One step at a time.

Today was supposed to be a good day. I was finally supposed to get my Texas drivers license. Key word being 'supposed' to.

I got up early, took a shower, did my hair and makeup (I even curled my eye-lashes, which is very rare for my normal 'day' look), devoured an egg-white omelet, chugged two cups of coffee and was out the door in record speed.

I showed up at the driver's license office with all of my paper-work and was ready to to take my new picture. (Needless to say, I was very excited because I am currently 16, sans makeup, and sans know-how of a blow dryer in my current license). One minor problem. I had not yet registered my car in Texas, nor received my new plates, nor had the lil Herbster inspected. Appareantly in Texas, you have to do all of these things before you can even step foot into your neighborhood driver's license office.

I refused to let these minor details get in the way of my main goal for the day. I rushed back to the apartment to find a car inspector and called Geico to make sure my car was insured under a TX policy. (I seriously surprised myself today with all the big girl steps I made all by myself).

I pulled up to the grass-roots car inspector, signed my name on the clipboard outside, and waited for 10 minutes on a picnic-table for one of the guys to take my lil bug for a spin.

Fun Fact #1 O' The Day: every car owner in TX has to get their car inspected once a year to make sure it passes their gas emission tests....kinda nifty, huh?

This was my "go green" effort for the day. Anyway, Herby passed with flying colors, and next stop was to get him registered at the Travis County Tax Assessor's Office and pick up his plate(s). Yes, people, I said: plateS.

Fun Fact #2 O' The Day: Down here in TX we drive with not one, but two plates on our vehicles.

One on the front, and one on the back. Who knew? I've been here for a month and somehow never noticed that. "Cool," I told the lady as she handed them over to me. "You're new to Texas, aren't you?" She asked. "How could you tell?" I said with a little grin. A couple hundred dollars later, and I was outta there, two plates and all. Last stop of the day: my third and final trip to the Driver's License office, or so I thought.

I walked in and the line was not too shabby. "Phew!", I thought. At this point, you could say, I was just a little impatient and sick of waiting in lines. It was finally my turn, and I gave my new friend all of my paperwork. My registration, inspection receipt, copy of my insurance, SS card, and driver's license. "You were quite the busy bee today. My goodness!" she said, "This seems to be everything." "Oh, but wait, I'm also going to need a passport or birth certificate from you. It's a new homeland security regulation that we just implemented this year."

I flashed her my million-dollar smile and asked her if my college ID card would suffice. "Oh, honey, I wish I could accept this." My final stop of the day, and I failed....miserably. I seriously walked out of there with my head hung low, but my mom assured me she would get my passport to me as soon as possible. Surprisingly, though, there was a silver lining:

Fun Fact #3 O' The Day: Even if I had taken my picture today, I still wouldn't have received my new license for three weeks!

So, at the end of the day, you win some and you lose some, right? Even though I didn't accomplish my main goal of the day, I learned more today than I ever could have imagined. My bank account may have suffered a little bit, but at least I am one step closer to feeling like a grown-up. Next step: EMPLOYMENT!