Thursday, January 29, 2015

Two Things

Two things.   First, I learned a new word today: "armamentarium."  Spell-check does not wish to allow me to use it, but I just read it off the page of the extremely charming book I am reading, called "The Debt to Pleasure" by John Lanchester, so I know it's real.   This book is thoroughly delightful, reminding me constantly of myself, if I were only extremely educated, wealthy, snobbish, British and male.  An armamentarium is the place one might use to store one's armaments.  Presumably.

Second, I had a partly stupid and infuriating, and partly relieving experience (debacle) at the DMV.  Good god.  This system has got to be streamlined a whole hell of a lot.  Okay.  So I had to go to the DMV, because my neighborhood, (NW INDUS) is being zoned for parking, which means we all have to pay $60 per year for parking passes.  This is not a big deal, although it saddens me for all the reasons you are perfectly capable of thinking of for yourself.  However, on the instructions I received in the mail, there was a note.  NOTE: the name on the parking pass much match the name on the automobile's registration.   Well, but this is not the case with me -- two times now I have gotten a new registration, and both times I filled in the little area which said if-your-name-has-changed-fill-in-here, and both times it came back to me, still under my married name.  So whatever, I thought, if they don't care, I don't.  Ah, but they do care, as I found out when scoping this out online.  There it is, clearly stated:  Name changes must be accomplished within 30 days of change.   Ooops.

So anyway, I went to the DMV with all my necessary paperwork, which I spent some hot and disheveling time digging out of the filing cabinets buried in The Closet (there is only One), and I got a number and waited until it came up.  And then they told me, "Oh, no, you see, we don't change names on your registration form, because your registration form is a reflection of your title.  So go get your title and change the name on that, and then your registration form will automatically change and every other piece of car-related paperwork will change, too."   As I was staring in dismay at the woman, she whipped out a form and handed it to me.  "You can do that by mail," she added.

So whoo-hoo! and also curse you, DMV!  Get your act together and your stories straight!  That simple sentence could certainly have been on your website, maybe in caps and boldface!

Anyway, the end.