california, i'm offically here to stay

after living here for almost a year and a half, i officially registered my car today. phew. and as with most things like this, there is a story to go along.

so i woke up early to be out of the house by 7a, arriving at the DMV by 7:15. yes, the DMV doesn't open until 8, but i didn't have an appointment so i figured i should get there early. and it's good thing i did. when i arrived at 7:15 i was already the 8th person in line. i proceeded to stand in line outside for the next 45 minutes reading my book. i was off to a good start. the doors opened, i got my number and waited to be called. the woman who helped me this morning was great. and i always try to start a conversation with people, especially in places like the DMV because everyone seems so crabby! she welcomed the conversation. after a few more minutes, and getting my car inspected, i was all set! california license plates and all (which i still need to put on my car...) life was good as i was driving to work. i wasn't going to be too late and i had finally registered my car.

but...right as i was about to pull into the parking garage at work, i realized that i hadn't seen my car TITLE since i handed it to the woman. panicking, i checked my pile of papers praying that it was in my car and hearing the words of my dad saying "you really don't want to lose the title". so, i raced back to DMV. and i guess "raced" isn't exactly the correct way to say it. i crawled through the horrendous traffic, which does NOT help when you are freaking out.

i finally got back to the DMV to find out that they keep your title and send you a new one (i think because i was registering from out of state) wow. so i got a copy of it and went back to work. what a morning.

i also decided, i will NEVER live in the valley if i don't work there. going over the hill out of the valley is a complete nightmare during rush hour. i'm seriously not kidding you.