Dear California DMV: I hate you

It's true. It has now been 37 days since I brought my car into this state and I still do not have license plates. I drove into California on the late afternoon of December 29 and visited your office the first of many times the morning of December 30. I have since spent hours in your office, on the phone and performing other endlessly maddening tasks to jump through your hoops.

Perhaps my mistake was that I paid you too soon. Within 24 hours of bringing my new-to-me, never-registered-in-my-name car into your budget-crunched state, I had written you a check for nearly $1,500 dollars to cover sales tax for a car purchased in another state and registration fees. Perhaps if I held out you would be workable.

You claimed I needed a smog check although my car's specifications clearly state it passes the California emissions standards. Then I bring you the paperwork (again, within 24 hours of bringing my car into the state) and instead of entering the information, your dolt of an employee prints off a temporary registration stating I still need a smog check and scribbles that out in pencil. So I guess for those 3 seconds he knows I've taken care of my "responsibility," but that doesn't help the next time I call or visit your not-so-helpful department.

You required that a DMV employee (or some other inaccessible official) verify the VIN, odometer and who knows what else on my car. Again, on my immediate visit to my local field office, I am informed this cannot happen at a convenient time because you are short staffed. I guess I can understand that. I need to come back on Wednesday or Thursday between 2 and 4, but not this Wednesday because you're not doing them and not this Thursday because it's a holiday. Then you can only give me a temporary permit that's valid for two days because with the new year you are apparently switching to a new program. Thank goodness good old Utah has taken care of me by providing some kind of temporary license.

So a week and a half later you verify my VIN while having the same number of employees in the office as you did the first day I came. Thankfully I am granted a temporary permit until the end of February. Of course, rather than entering and updating the smog and verification, you just staple it all together and hand it back to me because you "wait until everything is taken care of before putting the info in the system." Whatever.

Now for the kicker. You need evidence of previous registration (I did not register the car in Utah because I live in California, duh) or the title. Hello, I don't own the car! No one in this "thing" obsessed state pays for anything with cash. There is no other option in everyone else mind but to finance, so why should it be any surprise that I did the same? I don't have the title because the car isn't officially mine. The bank owns the title, dimwit. So after talking to the fools in my field office, I call the state DMV to verify procedure. Of course first they tell my I need to get a smog check. I swallow my anger and proceed. I'm told that the lien holder has to send the original Utah title to California, where you create a CA title and send that back to the bank and I can finally get my plates. Stupid, but fine. So I call my credit union and they say okay, they'll send it to CA.

A week and a half later I call Sacramento to check the status of this mess. No, there's not evidence of a title, but I still need to get my smog check. Thanks for the tip. Then this guy tells me duh, I don't need a title. I financed it so of course I don't have one. THANK YOU! I go back to the DMV field office and have another pointless visit where they stand by what they've said.

Soon after I get a letter from the dealership saying the title clerk there has sent my title work to the local DMV field office. Oh, I guess a Utah title doesn't even exist in my name yet. Fine. I go the to DMV again and of course they haven't received it. So I call the dealership and learn she sent the title the same day she sent my letter. So either the DMV has lost it, or I now have a beef with the postal service. Either scenario is plausible. Of course the title woman didn't get the letter certified, so there's no way of knowing what happened to this title. Great.

I wait until the end of the week, still no title paperwork. After brainstorming with my Utah title friend, she decides to call the California DMV and figure out what is going on. Of course the local field office where she sent the paperwork only has an internal line (whatever that means), so she can't call them. Instead she talks to some rude woman (I guess you would call her the DMV stereotype) who doesn't know what's going on, is not interested in the problem, tells her there's no real point in the discussion because I still need to pass a smog check and she can't tell her anything anyway because she's not the registered owner or lien holder. Thank you. Very helpful.
Forget that she is, in fact a representative of the current, official legal owner because the title is still in the dealer's name. I can't legitimately register the car in Utah because I don't have a Utah address and therefore can't get the "alternate" verification from the Utah DMV stating I am the registered owner and who my lien holder is. And we can't get it titled in California because every blasted person I talk to says we need to do something different. Get your story straight!!! I visit your office one last time and after making it clear how upset I am, practically have to force your employee to enter the smog and verification information so I don't have to hear about again.

So for 37 days I have been trying to follow the law. You have your money, I've jumped through the hoops, and you have lost legal paperwork. Thank you. I could have been like many others and registered my car in another (cheaper) state and dealt with you when it came time to renew my registration. I'm just trying to get my safe, clean and fully operational car legal.

Perhaps I should not have purchased my car out of state, but I checked with your website (which is only slightly helpful) and thought I had my bases covered. Clearly I don't. Now we have to get a duplicate title and keep our fingers crossed that once I receive it and walk it into your office that you don't decide you want something else instead.

So Beachy!

Last weekend Troy and I went camping on the beach in San Clemente with his sisters and their families. Let me start by saying I love the beach, so I was very exciting to go. Troy was a little less enthused, but is always up for getting out of the house. I won't go into zillions of details, but on the way we saw a giant dinosaur and Troy was kind of nervous.

After setting up camp, we went to the beach to catch some late afternoon fun. I wish I had taken pictures of the path we had to follow to get there. It was so steep. Your knees hurt going down and your calves and thighs burned coming up. I found this pic on the web. Basically we park on top of the bluff and walk down to the beach. It was no picnic, but I think I'm spoiled because at my usual beach I park, walk 100 yards and there I am.

