Recently, I received a love letter in the mail from a local township in the form of a traffic ticket. Needless to say, I was not happy. I spent a few days ranting and raving about being a courteous and responsible driver and proclaiming that I didn't deserve the ticket before I finally decided I was going to take a stand. I'm not just paying this ticket. No sireee, I'm fighting it! After all, how is it fair that I should have to pay $140 just because I didn't wait a full 3 seconds at a complete stop before making a right on red. Who does that? And this was onto Route 1. In New Jersey. I hate to tell you folks, but it you wait 3 seconds turning onto Route 1, you are missing your turn and facing possibly being punched in the face by the motorists behind you.
I called the court and said that I was pleading NOT GUILTY. I hung up and felt rather confident in myself. After all, I'm a 30-something mother of three and I drive a mini van for Pete's sake. How much of a menace can I really be to society. I mean, honestly. This should be easy enough to fight, I have a clean driving record, I'm fully insured and all that. I take care of these things. Right? Say, now that I'm thinking of it, I think I am due for something to be paid to Motor Vehicles. Let me get that taken care of early to further prove how responsible I am. Now where is that paper they sent?
Days later the registration form turns up in a pile of mail I'd been meaning to sort. Eh, ooops? My registration expired like 3 months ago. But it's totally fine because I just paid it and it's now retroactive. Whew. Speaking of cars, I know I'm due for an oil change and I better get it soon because my inspection is due soon I think. Lemme check.....yup! Oil change is over 1,000 past due and it's throwing a check engine light now. I won't pass inspection like that, I better make the appointment.
I bring my car in for an oil change and the guy makes a face when he sees how far over due I am. Sorry dude, it's not even your car why do you care? Also, I'm 9 days past my inspection date. Oops again. They ask me if there is anything else wrong with the vehicle that I would like them to look at. Well yes, in fact. There's a recall on it and on the dash I have a little wrench showing, a check engine light and another light indicating that my sliding door is broken. This I knew - my first hint was when the door wouldn't open. It's been like that for months. They start throwing out prices just to look at things and I start feeling sick. Then they tell me they are out of loaners.
I'm glad I didn't make my car payment yet because now I'm going to have to pay a fortune just to have all this stuff fixed so I can take it through inspection and show up at the court house completely legal to probably still have to pay the $140 ticket anyway knowing my luck. Then the guy that sold me the car found me there and said he wanted to talk to me because my van is in high demand (or some crap) and he thinks he can get me something better for the same price. I have no intentions whatsoever of getting rid of this van. I need it for the kids. It's completely practical. And since I bought the thing, I've been counting down the minutes to when it would be paid off so I could get the hell out of driving a van! "Only" 3 more years to go on this loan!
I figured, well I'm stuck here anyway and my iPhone is almost dead. Better to BS about buying a car to pass the time than sit in the waiting room silently with my phone dead, right? Well turns out he has this great deal all lined up. Same payment per month but THIS van is only 3 years old and only has 30,000 miles. I'm intrigued. It's got all the bells and whistles, leather interior, power everything and - here's the clincher - a back-up camera! That is the coolest!
Before I knew it I was signing papers and accidentally bought a new van. I think it works out in the end. I got to skip paying to have all that other crap fixed on the old one, skipped my car payment for this month and my next payment isn't due till the end of August! All that for the same price I've already been paying. Not too shabby. Of course now I'm stuck with a van for the next 6 years. But hey, I figure two years from now I can take this one in for service and accidentally buy something even nicer. I think my husband might finally start volunteering to take my van for oil changes from now on!
