true life stories ~ renewing my license

I don't know what you did on your lunch break today, but I went home and made a healthy lunch and then renewed my license.  But of course, it's me, so there's more to the story.  See, first of all, I've been delaying getting my license renewed.  One, because I am a procrastinator and that's just what I do.  And two, because I accidentally washed my nose ring down a hotel drain in Texas last weekend.  Oops.  And of course I wanted to be wearing my nose ring in my new license pic, considering that four years ago, my nose wasn't even pierced.

my old license pic, from 2008

So, I ordered a couple new nose rings from my favorite nose-ring-maker on Etsy and waited for them to arrive.  I crossed my fingers that they'd get here before my license expired {which would have been tomorrow}.  When I went home on my lunch break, I was happy to see the mailman at my mailbox.  Sure enough, my nose rings had arrived, yay!

I ran into my house, put in my new nose ring, fixed a delicious, healthy lunch and touched up my hair and makeup.  Back out to the car and down the road toward the tag agency.  Realized I forgot the delicious lunch I'd just made.  Back to the house, retrieved my lunch.  Back down the road to the tag agency.  {This is just how my life works: always forgetting something, losing something, messing something up; turning around, starting over, correcting mistakes, and so it goes for me.}

More makeup and hair fixing in my car before glancing at my phone and seeing that it's 12:32pm and my lunch break is more than half over.  I hurry inside, thankful to find that there was no line.  I make an awkward, half joking comment to the woman behind the counter about being nervous about my new license photo.  What I don't tell her is that I am extremely vain {I could use more pc words like self conscious or insecure, but let's just call it what it is}; and that as a photographer, the photo that represents me for the next four year is a way. bigger. deal. than it should be!!  I also don't tell her that I still remember quite clearly how the nice lady at the tag agency four years ago actually let me look at my pic and even {gasp!} retook it for me when I didn't like the first one.  Maybe I should've told the lady today about that, but she didn't seem nearly as sympathetic.  In fact, I'm pretty sure that she used all of her self control to not sneer and roll her eyes at my apparent vanity. 

Took a few moments to look in the mirror and mess with my hair.  Sat down like the lady told me to; she answered a call; I stood back up and did more hair fixing.  Phone call {finally} over.  Sit back down.  Lady informs me that I have to take off my glasses.  Dang it.  Stand up.  Put glasses on counter.  Fix hair again.

As I'm sitting in the chair facing the dreaded little camera, I lose all my courage and force up a fake smile while holding my breath.  Crap.  I can see that the lens of the tag agency camera is all smeared and I sincerely contemplate getting up to wipe it off, but then I actually think about the fact that the smears might make my skin look better.  Yep, I really thought that.

The lady tells me, "We'll snap on three."  And snap on three she did.  By then, my fake smile was three times more strained that it was at first.  Great.  I let out my breath and wait.

my new license pic, taken today

Okay, it's not terrible.  I'd rather have less earrings and less bottom teeth showing and less squinty eyes.  But it's whatev.  I'm happy with my eyebrows and my hair.  Hahahaha.  {Now you see my vanity.  Shameful.}

Just to prove to myself that I am a better photographer than that tag agency woman, I snapped this pic once I was back in my car and my heartbeat had returned to normal...

This is how I'd prefer my license pic to look: glasses and a more sincere smile.  Oh, and a nose ring that isn't obliterated by smears on the camera lens.

Happy Monday, friends!  :)

~abi~

p.s.  As if this post hasn't already proven my weirdness, I just have to say that although I have no idea what the four digits on the side of the license pics represent, I am happy that the first two digits in my old pic are 55 and that the last two in my new one are 23.  I have a numbers "thing".  Five is my favorite and I also have this thing about thirty-two, and more recently, twenty-three.  :)