Yesterday, I wanted to celebrate finally completing the process of getting my driver's license renewal. It was a long process. It finally happened, and I decided a visit south to visit with Jeff Conrod.
On November 15, I drove to the local DMV office to extend the expiration date of my license. I know that I should have transfered my residency sooner. But you know how difficult it is to get errand stuff taken care of, at times. When I arrived to change my residency, I was asked to produce a birth certificate, which I thought that the copy would have been fine. Unfortunately, the state of Tennessee required the certified copy of it. Apparently, through all my moves from Hawaii, to California, to St. Louis, Memphis and here, I must have misplaced where I put it because it was no where to be found.
I only had nine business days left to receive the document from Hawaii till my license expired. I read on the Hawaii State Department of Health that at times it takes ten business days to get the copy sent to my address. I had thoughts of taking the written test and a road test because my license would expired. That would not be good at all!
I had to get the process moving to get the process moving--quick! I had to quickly get everything going. I had to sign the application, and write out a letter of permission to get have certain family member to pick up my birth certificate. I had to enlist my sister and my Aunty to commit to the leg work, and FedEx as my carrier to get the official documents to me. It had to be a quick mission because who knows, too, when I would have been off from work. I didn't want to go ahead and request too many days off, starting a new job. I already had several dates in mind that I needed off in the next three months already.
I quickly sent off the paperwork to get the certified certificate to me as soon as possible. I was actually thinking that it would have taken a good full week. It took my relatives one day to have it in their possession. It was dropped at a FedEx box on Friday in Hawaii, so the overnight delivery took an extra couple of days because the weekend. When I found out that I would receive the certificate on Monday, I arranged my schedule to be off on Wednesday, since I didn't think that it would work really well on Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday is when I drove to the DMV to take care of the renewal. It took an hour and forty-five minutes to complete the entire process at the DMV office in Tennessee. I thought it might have taken longer.
Because it took a little shorter than expected, I decided to drive to northern Atlanta to visit with Jeff Conrad, who is training at Applebee's. I even thought that I would stop off at El Pollo Loco, as I have done in the past, to enjoy some flamed-broiled crazy chicken. I discovered that the locations in the greater Atlanta region closed down in October of this year. I have posted three times about visiting the locations since arriving in the area. Once, the first time I discovered the restaurant nearby, the second time it was missing the "5" dining experience, and the third time, when I was spending my birthday at the restaurant chain. It's saddens me that they have closed down.
When I arrived at the Applebee's that Jeff is training at, he and I caught up on what changes which happened in our lives.
When I was driving to Sandy Springs, GA, I noticed on the north-bound lanes that the traffic was bumper-to-bumper, and this was about three in the afternoon. I had to get back home for church. The time frame was rather tight. With the visit, I was given another way around the 285/75 split. Upon driving home, I missed my time I needed to be home by about ten minutes.
One last plan that looks pretty good in the works is that my Sunshine and I are planning the trip to Orlando, to the Harry Potter theme park, the Magic Kingdom, and Epcot during mid-December. It'll be good to spend some time together during the holidays.
