DA Line

I had to go to court this morning. Did I tell ya'll about my fender-bender back in December? I can't remember if I mentioned it. Anyway, long story short, I accidentally sideswipped someone. I got a ticket for unsafe movement.

So today was my court day and it made for an interesting/different kind of morning.

First, the time for court on my ticket was 8 am. I took an Ambien around 10:30 pm last night, but I swear I have become immune to those things because I didn't fall asleep until like 2 am.

I had set my 2 alarms for 6:30 and 7. When I opened my eyes and looked at the clock this morning it was 8:05. I guess I slept through both alarms! I threw on some clothes, brushed my teeth, ran a brush through my hair, let the dog out and hurried out the door.

I rarely ever go to downtown Raleigh. It is about a 20 minute drive from where I live and all the one-way streets and traffic and skinny lanes make me nervous. But as I was driving through the city streets I thought how cool it would be to live downtown or in a big city somewhere. I could walk everywhere, have a bagel shop in my lobby, and just feel all city-ish. I always regret not living somewhere like DC or NYC for a few years after college to get that big city experience. But let's be realistic...who can really afford that? I know I couldn't.

Anyway, I had to drive around the courthouse a couple times, but found a 30-minute parking spot about 4 blocks away finally and figured that was the best I was going to get.

On my walk to the courthouse I got nervous a couple times passing some umm...interesting looking people. I made sure my purse was shut and just walked as quickly as possible without making eye contact with anyone. I made it to the courthouse and through security and went upstairs to the courtroom listed on my ticket.

Did I mention I had been here before? A few years ago I got a speeding ticket, so I was better prepared this time. The last time I actually went to the FEDERAL courthouse instead of the county courthouse. The guy laughed at me when I asked him where I needed to go for my speeding ticket. That was a bad day and it took me forever to get where I needed to be.

Anyway, I knew right where to go this time. The "courtroom" for minor offenses like this is this big room with a desk up front and all these ropes that form confusing curving lines. As I was waiting in line to check in, to my right was another line and I looked at the sign above them and it said "DA LINE". I laughed to myself and thought "is that the line for ghetto people? I love that they are embracing eubonics!"

When it got to be my turn to check in the lady said "Ok, you have to speak to the D.A. and pointed me to DA LINE". Seriously it wasn't until then that it clicked. Get it? D.A. line? I was cracking myself up so much in my head that I wanted to take a picture of the sign, but I had left my cell phone in my car. But I still had to share the story!

(I know ya'll are thinking "gosh what an idiot" but it still has me cracking up at myself 4 hours later, and I swear I'm not dumb, it was just one of those kind of mornings!)

The ticket was dismissed and I didn't even have to pay any court fees. And even though the whole thing took more than 30 minutes, my car was still there when I got back to it (and no parking ticket! yay!) and I made it to work by 10 am.

So other than my somewhat oily non-washed hair and no make-up face, today has been pretty good so far.

Not bad for a Monday.