another piece of life

Traffic court this morning. Court was packed. One fella looked like Jude Law. After the first hour, about half cleared out. I wonder how did most of those people get their tickets dismissed? Most of us have attorneys, a handful did not. Most, myself included, had never met with their attorneys prior to this morning in court. Most were minorities. It was a woman judge, and she actually said good morning to us.

I'm out the cost of the attorney, court fees, and $40 fine but got the moving violation dismissed, thereby protecting my insurance rate. Once the officer writes that speeding ticket, what the heck do I have to fight with? It's a he-said, she-said at that point and the court is going to favor the officer.

It was 2:30 by the time I got out. Lo and behold, across the street is a Catholic church (you see I'm not in this area of town much). So I went there and called my sidekick to come pick me up. At 3pm they closed the church so I got kicked out. So I sat outside in the chill, said a few Hail Mary's, a few Our Fathers (sung some), hummed a few hymns, and a little Taize. At 3:30 my ride is still not there--traffic. My sidekick detoured to avoid traffic and is lost. We stayed connected via cell phone and I started walking to where my sidekick might be found, next thing you know, my sidekick is by the courthouse and so I walked back. I had a sinus headache since around lunch and it's starting to get bad.

We got home after 5pm. My headache is making me nauseous by this time so I hit the sack. I got up for dinner: delivered pizza. With that, I popped some more pills and here I am. Ah, another lovely life experience. What's life if you've not seen the inside of a court room, made a few "F's" or banged your head on cement from falling off a skateboard? If I don't pay this fine in time, I might just see the inside of a jail too.