Does This Shoe Match My Stripes?

Sometimes in life, you just have to say what the……..

THAT is from Risky Business. It totally applies to my day. I’ve addressed in the past that my one and only child will be the reason for all of my gray hairs. And today just reiterates that fact.

Let’s set the stage properly. Two weeks ago, said child got a ticket. Having been driving for less than a year, this requires a HUGE amount of work to take care of rather than the traditional "pay it at the window or take defensive driving" scenario. Teen rolled through a stop sign, in the boonies. Teen did NOT run a stop sign, just did a nice California stop and was caught. This was the first time Teen had been pulled over, and it was late without any other traffic around. I would think a warning would suffice. Well, once I looked up the amount of the fine…..HUGE ($217), the reason for the citation made total sense - cha ching! So, we have one ticket.

Got that? One.

Knowing that we have to get to the courthouse and find out how to take care of ticket number one, and schedule that trip around school, work, part-time work, doctor’s visits, etc, Teen gets ANOTHER TICKET. Oh, there’s a story there, too, Truvy.

Teen was going five over in a school zone.

And the call I got from Teen was so disturbing. Teen never cries, not ever. In sad movies, I try to find tears. If a softball smacks Teen in the chin, still no tears. Crying is rare. So, a bawling Teen on the phone at the same time school is starting was very unnerving. I couldn’t understand one word. I thought, “Uh oh. This is it. There’s been an accident.”

As I started to pack up my laptop to race out of the building, I finally understood four words……
“I (sob) got (sob) a (sob) ticket (SOB)!”

Um, what?

Did we NOT just GET a ticket two weeks ago? Like, to the day? What did they teach you in that $300 driving school anyway??

BUT WAIT! It gets better!

Why, oh why, would Teen be speeding in a school zone? Teen drives to school every day. Well, folks, it is like this. Teen was on a road that was foreign:
“See, I just turned onto Roadway (not the street’s real name, to protect the innocent) out of the school parking lot. I didn’t see any signs that it was a school zone until I started speeding up. I saw the sign and started to slow down, and that is when I got pulled over. Mom, I just started crying! And he got mad at me for crying.”

“What were you doing leaving the school?”

“I got to campus and realized………..”

WAIT FOR IT………..

“I only had one shoe.”

WTH??

“What? One shoe? Why did you not have a shoe? Did you drive barefoot?” as I raced into a conference room to finish this conversation. Fear of the worst was now being replaced with incredulity.

“I thought my shoes where in the car, but only one was!”

“There are TWO pairs of shoes RIGHT BY THE KITCHEN DOOR you walked through to get to your car!”

So, now there are TWO tickets to take care of; Teen has to pay for them and the increase in insurance. I have had two tickets in my entire driving career! No telling what happens to a 16-year-old with two tickets in two weeks’ time with less than a year on the road……

Stay Tuned!