So I spent the morning moving from one queue to the next at the DMV while I applied for a California drivers licence. I wanted to get a head start and avoid the queues a bit so I booked an appointment … four weeks ago. Still I hoped the act of booking ahead would get me in and out quicker.
Well the first thing I found when I arrived on time for my appointment was that the carpark was completely full. I spent the next five minutes driving round in circles behind 5 or 6 other motorists looking for a space, this can be considered queue number 1.
From there I hurried in being a bit late for my ‘appointment’ this turned out to just mean I could join a much shorter queue at the beginning of the process or Queue 2. When I reached the front I was handed a number F104 I believe the monitor showed they were currently on F60 this is when I wished I had brought my nook with me, so I settled in for Queue 3. I had left the nook at home because I had it loaded with the california highway code and I didn’t want to get accused of using it to cheat the written test but still it would have passed the time a bit better.
About an hour later my number was called and a lady filled in another form had me do an eye test and then charged me 30 bucks. I was then shoved to Queue 4 to wait to have fingerprints and photo taken. This was relatively quick and at this point I got handed the written test which was 36 multiple choice questions of which I could get no more than 6 wrong. I spent a few minutes going through the questions there were a few I was unsure of but most were fairly straight forward. With the test out the way I had to join Queue 5 to have it marked.
I shuffled my way to the front of a queue slowly and discovered I got only two wrong one both to do with children, one was whether you could smoke around children in a car (I don’t smoke and I don’t have children I don’t see how it’s likely to come up), the other was how old children had to be  to need a booster seat (again no children if I suddenly acquire some by buying them off ebay or something while simultaneously starting up a 40 a day cigarette habit I’d make sure to look the exact laws up). Anyway 2 wrong is still good enough for the great state of california and I was given my temporary licence and now just have to apply for then pass a test, or Queue 6.
It was a long long waste of mine and everyone elses time that I’m pretty sure could be streamlined significantly. Anyway I’m one step closer to getting a local licence and hopefully some cheaper car insurance. The only current wrinkle is that to take a drivers test the car has to have number plates which mine (being new) doesn’t yet have knowing the system thus far it will take another month for me to get a driving test appointment and hopefully the plates will have arrived by then. In the mean time no speed camera can catch me AHAHAHHAHAHA!
