| View Blog
|
|
|
|
| Dumas Walker/Alabama Public Safety |
Do you know what a slaw burger is? I am not exactly positive, but being a transplanted yankee, I think it might by a true North Carolina Burger... this contains, the ground beef patty, chili, slaw and crunchy onions... although there are variations depending on where you are ordering.
I can also not type enough on the variations of BBQ in the south versus "where I come from". Each and every flavor is unique and wonderful in it's own rite, weather it be pulled pork with a white/clear vinager based sauce from eastern North Carolina, or the yellow sauce of the Alabama/Georgia region with country style ribs. Trying to figure out what the difference between chopped, chipped, or pulled is (although I have to say I know the latter) I always distingush myself as someone who is "not from around here".
Who knew, as I sat around campfires on the tug hill plateau of upstate New York during college singing David Lee Murphy's "Dust on the Bottle", Sammy Kershaws "Vidaila" and of course Alan Jackson's "Chattahoochee" , that I would be living in the deep south right on the Alabama/Georgia state line and the banks of the Hooch, volunteering to clean the banks of the river I once sang about in a drunken stooper.
Of course living here does not come by choice, as much as I love the thought of living where I always felt I belonged. Fort Benning, GA is here, and this is why it is where I reside. Just as being at Fort Bragg, NC allowed me to experience what I think is a "slaw burger" and "true NC BBQ".
But alas, this blogs story is not really about my love of southern food and experiences with it (although the ham hock and collard greens story will be a must in a later post). Nor is it about the fact that I am attempting to experience as much at each duty station we go to as my husband leads us around the nation.
This particular entry is regarding the experience I had today attempting to obtain a new drivers license. Who Knew!
Today, about two weeks before I turn 30 years of age, knowing that my North Carolina Drivers license will expire when the looming birthday occurs, I took a vacation day to obtain an Alabama drivers license.
I researched on the internet, and did not find much information regarding transfering from out of state. I knew I would need my birth certificate, social security card, current valid license and would have to pass a vision test.
Paperwork in hand, I head to the nearest office, and am in the basement of the state office, where a lady won't give me a number to be served until I show my paperwork. So I pull out all the items on the required list and am handed back my "Certificate of Birth Registration" and am told the sealed document that I have been using as my birth certificate since I before I can remember wasn't a valid proof of citizenship.
Military dependent card? Nope, you don't have to be a United States citizen to serve, so it doesn't prove citizenship... Current out of state drivers license? Nope, we don't accept that... Current Contractor Access Card issued by the US govt for me to work on a federal military installation, again no. "I'm sorry Miss, only your real birth certificate or a passport will be accepted."
All righty then. I am thinking to myself of the particular qoute from Cher in Clueless "You CAN'T be the absolute and final word in drivers' licensces?!?" I head to my truck and call my husband. Head to a larger office since she was the all knowing there, and again the same result.... (although not quite as much as a clueless situation as before, it's sinking in).
Guess what. I will not be able to obtain anything from the New York office of Vital Statistics anyway... why, oh remember, I'm married, my credit card has my married name... and your credit card name has to match a name on the certificate... and... apparently based on my telephone conversation with this office, since I never appealed the courts, that's not REALLY my legal name!!! Then why in the world do I have FEDERALLY ISSUED ID'S in that name?!?
So a lovely phone call with my Mother, gets my Father to order a Birth Certificate to the tune of almost $80 since he can request one for me... after all... HIS name is on my birth certificate... Thank goodness for being Daddy's little girl all these years. The check is in the mail Dad. But wait... 10 days to get the paperwork to Dad... he's now in PA... Fedex to Alabama, cutting it close there....
Passport... the other option... 2 to 3 weeks processing time, well that isn't going to work... so what the heck am I going to do? Call the NC DMV... 2 months to renew a drivers license from out of state... it requires a trip to the doctors for a vision test too... you have got to be kidding me!
Wait! We are in luck. We had already planned on making a trip up to North Carolina to deal with our property there during the holiday weekend. Let's just make it an extended trip so I can visit the DMV, because there, all I need to do is show my old license. Sigh, with some aggrevation. I am going to waste another 8 hours of precious vacation, but won't loose my job because I let my drivers license expire.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
| Views: 5
Email This to a Friend 