What's going on

So it's been a rather eventful week. I returned from a business trip to Philadelphia late one night after being delayed on the Philly tarmack for 2 hours. It was hot, hot, hot in Philly that day and when people from the deep south say it's hot, well, you know it's got to be hot. So I was not quite awake the next morning when I drove into work and got caught in a very strategically placed speed trap just half a mile from my apartment. Most excellent.

So I'm sitting there at the side of the road, fuming and wondering just how it was after four years of driving down this road, how did I not know the speed limit was not 40 mph, but rather 30 mph? The cop wasn't that nice to me either. He not only handed me a doozy of a speeding ticket (12 miles over the speed limit will cost you $188 here in Sweat Sock City), but I was also the lucky recipient of not one, but TWO citations, that in total add up to another $350. Luckily, one of the citations -- proof of financial responsibility -- I'll be able to get knocked off. The insurance card in my car expired in May and I'd neglected to replace it with the new one. So that's easily taken care of. The second citation, well, that's going to be interesting to deal with.

I never changed my driver's license address when I moved to Sweat Sock City four years ago nor when I was in Ye Olde University Towne six years ago. Instead, I put the parental units' address on my license, deciding that until I figured out where this tumbleweed was going to land, I wanted to have a permanent address. Well, the cop didn't buy that explanation and gave me a stern lecture: "You're not a child anymore, you don't need to rely on your parents." Methinks someone doesn't have a good relationship with his parental units.

Anyway, I went online to DPS to change my address and found out that my current address is way too long for the address bar and there's just nothing I can do about that, short of going to DPS in person (I'll call in the morning to find out what's what). So now I'm not sure what to do. My court date is on July 20th, which means I have 20 days to procure a new license to show to the judge and hopefully get my $100 fine on that waived. Except that it takes 15 to 20 working days to get a new license, which means if I can't do it online, I'm out of luck. ::sigh::

As for the speeding ticket, I've decided to accept responsibility and plead guilty/no contest (I was, after all, speeding) and petition to take a driver's education course. It'll still cost me some change, but if I successfully complete it (and this will be my third* time through, so I have no doubt I will pass it), then I avoid having this ticket on my license and no points will be added to my driving record -- which is very important to me, because I do have a clean driving record (no accidents in the past 6 years, one speeding ticket five years ago).

The lessons here are:
* Don't speed
* Make sure you have an up to date insurance card in your car
* Make sure your license address matches your insurance card

The first time I took it was for the insurance discount; we get 10 percent off our insurance premiums on successful completion.