It’s So Easy to Get a New Driver’s License

About three months ago, I received at notice that I needed to renew my driver’s license. “No sweat,” says Hubs. “Just go on line – you can renew it there.”

I go online. Turns out since I renewed online the last time, I have to present myself in person this time. The notice then sits in my bag for two and a half months. With my birthday coming around next month, I finally force myself to go to a DMV office.

“No sweat,” says Hubs. “There’s a DMV office just ten minutes from here.”

So we drive over to the nearby DMV, stand in line and discover they don’t renew licenses there, only license plates, and they give me the address to the nearest DMV office that does. “No sweat,” says Hubs. “We’ll drive over this afternoon. You can pick up your passport so you can get the new REAL ID license you’ll need to board domestic flights after next May.”

We drive over to the recommended DMV office. There are fifty people waiting outside and we’re told there are fifty inside and there’s no possibility I can renew my license that day.

“No sweat,” says Hubs. “Go online and book an appointment.”

So when we get home, I go online. There are no appointments available at any DMV within a fifty mile radius. The following morning, appointments open up for October.

“No sweat,” says Hubs. “We’ll just go to the office in Hillsborough. I went there and it only took 45 minutes.”

I notice that walk-ins for license renews can only be done after noon and given the number of people we saw at the last office, we need to leave early in the morning to get in line. We leave really late because Hubs didn’t get home from work until 2 AM.

Arriving at the Hillsborough DMV, I notice about twenty people in line. It’s been pouring rain all morning and they are standing under an overhang behind a low brick wall trying not to get wet. “Is this the line for the walks-ins?” I ask.

“Yes, and it will be a long wait,” is the reply. I join the line.

At noon, about ten people from the line are allowed in, and a woman comes out and gives the rest of us each  a sticky note with a number on it. Mine is 12. “What do I do now?” I ask the young man in front of me.

“Wait,” he says. “Then they will let you in and you can get a number to be served.”

“I already have a number.”

“This is another number generated by a QR code that you photograph when your number is called.”

I wait another hour and eventually get in to photograph the QR code and am told I have probably two hours before I will be notified by text message that I can enter the building.

“No sweat,” says Hubs. “I know a good place for barbecue not far from here. We can get something to eat.”

We do! Sitting in the car, since it is still raining cats and dogs, I have hot hush puppies for lunch while he downs a large cup of Brunswick stew. Then back to the DMV. We sit, we wait. Finally, around 2:30 PM, I get a notice to come in. I enter, I sit, I wait. Every few minutes, a loudspeaker comes on and jolts us all from our seats, announcing a number. I wait for mine to be called. An hour later, it still isn’t. Then a woman comes out from the inner sanctum and announces it. Seems the loudspeaker is no longer working.

AT LAST. I reach the inner sanctum. Processing begins but the computers are going in and out. So I sit and wait and wait. My picture gets taken – I look like a dork. I take an eye exam, which is impossible to read because the letters are blanked out on the right-hand side. Finally, everything is done and I get a slip of paper to use for my license in case the real one doesn’t get to me before my birthday.

“No sweat,” says Hubs, when I get in the car. It’s stopped raining. “Let’s go home and have a drink.”