Before getting all withered and grouchy

If I worked at the Secretary of State office (before time ravaged my good will toward man and all) I think I would keep little candies or stickers or something at my station. I would share them with the folks who came in on their birthday to renew their license/tabs. I know some would rail against procrastinating, but those are my people.

I spent 30 minutes yesterday at the Plainfield SOS office. It was smaller than the one I normally go to and grungier. But it was no less entertaining.

I did not have the paperwork they mailed me because I put it off long enough that it got lost, or Willa colored all over it, or Greta chewed it, or all of the above (which have, indeed happened to documents deemed important by others). So I watched with some envy as a woman stood at their self serve machine, tennatively punching the keys. When it spit out new tabs, she literally did a fist pump and shouted "YES!" as though she were at a slot machine.

I had a book. I read it while standing in the first line. Here, one stands in line for a number and to be told if you sit and wait or stand in another line. So, I read while the gentleman behind me stood on my heels reading over my shoulder and talking on his cell phone about the robot. "Broken! We need it looked at asap (he said those letters as though it was a word)." I got my number and waited. He got his number and sat 2 seats away from me, making more calls. "Is it the Toshiba? I've called Cal." He was put on hold. "Good book?" he asked. I glanced his way and nodded, "it is." I continued reading. "My wife likes to read," he said, "it's like her desert." I was wondering if he interrupts his wife's dessert time when he was taken off hold. My number was called, I paid for my new yellow plate sticker and went outside.

I hope his robot is fixed.

It's interesting to spend time with the random mix of humanity on ones birthday.