While I was waiting today at the DMV or PennDOT, as it is called here, I had the misfortune of talking to a very irritating man. I wanted to just study my lines but it’s hard to ignore the person who is less than an inch away from you.

This man was talking to me I discovered in hopes of garnering sympathy from me on his predicament.  It seems he got a DUI recently and was having an interlock put on his car. The conversation is pretty much as follows (take in mind that the man would put on a poor me voice):

MAN: I am having to get my car all sorted out.

ME: Sorry to hear that.

MAN: You see, I got a DUI (said like ‘I can’t believe they did this to me’)

ME: Were you drinking?

MAN: Yes, but not that much.

ME: Obviously too much.

MAN: Ah, but it wasn’t that much.

ME: Maybe you shouldn’t drink and drive at all.

MAN: Well, it’s only my second one in 16 years.

(I had to wonder if this was his second time to get caught or his second time to do it. Something tells me it was to get caught)

ME: Sounds like you didn’t figure your lesson out the first time.

MAN: (laughs) Yeah, you’re right. What happened was is I should have stayed at my girlfriends house and not drove (at this point I thought he was going to redeem himself BUT NO!!) but I had to get to my other girlfriends house.

ME: (a bit stunned but didn’t pause) Maybe you should have just one girlfriend then and you don’t have to worry about driving between the two.

MAN: You’re probably right. But what’s a guy to do?

ME: Not drink and drive especially if he’s going between two girlfriend’s home.

He kind of looked at me at this point and realized that he wasn’t going to get a ‘poor you’  from me at all. And why should he? Drinking and driving is just plain flat out wrong. I have no sympathy for drunk drivers.

But the amazing thing is he just changed the subject and kept talking to me. Guess he couldn’t figure out I had no interest.

After having a NM driver’s license for 16 years I have a new one in the state of PA. I don’t feel any different. And I don’t drive any different either. But I am happy to say the picture turned out nice and the wait was ONLY two hours. At least there were no screaming children.