My Local DMV

With all the madness going on in my life, I unfortunately had a blond moment and forgot to pay my car insurance, which resulted in receiving a license suspension notice from the DMV by a certain date, if my plates weren't returned to DMV. Or the other alternative was to pay the fine for the days I was uninsured. Of course, I opted for the latter.

Today was truly an errand day and everything worked out superbly. Has anyone noticed that Wamu Bank plays the best music? I had to ask the specialist how is that their music always takes me down memory lane? Apparently, the music is provided by Satellite radio. Ahhh, makes sense, as I jammed to Roy Ayres' "Running Away" while opening a business account (yay!). After spending half an hour at the local Wamu and getting a bank check for my hefty fine, I made my way down to the DMV Office.

Please note, I live in an urban part of Queens where Jamaica Avenue is the local shopping area. The community is heavily West Indian and Black American. It's not an area I frequent, unless I'm taking the E Train from Jamaica Center into the city. The shops are not my kind of fashion taste.

The DMV office was PACKED and to say the least, hot and stuffy. Monday was not the day to go to the DMV office; I should have done this on a Wednesday. People were angry. At one point a clerk retorted to a license holder, "SIR! Please step back! I need to take this woman's photo," and the man storming off with a "Damn" and mumbling a stream of expletives. It was going to be a long and uncomfortable wait.

I got in line, received my ticket, found a seat, and watched the board for my number, which was D862. The D's were at D856. Somewhat delighted, as I was sure this wasn't going to take too long. Wrong. Four o'clock rolled around and there was a standard announcement informing us that the DMV was now closed and they will not be letting anyone else in. This announcement repeated itself around three times. I sat there thinking, There's no way I'm getting out of here before 5pm. Then just out of the blue, the horns to the intro of Sade's "Is It A Crime," blares from the speakers. Everyone was startled and we all kind of looked about the office at each other. But within no time, we were humming, rocking, tapping feet, and swaying to Ms. Adu as her greatest hits graced our ears. Friggin' brilliant! The Jamaica, Queens DMV has it down to a science - "Quick! Put on some Sade, the natives are getting agitated!" Worked like a charm. I left the DMV singing, "Sweetest Tabu," and in a good mood.