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simple

20191215_073129

things are simple.    Elegant.   Beauty FULLL.    just that.    simple, elegant, Beauty FULL.

you sit and know that.

and then,  you need to Go Out.

I am trying to get a California driver's license.  My N Mex license expires on December 30.  So…it's my fault that i waited.  Mea Culpa.    I'd thought that because i have a valid NM license it might be no biggie.   It's a biggie.   I thought that when i had to provide all kinds of proof when i applied for Social Security benefits,   that would be enough.

Not.

I am at the DMV today and they don't have a sense of humor.  Only once did  a blank stare switch to something i might call WARMTH.  

I tried to soften the experience by explaining to them that in the 1970's we did things because it was Interesting.   Like name changes.   That often in  Native tradition,  one changed their name to honor  a different Vision.   No one there was buying it.

 i am missing a chunk of my  "paper trail".    No way around it.   So i will spend the next some days,  whatever it takes,  obtaining records from 30 years ago.   So i can take the Papers in.   In the meantime,  although i have a meticulous driving record,  i will be traveling with  Expired license.   I asked her…can't you give me a note saying i'm Trying????   She stared blankly.  OK then.

 

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27 responses to “simple”

  1. Acey Avatar
    Acey

    I couldn’t read through this a first or second time without laughing. I have learned that, at least in my observation, nobody but nobody in today’s world is buying matters related to “how things went in the 70’s”. Especially if hearing about it threatens their daily efficiency quotient.
    I hope this part of Everything goes okay. Was thinking over the weekend how much I love the sense of you to a large degree untouched by quite a lot but definitely not at the mercy of leaving the hill for another vexing engagement with The System – especially bureaucratic nightmares under buzzing fluorescent lighting, etc. How many times do you figure you have told, and might need to tell again, all relevant parts of The Story?

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  2. Susan G Yonts Avatar
    Susan G Yonts

    I’m sorry you’re going through this, grace. My sister’s license ran out when the fire came last year. And of course, she had no paperwork. It took her a while to get everything although not as long as I would have thought.
    Many things were so much easier in the 70’s. I always laughed that I actually got my first passport with a last name I had chosen and in my passport photo I was wearing a long blonde wig. lol. I was never close to blonde nor did I ever have long hair. Those were the simple days for sure.
    Good luck with all your paper trail. Hopefully most can be accomplished on the internet.

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  3. Acey Avatar
    Acey

    also think it would be aces if we could all obtain and carry around official certification that we’re Trying

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  4. Joanne Avatar
    Joanne

    I would love to have a certified certificate that I am trying. I gave myself a middle name in the 70’s and then had to work very hard to get my social security benefits at 65

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  5. jaime Avatar
    jaime

    I know a lot of people who could use a card that says, I’m trying.

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  6. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    beautiful leaf & good luck with getting all the paper work together!

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  7. sparrow Avatar
    sparrow

    precious as heck…!

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  8. Liz A Avatar
    Liz A

    no sense of humor … a library acquaintance some years back learned the hard way never to say the word “bomb” anywhere near a TSA agent (even if you are simply trying to explain to your spouse that “they are being careful in case we have a bomb in our luggage”) … yeah, no sense of humor at all …
    anyway, good luck … it is actually quite amazing how much documentation you can get by going online … and a bit scary as well, because that means someone else can, too … right?

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  9. Irene Avatar
    Irene

    Nothing like the DMV to mess with your day….it was equally bad in NY.

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  10. Martine Avatar
    Martine

    Oh yes Grace, lets go back to the 1970………..
    Life was easy, we were young and innocent. my drivers licence was very fresh and people were warm and humorous.
    Good luck with your licence, otherwise you drive without it……..

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  11. Kirsten Avatar
    Kirsten

    DMV is always fun to work with! In NH, they no longer issue titles if your car is 1999 or older. So I had NH plates but a VA title. So when I moved back to VA and applied for VA tags, the lady kept telling me that i needed to bring in my NH title. And I must have told her 3 times that they didn’t issue a NH title on my 1988 car. I figure if they ever send me paperwork, I’ll just copy the NH law and take it to them.
    On the other hand, NH confiscated your old license when you applied for one while VA let me keep my NH license. Makes no sense.
    Things were easier in the 1970’s!! And I miss those days!

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  12. Kirsten Avatar
    Kirsten

    I oh, so agree about the 70’s. People definitely were much nicer and had a sense of humor!

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    if i even had a chance, a CHANCE to tell the story…but NO. There’s no chance to tell the story. to them.
    they have cotton in their ears.
    and telling the story..oh, jeez. oh Lordy Lou. it’s such a story and is so crazy and great and crazy and loving and crazy and really really FINE and crazy and so just a Life

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    wouldn’t it?
    i was sitting in the middle of the night last night, up, and thinking how suddenly i KNEW more of what it’s like to crash, for whatever reason, all the people at the borders trying to describe their story to some person in control of Life, all the homeless people that crashed and just gave up
    i have such EMPAthY from today
    you say your words and they look at you. and say no. not good enough. and there’s not one fing thing you can do.

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  15. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    SUSIE!!!!!!!!!!!
    it’s a different world now. Strange. One in which they can actually deny you an identity even though you have had that identity for 74 years.
    i don’t know how it will go. And a large part of it is my own doing, the cavelier way i have always lived, the more or less, the choosing to drift through things only seeing the Big Picture. It’s catching up to me.

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  16. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    funny. I told the very nice excellent Social Security guy a few times that i wasn’t married 10 years, but just short.
    Today i find out that i actually WAS. Married OVER 10 years. I could be getting benefits based on HIM!.?
    WAY more than me. And i did work while he was in graduate school……..to achieve that income
    It’s a crazy world. I am not made for it.

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    yes. All this
    and the leaf
    the leaf is
    Beauty FULL

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  18. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    hey, dear and BEST you
    thank you for putting words here. they matter.

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  19. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i don’t know, and i don’t even care. It’s all just
    a mess of stuff

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  20. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i thought today about how they work there and are faced with hundreds of “me” everyday, all having their Story and they are bound by their rules
    it’s just hard.

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  21. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    MARTINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    oh, Martine, Thank YOU for showing up today, oh, dear
    YOU, yes. i will drive. For sure, i am a good driver.

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  22. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    we’ve lost the POINT of what is necessary for LIVING.
    it’s just a lot of marks on a Screen, having to do with
    NOTHING

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  23. Acey Avatar
    Acey

    gotta admit I don’t know all that many who couldn’t, one way or the other.

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  24. jaime Avatar
    jaime

    Just to add to the confusion, if you have a bank account, especially with Bank of America, you must have all documents matching. If you used an initial you Must use an initial. If you used your middle name you Must use your middle name. A woman I helped 10 years ago couldn’t get her money out of her savings account because her Government ID expired. She didn’t drive so needed a new ID from DMV. To get that ID she needed her birth certificate which needed to be amended because her parents names weren’t legible on it. They came from a very small town in the Mountains so we needed to get their marriage certificate. We also needed to get her a new social security card which was much less complicated. After we got all that together the bank still wouldn’t give her her money because the above middle initial didn’t match. The devil still remains in the details. Good luck.

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  25. Martine Avatar
    Martine

    Sadly its too far were you live Grace, otherwise i would drive and we would sit for hours and……………talk and talk….

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  26. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    we would be so Happy

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  27. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    who would have ever guessed!!!!??????
    I am going to need to drive like a Ninja for a while, hoping
    against hope

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