Operation Instructions: Engage Brain

So this morning has pretty much been shot.

Pleasant Weekend

At least the weekend went well. Was busy all day Saturday preparing to hostess our weekly Family Dinner in honor of Mom's birthday... and then had a blessed day ALL to myself on Sunday. I didn't go anywhere, do anything, or interact with anybody but Ms. Pukesalot. I had plenty to get done around the house... but I sat and played "Tak & the Power of JuJu" all day instead. It was great. Cute game, by the way.

Plus, my P(re)MS has officialy become P(resent)MS, so my mood has experienced an overall turn for the better. Which is a good thing, considering everything was completely FUBAR all morning, and I have no idea how I'd have handled it with the seriously bitchy state of mind I "enjoyed" all last week.

Taking Advantage of Lost Time

First, I got up late. Actually, this is a pretty normal occurence, so it wasn't that big of a deal all by itself. In fact, since I FINALLY received Ivy's title from the car dealership over the weekend, I decided to take advantage of my state of tardiness and head over to the DMV to take care of registration before I headed into work. They're only open during the hours that I work, plus the last two Saturday's of the month. Considering that my temporary tags expire on the 22nd, I'll have to go during work hours SOMETIME in the next two weeks, anyway. I'd just as well get it done sooner rather than later.

I knew the Office Manager would be out today, which would leave two people in the office for the morning without me, but I called anyway to make sure the Receptionist was in. She's out a LOT more often than myself with medical issues. Amway, if she were out, it would just be the new girl holding down the fort until I got out of the DMV, and that wouldn't have been a good thing. But the receptionist was in and said everything was fine here, so I told them I'd be out for part of the mornin, and would be in as soon as everything was taken care of.

Collecting the Paperwork

Now, when I first bought the car, I think I've previously mentioned that she had only just been traded in that day. Her title was still being held on lien at the bank of her previous owner, and the car dealership hadn't even had a chance to complete her inspection. So we processed all the purchase paperwork, I handed over the check, and they gave me a proof of purchase, the title application, an IOU for whatever they still had to get for me, and the warranty information. The title would take a few weeks to acquire, and they still needed to give me the Safety Inspection Notice.

I stuffed the whole kit 'n kaboodle of paperwork into my purse, figuring I can't lose it there. I'd just hold onto it until I got everything and then go straight to the DMV for registration.

So... when I picked up the car a few days later, they gave me the Inspection Notice at that time... which I honestly thought I bundled up with the rest of the paperwork in my purse. And then I waited. After hearing nothing last week, I finally called them and they informed me that they'd received the title and it would be in the mail.

The Last Pieces of the Puzzle

So I got the title in the mail (along with the notorized lien release and something about the odometer reading) just this past Saturday... the same day Pop received the final loan contract on the car. See the original check, itself, kind of served as a temporary contract. It was authorized for a maximum set amount, and could be written for anything up to that amount. As the actual amount would be unknown until the date of the sale, the official contract would be drafted once the check was cashed in, and the loan would be set at that amount. I guess since Pop was the co-signer, they sent the contract to him.

So we (Mom, Pop and I) went through the contract and all the instructions, which detailed that the title needed to show my loan account number on it. I wasn't sure how the DMV would handle the new title... if they'd send it to me or the lien holder, so I added my loan contract (with the account number on it) and loan instructions to the pile of papers to take to the DMV.

Now, it was becoming quite a bundle in my purse, so I decided to make it a little more tidy and transfer them to a folder. At that time, I realized that I didn't really need to take my proof of purchase, IOU or warranty information to the DMV... so I took those out and left them in a "to be filed" pile in the library. I have many of those.

Good to Go... Or So I Thought

I figured: Okay, I'm ready. I even remembered to grab my checkbook this morning, because I normally don't carry it. I didn't quite remember if the DMV took cards (which it doesn't, so it's a good thing I remembered).

So I head out to the DMV, which has been moved (for the third time) to the complete opposite end of town from me. I am on the bare outskirts of the city to the south, and the DMV is pretty far to the north end of town. I'd say, with traffic, a good 25 minutes. There's a decent line for the new registration windows, but thankfully I immediately started reading the li'l signs they have up explaining what paperwork you need to have on hand.

My eyes lit upon the words "Safety Inspection", and I thought "Oh shit!" I did NOT recall that particular piece of paper being in the stack I stuffed into the folder. So I checked the folder. And checked it again. No Safety Inspection. My first thought is that it must have been tucked in with some of the other papers I threw in the "to-be-filed" pile.

I'm Taking My Ball and Going Home

So I gotta go back home. Smackin myself for being so absent-minded, and hoping that work isn't too busy for the two women I abandoned this morning. I get home and search the "to-be-filed" stack. Nothing. I check it twice. I check other stacks. I check the entire desk. I check the filing cabinet in case I already filed it. Nothing. I'm now beginning to think I'm gonna have to take the car in for another safety inspection, and the registration process will be delayed by at least another day or two. Which is no big deal in the big picture of things, I suppose, but when I'm ready to do something, I want to do it NOW... and I hate delays due to stupidity. Especially my own.

