Could have been much worse!

The whole family got together today for a cookout to celebrate three birthdays that happen in April and May, Steve's, Jim's and mine. It's a rare Sunday afternoon where everyone's available, so we decided to take advantage of the situation. The weather couldn't have been better and we all had a great time.

My brother Jim noticed that I didn't have the new tag on my license plate and urged me to drive with extra caution on my way back home. I had forgotten to register and was grateful for the reminder.

Unfortunately, his words of caution were not heeded by me, and less than a minute after leaving my brother Dave's place I saw the tell tale lights flashing behind me.

Uh-oh.

I pulled over, my mind whirling, wondering how fast I had been going. I also realized that besides not having a current license plate, my registration and insurance were not in the car either, the result of a car cleaning session where I forgot to get the forms back into the car. I prepared for an ugly encounter.

When the officer walked up, I had my license at the ready and immediately pointed out that that my registration hadn't been renewed, and how my brother pointed that out today at our birthday shindig. I also explained my lack of registration and proof of insurance. She proceeded to tell me that I was speeding, and that I had blown right through a stop sign, and that I also had failed to use my turn signal. She asked me what I was up to, and I told her that I had just left a birthday gathering with the family and was just thinking about how enjoyable the day had been and wasn't being as mindful as I should have been. She asked if I had been drinking, and said that I had had a few beers much earlier in the day.

She walked back to her car, and I prepared for the worst, wondering first off how many infractions she would write a ticket for, and how much this little mistake would cost me. There was a small hope that she would be lenient, but I wasn't counting on it.

When she came back, she decided she would check to see if I was drunk by having my eyes follow her flash light. It was very bizarre, and I could tell that my eyes were twitching a couple of times, which is apparently what she was looking for. She told me that my eyes had twitched, but that it wasn't sufficiently bad for her to do anything more, though I assumed that she thought I was a bit buzzed, which was not the case. I thought for sure with that in the back of her mind, she'd maybe write me up for everything. She proceeded to recite the litany of things I had done wrong, and with each item I nodded in affirmation, acknowledging that I was duly aware that everything she said was true. When she was done, I said, "That's a bad driver, isn't it?" She answered, "That's a HORRIBLE driver!"

With that, she proceeded to let me off with a warning.