License To Tantrum

What an afternoon.

It was going to be so simple, too. So simple.

We had this plan. Andrew was going to pick us up at noon, and we were going to the Department of Public Safety to get our Texas licenses. So simple. We got there right on time. Fab! I pull out all the paperwork. Well, all of it except Andrew's birth certificate. I blame the state of Maryland for making them the size of a credt card. Losers.
So we come up with a plan. Andrew will take the girls and run home and find his passport, which will work as well. I tell him where it is and I stay to work on paperwork, buy lunch for the 4 of us and do my license. So simple. I, of course, have forgetten my cell phone, complicating things a tiny bit. Andrew, of course, has never done a solo lunch time drive with the screamig meanies, which complicates things a tiny bit more.
I fill out the paperwork. Did I mention the licensing dept computer system is down statewide? They don't know when it'll be back up, so I go to buy lunch. (by computer system I assume they mean scribes and calligraphers, judging by the age of the "computers.")
Lunch is bought. I return to wolf down my sub and am delighted to hear the system is back and working. I get in line and am waiting patiently for my turn, when I see a sign that reads, "cash or check only."
Are you flipping kidding me??? I pack up everything. Papers, lunches, drinks, etc. Everything. I run to an ATM to withdraw the last $80 in our checking account until next Friday. (also a terribly funny story. Another time, perhaps?)
I run back to get in line as a breathless Andrew comes running back in with two confused girls. No passport. I, of course, remember where it is right away. So simple.
Andrew scratches "get license" from his list and has just been elevated to a lunchtime chaffeur and nanny. Fabulous.
I get my license. Of course, "low taxes Texas" doesn't print them onsite. I have a paper that says I have to wait 5 weeks until the Pony Express arrives with th actual thing. So simple.
So, neither girl is napping after having ruined that for them. So we're going to head to the gym. Gracious.


- Laura & Andrew