A ticket! I mean, SUMMONS.

I am a leetle grouchy about a ticket I just got.

OK, so, on my car, When I first put it on the road over thanksgiving time, I couldn’t get the screws out of the bumper to stick my new plates on. So I got some wire from my dad and stuck the damn things on as best I could. I did a good job, they’ve kept the license plates on there through driving around, and car washes, and kids trying to yank it off. Plus, while I was wrapping the wire through holes over and over and kind of making a coil, I thought “I’m turning my car into an electromagnet!”

So the other day I got a carwash and went to wire the plate on a little better – the top part was bending down b/c of kids and the brooms they use in the carwash to scrub your car squeaky clean. And I got going, and it fell off. Yep, the whole bracket and everything fell right off of my car and into my hands. So I just threw it onto my dashboard, and didn’t worry about it. I guess I should have, because last night when I walked past my car I found I had gotten a TICKET.

So, I was a little ticked off. The air had been let out of my front two tires and a few days later my front license plate falls off, and I’m pretty sure it’s no coincidence. And now I find out that even though my plate is so bent it looks like it’s standing straight up on my dashboard, and even though some kids were messing around with my car despite “Operation Impact” and the pony show being in town to protect me, I still have to pay the city of NY $55? Nuts. Plus, I had left my house and car keys at work, so I had to go home for the spares before I could address the situation.

I went home. I grouched into the apartment. I grabbed the spares, and went back outside. As I walked down the block before my car, I noticed a parked and idling sporty yet not-too-flash car with two biggish (yet short) clean cut guys with sports-team jackets. Those guys were undercover cops. So I moved the car, and stuck the fallen off plate back onto the bolts in the bumper (even though if anyone touches it it’ll fall off again, and they’ll steal it, and I’ll be put out), and then I walked back over to the “cop” car. I kind waved in the window, and the guy in the Jets jacket unrolled it, and I asked if they were police officers, and they said yes, kind of chagrined, and I asked them all about proper license plate display. heh. It was totally funny. I mean, maybe I shouldn’t be approaching strangers who are just chilling in their cars on a dark and cold night, but heck, there’s just not that many sports-team jackets in my neighborhood. What there are a lot of, are police officers. And if you ask, they have to tell you if they are officers… besides, they referred to my ticket as a “summons.” Nerds! Hee. I probably shouldn’t be poking fun at the police officers, either.

This doesn’t change the fact that I have to put a new bracket onto my car soon, before someone notices that my license plate will just fall off into their hands. I’m gonna have to go buy a new bracket, some screws, and get out there in the 20 degree weather with my drill. I need to find a fancy bracket – something flashy and red, maybe? But not one of the fake chain brackets. That’s so 1990’s.

In other news, it’s been pretty darn cold around here. But my Swedish military issue wool leg warmers are so warm! And they keep me so happy and toasty when I go too and from work in a skirt and tights. I don’t know how those people do it who wear nylons and nice work shoes. Do they have someone drop them off a block from work, and then dash in and pretend like they’ve walked blocks from the subway? They’re crazy.