Getting a Driver's License in North Carolina
by Liv | Published on June 28th, 2008, 7:41 am | Life
So yesterday I went to the DMV hoping to get my license. Apparently North Carolina is so uptight about Mexicans driving that they require a social security card. I had hoped my Federal Government social security printout which showed I had requested a duplicate earlier in the week would be sufficient, but no. Upon denial I faintly remembered the media about a year ago running news segments on the change with angry old bitter women saying in a prejudiced tone how "If them there Mexicans want to come pick berries, then that's find but they're not going to be driving on our roads."So now I have to wait until the SS administration sends by wagon train my new card. For some reason I can never quite retain these suckers for more than a few months. I'm sure some guy named Guadalupe is using my card for employment at some meat packing plant in Texas as we speak. They'll get a surprise if they ever try to use my credit and find out how horrible mine sucks.
But the difficulty of the NC DMV license process is you not only need a social security card, but another I.D., proof of residence, proof of age, and a promise to promote tobacco, cotton, and furniture until you donate your organs to some cancer patient.
So I know I have to take a vision test since I'm bringing my I.D. from Arizona. I generally don't wear contacts or glasses because my vision isn't too bad, but I'm concerned that I might not pass. So I pull out my rusty old contact case to find contacts that have sat for 2 years. The saline solution has turned yellow. Before I can debate to myself the necessary health risks of sticking them in my eye, I wash them off and pop them in.
"Crap!"
I see better without them. So I grabbed a pair of Shannon's weakest contacts. Which to me, are like Hubble space telescope contacts. Suddenly I feel dizzy, but with a few seconds of my brain's CPU trying to adjust I suddenly can reading the ingredients off a box of cereal from 3 miles away.
So I hoped in the car and drove to the DMV. I started getting a massive headache as I got there and sat beside "Dewey" a 16 year old boy with a confederate flag on his shirt which said "The south will rise again." Eventually this tall and handsome DMV man comes out calls my name, and asks to see my documentation. I'm denied.
I thank him and leave. At this point I just wanted to get the contacts out and go home although I'm not thrilled with the idea of having to do it again. I've yet still to figure out what the thing is going to cost me as it's supposed to be $4.00 a year but they also had "service charges" on the wall.
Since when did getting a driver's license get to be such a big deal? I'm almost starting to hate "it" as much as I do flying.