LA, SC, and AZ

I woke up early to pick up a cargo van for a distribution run, up north. I called Enterprise to schedule my pickup, only to find out that my license had expired and that they wouldn’t rent me a cargo van without a valid ID – great start to a long morning.

To be fair, I knew my license was expired. I had run into problems at bars with strict bouncers in the last few weeks. They would scan the ID, tell me it was expired, and I would stand there with a “so what?” look on my trouble-making face. They would inevitably explain that they couldn’t let me in without a valid ID, to which I would quip that the fact that my license was EXPIRED only made it more clear that I was obviously old enough to be in a bar. Just because my Driving privileges had expired, didn’t mean that I had gotten any younger, did it?

The bouncers never liked me much after that little speech, so I started carrying around my passport to avoid any confrontations. It never occurred to me to actually renew my license.

So there I was, in desperate need of a cargo van before my pickup location closed at 1PM (he keeps strange hours, and seems strangely proud of this fact). To add insult to injury, my Karmann Ghia was still in Nor Cal, so I had to take a cab to the DMV, all the while anticipating disgruntled employees and long lines with smelly patrons – but who was I kidding, I was a smelly patron myself that morning, un-showered and unshaven.

Surprisingly, the wait was short – they actually have you take a number and wait in a staging area – with semi-comfortable blue plastic chairs. It was much less painful than usual, and I didn’t even have to ask anyone to punch me in the face to distract me from the horribleness.

So I renewed, and even got to take a much-needed new picture. I smiled my best smile, not even caring that I was unshaven, un-showered, and bummy with hat hair and all.

I had enterprise pick me up at the DMV, and I was able to make my pickup just in time! My distribution run was fairly uneventful. I drove all the way up the coast to Santa Cruz, where I met up with some friends for a boozey afternoon on the boardwalk, followed by a very boozey night on the town. good times, good people.

Next, I cruised back to LA, picked up some more mags, and left for Arizona. More work, more bozey evenings with friends, expensive wine, and cheap beer. All in all, a nice two weeks – lots of driving, lots of work, and lots of fun.