Then I have one last idea. I may have POSSIBLY tucked it into the instruction booklet / paperwork pouch that's kept in the glove compartment, since I received it separately from any other paperwork when I picked up the car. So I check and there it was. And I smacked myself AGAIN cuz I never had to go home at all.

So I head ALLLLL the way BACK to the DMV. At least the line was about the same size it was when I left. And there's a cute kid in line in front of me (with her mom, of course) who kept us all entertained, wavin at everybody n' shit. My turn finally comes, and I get to the window. Thankfully, the nice DMV lady at the window was VERY nice... and patient. First, she looks through the paperwork I hand over, and starts entering my information into the computer. Then she asks for my personal property tax receipt. Now, I had thought that that particular requirement was not necessary since I've never PAID personaly property taxes before on this car.

I'm Taking My Ball and... Oh Wait

Evidently, they need proof of personal property taxes, period... not necessarily just for that vehicle. When this realization hits me, she must have recognized my subsequent looks of horror and resignation as I'm facing yet another trip back home. Fortunately, her handy-dandy computer was capable of looking up those records for me. UNfortunately, her computer decided to lock up mid-search. So we had to wait until it decided to work again... and then it had lost all of the information she had already entered. She had to start again from scratch.

Clear as Mud

Then came the question as to whether or not I live within City Limits. I told her I wasn't sure. See, the rest of my community lives in Boone County, but the City recently annexed three of the units, mine included. She asked if I get my water and utilities with the City, and I said no. She asked if the City picks up my trash, and I said yes. It wasn't exactly a cut-and-dried answer, so she again turned to her handy-dandy computer to look up my address.

And again, her handy-dandy computer decided to lock up again. And, yup... you guessed it, she had to enter everything again from scratch. I'm sure the woman knows all of my personal information by heart by now.

Then we got to one of the signed and notarized documents that came from the dealership in the mail with the title. It was a xerox copy. The DMV needed at least an original signature and notarization... so began the contention as to the validity of the document. She asked the lady next to her... she asked the lady to the other side of her. She finally had to go somewhere in the back to get an official opinion on this friggin document. The final verdict: the signatures were originals. Whew.

Thankfully, there were two other windows open, so at least there was no irate mob waiting in line for all these glitches.

And I'm STILL Not Done Yet

The shortest part of the whole ordeal was her explaining the process of applying for personalized tags. So I have yet to do that. She helped me fill out the parts of the application that I wouldn't have known off the top of my head, and explained that I need to mail it in separately. She handed me a couple of plates that were on the top of a big-ass stack of plates and informed me these would be my second temporary tags until the personalized ones came in (another 4-6 weeks). She was also nice enough to look up my top 3 choices to see if they were already taken... which they weren't. At least the computer didn't lock up for THAT one.

I also learned that they will be sending the title directly to me... in 2-6 weeks as well. And then I need to send it on to the credit union. I just hope they don't have a particular hard-on for that title.

*sigh* I will be happy when all of this is DONE. I'm gonna need to call up the Boone County Collector's office, too, to find out how much I need to save up for property taxes this year.

Welcome Back to Work!

Amway... I finally got out of the DMV just after 11:00. I figure: just in time for the new girl to go to lunch at 11:30, as is her wont. I get in, and I have a voice message informing me that my reservation for a conference room at the Med School for a meeting this afternoon has been bumped. Evidently, somebody had accidently deleted a recurring meeting for the Dean... and he HAD to use THAT room at THAT time.

The girl felt bad about the cancellation, though, and suggested several other departments at the Med School to contact and see if they had an available conference room. Considering I needed a room in 4 hours, it wasn't much surprise that it took me about 3 tries before I found an available room.

Oops... Never Mind

So I sent out the Outlook meeting update notice, and also started making phone calls to contact all of the attendees in case they didn't have time to read their e-mail before the meeting. On my third call, I got a hold of a guy who's kind of a Co-PM (Project Manager) on the project (the subject of the meeting) with our PM. He informs me that notice went out on Friday that the project is back on hold again, and that he doesn't think we should have a meeting, and that he's been trying to get a hold of our PM to talk to her about it since Friday.

See, this particular project has been given so many green and red lights I can't keep track. Something about approval from the Board of Curators. Our PM THOUGHT she finally had a green light last week, and immediately asked me to set up a meeting for today. She was planning to take vacation on Friday through this morning. So she wasn't here to hear about the new red light given on Friday. And I don't hear anything except through her.

So I figure I'd might as well stop making phone calls to let people know about a new room, if there's going to be no meeting at all. I couldn't talk to her about it until she came in... around 12:45. Skip to the end: she decides to still have a smaller version of the meeting to discuss the issues and problems with the project moving forward. Fortunately, by this time, I've already received e-mail confirmation that the rest of the attendees I hadn't called knew about the room change.

Whew

So my morning has been shot. And Mom wants me to take her out to get some work-related software manuals at Barnes & Noble this afternoon (I have a University purchasing card, and she doesn't), so I'm not going to be able to dig into anything at all today. *sigh*

Oh well... tomorrow's always a new day, right?