Principles and a day in court!

Back in the hot summer of 2009 the evil witch parking enforcement lady for our town did a drive by at the end of the month trying to meet her quota giving out tickets like it was cotton candy!

My ticket was as she stated "Registration not affixed!" - $25 fine!

A parking enforcement is a job I would never like to have, they're always WRONG no matter what you did!

The morning I found the ticket, I dug deep in my purse rustled out my camera and took a picture of said "not affixed" registration, I knew that morning that I planned to FIGHT!

I promptly signed the back of the ticket and checked the box for "Meet you in court!"

I'm not one to break the rules, or fight the government, state or church! I'm actually one of those people that believe rules are put in place for a reason and if we all broke the rules there would be mass pandemonium. A few months before she'd got me for another $25 because my state inspection was two days late!! I paid that fine as like I said, rules are made for reason and I was late, be it two days or two weeks I was still late and I knew I was in the wrong.

But this ticket just bit my goat....is that even an expression?, even if it's not, you understand I was pissed right?

I was upset on PRINCIPLE alone, and here was my logic.

The ticket she wrote had numerous piece of information that she had to glean from said "Not affixed" registration sticker, such as address, VIN number, oh and registration expiration date!!! My argument was, if said registration was NOT AFFIXED how did you manage to write out the DARN TICKET LADY???

Hence why I had taken the picture to prove that YES it wasn't stuck where it is supposed to be, but it was still AFFIXED in PLAIN SITE until said owner could rustle up some tape and stick it back to the windshield after the sun baked off the original glue that held it there.

The registration sticker had literally fallen off the night before, after a day at the beach where the sun had obviously beaten down hard and hot and made the registration sticker literally peel off.

If I recall, I even had a roll of tape waiting by the front door the night before, so I could temporarily stick it back on until the next one came, but oh no that witch beat me to the punch.

So in the winter of 2010 my day in court finally came, I took a personal day off from work and Big C was out sick due to his days up in Buffalo putting too much of a strain on his bad health. I was more excited about spending the day together than I was my day in court.

We got Baby C up at the normal time, dropped her off at day care/my workplace and started our day.

• We first went to the court to see if I could be seen in the morning instead of my scheduled 6pm appointment, but the doors were locked and there was no way in.
• We went out for breakfast at the cafeteria in the basement of my job - $19
• We went to Target to get a replacement DVD player for Baby C - $149
• We went to the jewelry store to get my necklace fixed, a link taken out of his watch, fell upon a bracelet for him that I just had to buy - $38
• Then we went to the deli next door for lunch, and I got a fantastic chicken panini, a chocolate muffin, chips and Dr. Pepper, he just got a boring old sandwich - $28
• We finally head home and watched the "International" via Netflix on the PS3, if anyone has Netflix & a PS3 you definitely should try it. - $0

Around 5:40pm we finally headed to court for my 6pm FIGHT, Big C and Baby C in tow.

We got there 10 minutes to 6pm and walked in and I gasped!!! I had no idea it was first come, first serve bass, but everyone else OBVIOUSLY did!

You'd think these people were regulars in court like they are in church or something, how did they know??

And there was I dumbfounded, and I didn't even grab a book and here I was stuck in a bad episode of Night Court!

I had initially just wanted Big C to show me where the court was and then come back for me later, but he insisted on staying a while and talk about the lord works in mysterious ways!

As I sat there with Baby C on my knee playing with my phone, a lady a few seats down leaned over and tapped me on the arm, she whispered to me "You know if you walk up to the bench and tell them you have a child, they'll move you to the front of the line!!!"

WHAT!!! You don't have to tell me twice! I grabbed Baby C and frog marched her to the front of the court...and tried to look all pitiful to the woman at the front of the court. She immediately saw my tag along child and shuffled papers moving me to the front.

I had barely sat my proud butt back down in my chair when my name was called!!!

Once again I dragged Baby C up out of the anorexic church pew and marched back to the front of the court, this time READY TO DO BATTLE!

I was about to start pleading my case when......the judge, lawyer, whatever he was said "This case is dropped!"
"Excuse me" I said
He continued "If motor vehicles can't make a sticker that can stay on the windshield then that's their fault, I have one at home myself stuck on with tape, have a nice evening!"

I grabbed Baby C by the arm and virtually skipped out of that court....all the while Baby C shouting, "Where's daddy, why's daddy not coming with us".... Poor thing wouldn't understand that she'd just been used like a three-handed bluff at a casino!!!

So in the words of American Express:

A parking ticket ~ $25
A day fighting a parking ticket ~ $238
Using your daughter as an unwitting pawn ~ Priceless