The picture says it all . . .

Okay, so it wasn’t the whole day. In fact, it wasn’t even an hour. Just half of one. Let me tell you what happened. Less than a minute after leaving my house this morning, I notice lights flashing in my rear view mirror. So I think to myself “That can’t be me, I definitely wasn’t speeding”. Yet there were no other cars on the street. I pulled over. It took the cop forever to come up to my window, and inform me that I needed to stop at stop signs. “I didn't stop?” I ask her (honestly surprised), “nope” She said, “you just blew through it”.

Blew through? I am am a super cautious driver, (A wimpy driver is more accurate) so really, this surprises me. I know that the stop sign is there, and I know what kind of driver I am, so I highly doubt that I "Blew through" it. If she would have said “You failed to come to a complete stop at that stop sign”, or “a rolling stop doesn’t count as a complete stop”, I would have given her more credit. But no, she told me I “Blew through” it. She gave me a ticket, told me what number I could call to find out how much it would cost, and off I went, 10 minutes late for class.

But wait, it doesn’t end there!

So I get to the University and park my car, and decide that since I am already late, I want to call and see how much this ticket is going to cost me. So I dial the number to the city courthouse and this is how the conversation went:

Me: I am wondering if you could tell me how much a ‘failing to yield’ ticket costs

Lady: Was their an accident involved?

Me: um . . . no (in fact there were no other cars in sight)

Lady: Okay, then that’s just $82.00

Me: (mouth wide open) $82.00!?! (You gotta be kidding me!)

Lady: Yep

Me: Thank You

So I am in such shock over this amount, that as I get out of my car I forget to take my keys out of the ignition. Can you guess what happened next? I locked my keys in my car! The only person with access to my spare key at that point was my Mom, who was over an hour away at my grandparents. (this is about the time when I was looking for a hole to climb into for the day).

I then walked into my class, now 15 minutes late.

I have officially been given my first ticket. Do I get to join some sort of club?

My SIL told me later that when she was coming to my house (5 minutes before I left) the same cop had someone pulled over, and apparently she is there every morning. I remember my sister telling me that a while ago she got pulled over in the same place and got a fix-it ticket. It would seem that I have found this cop's favorite area. If you ever come to visit me, keep that in mind.

On the bright side- the sun is shining and it is warmer today.

*Update* When I was telling my friend (who has lived here just over a year) what happened, she told me, "Don't worry about it, that same cop has pulled me over three times" (once because she claimed her car made it hard to see her license plate). I think this cop is far to ticket happy.