I have saved a lot of animals in my life. Let's see there was (were):

*a baby robin that had fallen out of it's nest

*turtles crossing the street and a huge one in a parking lot

*a baby flying squirrel (Sooo CUTE!!!)

*a big dog running around in a parking lot

*stray cats (my sweet Madeleine, and an orange tabby kitten from under a car now named Hans)

*many toads from being squished in the street

*even a spider or two that I made my Dad put outside so they at least had a fighting chance (it was winter...

...I was little)

But I had to laugh at myself the other day when I went into a school and noticed a pretty large slug on the sidewalk slimming in squggly circles and felt bad for it. See it was going to be a pretty hot day, the concrete was a very light color and the slug was going to dry out and die a horrible death. So I picked it up (eww I might add, they are not slimy but sticky) and placed it in the grass so it could wriggle down under the grass and stay cool.

You want empathy, I'm your gal.

The BMV and me

At the beginning of summer this year I was pulled over by the police while leaving the bank. Didn't rob the bank. Not going the speed limit yet so not speeding. What in the world?

I have been pulled over a total of three times in my many years of driving so it's safe to say I'm not usually doing anything to warrant a ticket. I even joked with the officer that I couldn't have been speeding because I had, as I mentioned, just pulled out of a parking lot. He said, "No, not speeding yet." Why exactly did he feel he needed to add the "yet" to that statement. I felt like he might follow me home just to be sure that I didn't start. Anyhow...

Turns out that my plates were expired and had been since the previous October. In the past I have always gotten a friendly reminder in the mail or more recently in e-mail telling me that renewal was coming up so I could stay on top of things but it seems these notifications are a courtesy of the BMV (Let me restate, I have ALWAYS gotten them) and they are under no obligation to remind me of anything. Fair enough. Not happy about it but okay.

I paid the $116.00 ticket. Yikes! Wrote the renewal date in this year's calendar, added a reminder to my phone and just for good measure stuck post-it notes in my car and on my computer screen.

About a month later I received mail informing me of the new renewal changes. Another month and I received an e-mail reminding me that my plates would expire in October. Then I received one telling me that my license would expire this year and that I could renew any time after July. A  whole year ahead of time. Just last week I received yet another e-mail reminding me about the plates.

Sheesh...