The Week in Review

One funny thing you can count on is if you start talking about things going well and being encouraged, then you start to get hit.  Actually this week hasn't been that bad but...

We did go to pick up home school stuff and needed to cross the border to do so.  The first time you do it you have to register your car but somehow we made it through without registering, which is illegal.  Oops.

So we found some policemen and explained our situation. Then they dutifully stated and restated what I did wrong until I finally said, "Yes.  I made a mistake and in retrospect would do it differently.  Now, what should I do?  How do I register?"  To which they replied, "We don't know.  We've never done it."  Isn't that darling?

So we reentered immigration like we were going to leave (we had been there 30 minutes) and explained our situation to a few people who all assured us the "next person" will understand and know what to do.  But they didn't.  

They did let us reenter and told us, "Once you get to (the place you're going) you can register." To which I thought, "I assumed we already were to (the place we were going)."  Wrong.  Then we left there confident in our mapping skills and even without our stolen GPS sure that we could find our way.  WRONG!  

We drove around for about 2 hours while the steam was building up under 'ole Dad's collar until I was about to blow (OK, I blew a little bit).  Then Angie overruled and said it was time to take a break.  In we go to 7-11 with our map to ask where we are.  "Where do you want to go?" asks the clerk.  "I don't even know where I am," was my reply.  "Where are we?"

"Hmm, you should ask a driver." Isn't that darling.  This helpful dude doesn't even drive.  He calls over another guy who really does help, leading us to the interstate and giving us exact directions to where we are going.  

We find the place and come to the parking garage and it says: INSERT YOUR CARD.  Now this would be the card you get when you register your car at immigration.  Doh!  I push the intercom button and hear (intercom static) "May I help you?"  "Yeah I need to come in, I have a meeting."  Of course, this particular meeting is with a stack of boxes but he doesn't need to know this.  "OK, stick in your card."

"Um, sorry, I don't have a card."  "OK, just come in and by a card and bring it to security and we'll enter your time manually."  So we park and unload and send the family to the boxes while I buy the card.  Which is sold at the 7-11 inside.  Except they don't have any.  I track down the security guard and he sends me to outside to a man who sends me to another 7-11 a block away or says to look "at any bank."

Three blocks, two stores, and zero banks later a clerk explains there is a chip problem with the cards and they are not allowed to sell them anymore.  Problem.  So I go back (sweaty, mad, frustrated) to the guard and explain the situation.  Then he says, "Actually I have an extra I can sell you."  "Of course you do," I think.  

Having just moved from a place of huge corruption I assume I am about to pay 10 times the value for a card I must have since I can't exit without it.  But he doesn't!  He charges me face value and we are good to go.  After I go back to 7-11 and put additional cash onto the card (sort of like a gift card).

I find the family and together we go to lunch.  We eat and come back and try to find someone to help us find the car registration place.  "There is no way you'll ever find it," they respond helpfully.  But when we called the person said to just pay on your way out.  The brochure says its a $2,000 a day fine.  Feel the tension building?

Now its time to go and I stick my card into the machine to leave and the balance is insufficient.  WHAT?  Its $10?  So I park again and go back down to find the guard who explains to me its not $1.50 an hour but $1.50 for HALF an hour.  I go back to 7-11 and put MORE money on the card and then we can leave.  We try to drive around some and all I can think about is the $2,000 fine.  Am I OK or headed to deportation?

So we decide to head home and face the music.  There we find a person who is willing to let me slide.  Instead I beg to pay the $10 fine plus normal fees so I can have a clear conscience if a ticket arrives in the mail and we head to TGIFriday's to celebrate the fact that we are not in jail or out $2,000.  On the day we experienced nothing, except 'ole Dad being stressed out.  We did get our home school stuff, though.  

The end result?  I have decided there is no place like home and I'll just stay right where I am.  All this driving in new cities for a day is a little more than I can bear (until we get our new GPS in house)!