Anyway, we had a lot of fun. There were many highlights to the trip, but I thought it was funny that our nephew Kyler, who’s 7, would gather up the seaweed that washed on shore and collect it in a big pile. When a big wave would come up and take some back down the beach, he would rush to save it. Then he took over a big hole some other kids had dug and kept his treasure safe there. Not that I didn’t mind having less of the crap floating around to wrap around my legs.

Troy tried boogie boarding and body surfing, but didn’t get so attached that he wanted to spend all day in the water. I pretty much played with the kids in the shallow stuff because the salt water stung my eyes (I know, for a beach lover I don’t participate in many beach activities).

While we were hanging out at the campground some activists (I mean that in the nicest way, but I don’t know anything else to call them) offered us free t-shirts if they could take our picture and have us write a letter protesting a toll road that would go right through the campground and a nearby beach (both of which are currently state parks), so of course we did it. Then we went out to dinner and we were celebrities. Fourteen people in matching shirts are hard to miss. Apparently this is a hot topic in San Clemente and most agree the parks should be left alone. I guess if you wear the right t-shirt in the right crowd, you can become instantly famous. All in all, it was a great weekend.

There was one major downside, however. (Warning for the squeamish and those with feet issues--pictures are coming) We were careful to cover ourselves in clothing and sunscreen because we didn’t want to be miserable, but we forgot to lather one important part of Troy. Now don’t get nasty. Troy is a golfer and his calves are dark, but he always wears shoes, so even when he’s barefoot, it looks like he’s wearing socks. Yeah, totally forgot to put sunscreen on his feet. Halfway through the first day, my brother-in-law (who was in bed for three days after his beach trip last year because of his sunburns and all the seawater he swallowed) noticed Troy’s feet were getting burned. We lathered them then, but it was too late. By that night his feet were crimson and swelling. He literally hobbled around camp. But he was a trooper. Other than lots of aloe and no more sun, there wasn’t much we could do. When we stopped for gas on the way home, a lady in the gas station was doing massages and told him he should get one because it was clear his feet were hurting (she couldn’t see the cause). He told her she was not going to touch his feet. Anyway, at the peak of the swelling, I couldn’t see his ankles. Sunday night the blisters started and have gotten bigger. It’s really sad. At least now he can walk without wincing (barefoot of course). He says they’re getting better, but I don’t know if I should take him to a doctor. Is there anything they can do? Any tips are appreciated!!

So that’s our trip to the beach: cool, wet, and painful. What more could you ask for?

An Addition to the Family (don't jump to conclusions)

Okay, I know you're all on the edge of your seats waiting for holiday pics, but you'll just have to wait. I want to introduce everyone to my soon-to-be soon-to-be sister-in-law (that means they're not officially engaged yet, but I'm sure it will be any time now, right Jason?).

Welcome Lindsay! You two look like your normal, goofy selves. I love it. Troy is very excited to have another home-grown Californian in the fam. You guys are just too tempting to us Curtises!

California Is On Fire

Well part of it. It's really sad that so many people have to leave their homes, possibly for the last time, but let me go on to tell you how it's effecting me:

It isn't. San Diego is over 200 driving miles from me and much of the wind that's fueling the fires is blowing from me to them, so the sky is clear and smoke-free. However, athletically speaking, we are in the San Diego section of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF), which governs all sports in the state. This afternoon CIF basically put a moratorium on all sports in the San Diego section--with good reason. Schools are being used as shelters, kids and families have left town, air quality is awful and many people have much more to worry about than making it to the game on time. However, that also effects those of us in the east desert. Our homecoming game is scheduled for Friday. We're supposed to play a team that's over 100 miles west of San Diego; one that's as unaffected by the fires as we are. So our homecoming game is cancelled.

For those of you not familiar with Blythe, homecoming is almost the biggest event of the year. Rather than having class reunions in the summer, we have them over homecoming weekend. There are floats, a parade and everyone and most mothers make an appearance at the game. Even people who don't care about the game or a class reunion still use it as an excuse to party and get drunk (generally speaking).

We can't invite a team from Arizona because we are banned from playing games. We can't even have a scrimmage game because the teams can't practice. So now they're talking about have the Pop Warner (basically little league for football) teams play. Who knows. There will still be a parade and all the other stuff, just no high school football game. What's a small town to do?).

Here's a little PV pride

A Few Observations

One thing I like about being a librarian is all the stuff I get to listen in on. Other than the gym and the football field, the library is the biggest gathering place on campus, so most of the meetings are held there. And because I have no where else to go, I just listen in as I do my work. Every month each school in the district has a site council meeting. They didn't have them in Utah (at least not that I'm aware of), so it's a new, interesting thing for me. This committee basically decides how to spend the school's money. Well, that's a little broad, but they do make a lot of decisions. Being a meeting junky I love to listen in. Today's was especially interesting because this year there are some vocal people who are experienced with school funding and stuff so I learned a lot listening to them today. I would have liked to stay and hear some more, but Troy was anxious to get home and when I drove by the school 1.5 hours later I think they were just getting out. Yikes! I'm not that much of a meeting junky.

Another something different between Utah and California is the influence of unions. Utah is SUPER anti-union. I remember hearing a teacher bashfully admit that she was member of UEA and then a guy went on to tell her how all the problems in the schools were because of eduation unions. Here you really don't have much choice. One of the first things Troy did when he got to Blythe was join the teacher's union. Once I started working joined the classified union. They take dues out of your check whether you're actually a member or not (because you still get representation and benefit from salary negotiations) so for $1 more a month I qualify for discounts and services all over CA. It's just interesting the difference. I went to a union meeting on Monday to hear the candidates for school board speak and was facsinated by all the other stuff that went on. It's just a reminder that everything is politics and I love it. Well, when I'm watching from afar and not caught in the middle of the drama.