The DMV: Too Difficult Too Soon

So, this Year of Gratitude got off to a great start.  I became overconfident.  I drove my thankfulness to the California Department of Motor Vehicles to take it for a test spin.  I discovered I require a lot more practice at being grateful; I won't be trading in my learner's permit for a fancy license any time soon.

Lindsey, at 16 and just five months shy of her 17th birthday, is anxious to get her driver's license.  She was adamant about passing the written test before winter break was over and we were back in school (she as a student, I, a teacher).  This was not our first visit to the DMV or her first effort at passing the written test, but we had an appointment the last time, so we breezed through the lines, if not the exam.

With the only available appointments being in mid-January, we found ourselves in line outside the DMV at 8:30 this morning.  That  line.  The one that goes out the door, extends to the sidewalk, and bends around almost to the end of the block.  I remember being in this line in the rain years ago.

Thank you, God, for the sunshine.

The line crawled, but a smiling, efficient young woman was making her way through, handing out forms and clipboards, to speed folks along.  She had no clipboard for me.  "Yeah, you have to wait in this line," she droned, her last smile and clipboard gone to the gentleman in front of me.

Thank you.  

Well, all those people ahead of me with clipboards will move along more quickly, and that helps me, if indirectly.

She is here to retake the written test, I tell the clerk.  Take this to window 25.  After a tour of the building, I am self-effacing:  I apologize; I may have been unclear; she is here for the written test, and window 25 is a line for the driving test.  Window 25, ma'am.  They handle both.

Thank you.

Excellent!  We're next in line behind another mother and daughter; this won't take long.  And then the clerk left her desk on an errand.  Or maybe it was her break.  It was rather longer...oh, here she comes--oh, there she went.  Again.

Thank you for giving me this day off with my beautiful daughter, without any time pressure to be somewhere else, because we're gonna be here awhile longer.

Brilliant!  The clerk is back and it's our turn.  We're just going to get this test, and...a pushy, impatient woman, annoyed at having to wait, cut into the line demanding to know how long this is going to take. Well, we only need 60 seconds to get our form and trip down to a new line at another window, but she is taking 5 minutes to complain and prevent the clerk from assisting us.

Thank You, Lord, for reminding me what I might've been like if I had not already resolved to be thankful today.

It is test time, at last.  Lindsey is hard at work, and I find a seat.  I take out my phone to pass the time.

Thank you for Solitaire.  Thank you for Word Search.  Thank you for Facebook.  Hmmm.  Thank you for email.

Lindsey is still at work on the test.

Thank you for Lindsey taking her time and not rushing through it.  Thank you for Lindsey being really really really careful.

More Solitaire.   More Word Searches.  Now I'm deleting old emails.  She's done!

Thank you for Lindsey being done!

Even better!  She passed!

Oh, Thank you thank you thank you for Lindsey passing.

What about me?  Did I pass?  For surely I was being tested this day.  Every obstacle was tossed in my way.  I thanked the Lord for each one.  I got my Learner's Permit.  It's good for one year.  May I learn to be truly thankful before it expires.