereotypes of frustrated government service employees, so all-in-all a rather interesting way to start my morning...

Now, I will give Florida some props: they allowed me to schedule an appointment to get my licenses, and let me fill out the application online. However, they still didn't come out ahead. The pre-set appointment allowed me to jump ahead of 3 people in a line, so I saved about 10 minutes there. They lost points, however, when the first scheduled appoint time was 8:30 a.m.; and when I showed up at 8:00 a.m. they'd already been open for an hour (and I would've actually have gone in earlier, had I known I could, so I could get to work on time, but the hours weren't posted online for me to know).

Now, had that been all, I would have been ok; but it wasn't. After the initial check to see if I was prepared for transferring my license (having my passport--like you're allowed to have--in lieu of a Social Security Card almost threw them), I got into another line. That was ok: only 2-3 people deep, and I had things I could be doing. And on top of it, a worker from an empty line came over and pulled me into her line so I didn't have to wait more. Sweet... err, not.

I handed the nice work the printed copy of my application form, which hand been kind of a pain to print, as I hand to transfer it from the computer I originally downloaded it on to one with a printer on it (ok, not a gigantic deal)... anyways, the DMB work took the application, and then proceeded to ignore it entirely. It just sat there, beside her keyboard, as she asked me every question on there... I don't know maybe it was to test to see if I really knew what it said. Who knows.

Anyways, after it started to become clear that she was asking me the questions I'd already answered on the form, I made the then-unknown mistake to try to point out the form to her. In attempting to do this, I physically reached over the waist-high (I'm tall, remember) divider, and which point she completely froze and said words to the effect of "get your hand/arm out of my desk space" (almost to the instant I reached over). She then handed me back my passport and driver's license, thinking that was what I wanted. After taking them, and waiting about 30 seconds, I asked if she needed/wanted them back, to which she said yes and question whether I wanted to look at them. When I said no, that I actually was trying to look at the paper (with all the information she needed), she just kinda shrugged, and we were ok afterward...

But what sealed the DMV's fate was their employee next to me. An elderly woman and a person who I assumed was her son, were at the agent next to me. At one point, the son had to come up as the agent had something semi-complex to explain (the woman was being charged $5 for the test she'd taken on a previous visit to another DMV office, and not for what she was doing that day; however, he couldn't give her the stuff she was there for today until the previous $5 charge was paid). So the agent attempts to explain this to the son, who doesn't understand it (the explanation wasn't very clear), and which point, the agent loudly states, "You did indicate English was your first language. You do understand English, don't you." He then proceeded to slowly give a similar, unclear explanation of the charges, in a louder voice...

And the icing on the cake, was that when I asked for voter registration information (which I thought the DMV site mentioned should be available), I was instructed to go to the county courthouse for it... so much for motor-voter.

Anyways, I was getting my FL DL so I can establish residency here, and for condo-purchasing stuff. (I'm now awaiting to get loan approval: all the paperwork is in, and they're trying to figure out whether/not I'm worthy of a loan. I may find out by week's end.)

Enough ranting, the D List is on, and I'm missing it! Hasta...

Some people stop at nothing
If you're searching for something
Lay down the law, shout out for more
Break-out and shout, day-in, day-out