Procrastinating is something I try not to do, but I seem to do it well.  Apparently it’s one of my many gifts…  Procrastinate.  Watering my plants, returning the 1,000 emails in my inbox or renewing my drivers license.  The plants are dead, I have a few people not so happy with me and I now have to change my name.  Yes, I have to change my name because I waited too long to renew my driver’s license.

It’s bad enough that the procrastination cost me an entire day of vacation, but I have no one to blame but myself.  Actually, the procrastination started about 13 years ago.  I got married.  Yes, changing your name on your social security card is part of the deal, but a part that didn’t work out for me.  I got the paperwork, filled it out, mailed it in and they lost it.  “We’ll send you another set and you can do it again.”  Really?  Yeah, because that’s gonna happen.  I thought as long as I get my tax refund, who cares?  Uncle Sam doesn’t care, why should I?

Fast forward to today.  My drivers license is about 3 weeks expired.  The window of opportunity to renew it online is closed.  I came to stand in the long, outside line to get my license renewed early in the morning.  It’s going to be 100 degrees outside today.  Wait.  Wait some more.  Keep waiting…  After standing in line for two and a half hours, I finally get to the front of the line and made it to the counter.  Yes!  It’s almost over!  No.  It’s not.  I was denied a renewal.  What??!!?!  The name on my license did not match the name on my social security card.  She said I could get a licence in my old name, but only if I showed my social security card.  I don’t carry my social security card with me.  My aliases have caught up with me.  Sadly, I’m going to have to give up my career as a spy in the witness protection program.  At this point, I would have taken a license in any name.  I just want to drive legally, I don’t care what name they call me.

Let me just say, I was not happy, however I didn’t wig out on the lady.  I did make a few jokes, to which she was not at all amused.  I took a deep breath, okay, a couple of deep breaths, then went on my way to the social security office.

I called in advance to make sure I would have all of the necessary paperwork needed to take care of this situation.  The guy on the phone said to bring my marriage certificate and my driver’s license.  Marriage certificate??  Do I even have that anymore?  I mentioned to a friend of mine that I didn’t think I still had my marriage certificate.  He said I could use his, as he wasn’t using it anymore.  Now that’s a good sense of humor!  Much needed in these situations too!  Surprisingly, I had not turned that into a piece of altered art, so I grabbed it and drove to the social security office.

I didn’t have to wait long.  The guy called my number in less than 2 minutes.  I gave him my paperwork and I explained that I needed to change my name from Lozano to Wissing.  He said no problem, started processing everything, then he asks for another form of ID.  I didn’t have any other ID with me.  He said that my driver’s license is expired so I would need to renew that first, then come back.  I burst out into a loud laughter.  I mean, what else would you do at this point?  After explaining my story, I told him, “Let’s start with a clean slate.  Can you change my name to Jody Jetson?”  He laughed, and I’m glad, because someone needs to laugh with me!  He gave me some paperwork and off I went, back to the department of motor vehicles as Jody Lozano, my name from 13 years ago.

Birth certificate.  Check.  Marriage licence.  Check.  Social security card with the wrong name on it.  Check.  Other miscellaneous paperwork.  Check.  Patience.  ………Che.  Ch.  Check!  Another 2.5 hours.  Check.  A book, an iPad and a dying cell phone.  Check.  Oh!  And a check, because they don’t take credit cards.  Check!

I waited, again.  Finally I made it to the counter.  I’m not sure exactly what I said, but it was something along these lines.  “I need to renew my license, here’s all my paperwork.  I just want to drive.  You can put any of these names on it, Lozano, Wissing, whatever, I don’t care.  I’m not married to either one of these names.  No really, the pun is intended, I’m not married to them.  You can be creative and make up a name for me and I’m good with that too!  I just really want a driver’s license.  I’ll be whomever you want me to be!  Oh, and I had lasik so I’ll need an eye test.  I’ll probably need a new photo too, as that one is about 13 years old.  So who am I going to be?”  I stood back and smiled big.  The looks of confusion and irritation, along with the moment of silence, made the whole thing seem a little surreal.  Was I really here and was all of this really happening?  The silence was broken by the girl at the counter asking her supervisor what to do.  I explained everything in a little more detail, the supervisor rolled her eyes at me, but never spoke to me.  She instructed the girl with an I’ve-been-working-here-way-too-long attitude, probably in hopes to get me out of there as quickly as possible.

Since I have so many names, I’ll just keep the two I need to make all of this work.  I am now Jody Lozano Wissing, named after my two biggest mistakes in life.  Awesome!  It’s all good though.  The bad things in life make the good stuff a lot better.  If we’re supposed learn from our mistakes and they make us stronger, then I’ve got to be pretty strong with a lot of knowledge to use for good!

So this little story represents a good 8 or 9 hours of my life that I will never get back, but there are some good lessons to be learned from it.   This is a great time to rethink good.  What have I learned?

Lesson #1:  Don’t procrastinate.

I’m sure I will still procrastinate, but hopefully a little less than before.

Lesson #2:  Have a sense of humor and make it fun.

I could have gotten angry, but that wouldn’t have helped anything.  I can’t control other people, but most of the workers and a few bystanders were joining in the amusement of it.  God gave us a sense of humor and honestly, I can’t think of a better time to use it than in a situation where the only other thing you can do is create more anger and chaos or have some fun with it.  Laugh with me people!

Lesson #3:  Be prepared.  For anything.

I wasn’t at all prepared to stand in line for almost 3 hours to be told “no.”  I considered just driving without a license, but that would eventually catch up with me too.  Doing the right thing is never the easiest thing and crazy stuff will come up.  Just go into all situations knowing that and being prepared for it.  Then refer to lesson #2.

Lesson #4:  Consider the characters.

All of the ‘characters’ in this story are not fictional.  They’re people and they have lives and feelings too.  The DMV workers have to deal with cranky, unhappy people all day long.  How would you act if you had to work there dealing with mean people all day long?  My friend sent me a text message about them needing random acts of kindness.  He’s right.  Why do we take out our frustrations on the people who can’t really do anything about it?  I decided not to be ‘that person’.

Lesson #5:  Bring toys.

If you know you’re gonna have to wait, bring a book to read or some toys to play with.  FYI:  The department of public safety does NOT have free wifi and using your phone continuously for 3 hours will kill your battery.  If you forget your toys, just spend some time people watching.

Lesson #6:  Go back there.

I know!!  But hear me out.  So let’s say you went back with a bowl of candy, or maybe a bunch of balloons.  Hula hoops?  Nerf guns?  Okay, maybe not any type of guns.  Something fun though, you know, to make people rethink their attitude about being there.  Maybe a flash mob?  It could work.  Or you could just go back to people watch.  Bring a lawn chair and umbrella.  Make lemonade for everyone.  :)

Lesson #7:  Write your own story.

In life, we write our own story.  We can be the good person or the bad person, the hero or the villan, or anything we choose to be.  In moments of anger or frustration, I have to stop and think who I want to be in my story.  I hope I always take the time to do that, then make good choices.  Life is too short to waste time.  Refer to lesson #2.