Chloe was despondent of this day ever arriving. She just knew her life had been ruined. For. Ev. Er! She was nev - ver going to get her license. (Am I imitating the drama well enough? Something I've noticed that teens do now-a-days is add extra syllables to emphasize words and feelings, such as: My finger is thuh - rob - bing!).
We had to reschedule Chloe's driver's license test 4 times during the coronavirus because the DMV was still closed by time each date that we registered for arrived. We finally managed to work around the system and signed her up to take her road test with a private company instead of the DMV. But even though she passed her road test, she still had to wait 2 weeks before she could go get her actual license.
Funny story...she originally only had to wait one week. But she kept checking to see if she could find a timeslot that opened up at one of the other local DMVs that might be sooner that a week out. We were originally scheduled for a Friday at 8am. She ended up finding one at a different location that was the day before on Thursday at 2pm. She tried to make the switch and then accidentally ended up cancelling both appointments. Then she had to re-schedule, yet again, for the only other available appointment a week later. She learned her lesson - and it was painful.
But now all that waiting and lesson learning is behind us as we revel gleefully in independence. However, actually getting the license wasn't as easy as we hoped it would be either.
We showed up yesterday morning with all the 43 documents they require. Only Chloe was allowed to go in. All. By. Her. Self. My baby. She had to face down the intimidating bureaucracy of the DMV without the support of her mother by her side. I'm intimidated and I'm an adult (some might debate that). But the new safety laws require only the person with the appointment is allowed to enter the building at the specified time. So I sat in my car twiddling my fingers helplessly.
Finally, she comes walking around the corner and I'm all thumbs up and smiles in the window and she's shaking her head no. Uh oh. At least she's not crying. Yet. I couldn't imagine what went wrong. We triple checked all her documents before going. Unfortunately, we didn't check them closely enough. It turns out, one of the official documents Chuck signed in his given name and the other (that was supposed to verify the first document) was signed in his nickname. They were having none of that. The signatures must match. End of discussion.
The reason she wasn't crying yet was because they told her she could come right back if she got the documents signed correctly. Thank God Chuck wasn't out of town. We rushed back home and then immediately back to the DMV. They let her back in and the rest is history. She is now a licensed solo driver and it only took two trips to the DMV in the same day and 2 months of waiting.
Funny side note...the first place she drove to was a bar. A Poke Bar. She had already made plans to meet her friend at a Hawaiian Poke Bar for lunch after getting her license. The first place I drove to - the library. Of course I did. She's much more social than I was.
