A Year of Blogging: May 4, 2011

May 4 was Renewal Day. Apparently it's a day to renew things: relationships, social issues, hair styles, your figure, magazines subscriptions, or your driver's license. Renewing relationships doesn't have to be just marriage vows. It could be reconnecting with an old friend from high school or college. Facebook has allowed me to reconnect with friends from all stages of my life- there are friends I went to preschool with, friends I received my Bachelor's with, and friends I shopped for bears with. I guess Facebook has made every day Renewal Day! I do have a magazine subscription I need to renew. I really should take care of that. It is one of my favorite magazines, and I don't want to let it lapse. I also have to renew my car registration- which of course means my birthday is around the corner! Thankfully, I don't have to renew my license until next year- that's always fun! Standing in line for a very long time. When you get there, you are in a good mood. But after you wait and wait, standing the whole time, you quickly lose the positive attitude. I think it would work much better if we could just take a number, and then sit peacefully and read. I always have a book with me, but it's difficult to read as you slowly move forward in line, surrounded by all kinds of people. Noisy people with sticky dirty children running all over the place. And then you get to the counter, and they ask you if your weight or hair color has changed. I usually bump up the weight by a couple pounds (I'm never lucky enough to be there when I'm on the skinnier side of this see-saw). (And even then, my weight isn't really correct. I don't know my true weight. For some women, it's a closely guarded secret. I guard it so well, I don't even know it!) The last time the clerk asked 'has your eye color changed?' I found this question so bizarre and ridiculous, that I am sure I came back with some smart remark. THEN they took my picture. Yeah. It's lovely. I have told Erich if anything ever happens to me and they have to put a picture of me on the news, it is not to be my driver's license picture. Find a nice one of me playing with Sydney or Drew or the dogs. Something where I look remotely human.

This year it is just the license plate. Nearly $60 for a little sticker, about the size of a postage stamp, which goes on my license plate. You can't see it unless you are extremely close. But that little sticker makes my car legal in Ohio for another year. I can renew it online. I better go do it though- I have just a month left! When better to do it, than on Renewal Day?