Pulling THAT card

I’m embarrassed.

I totally pulled single mom damsel in distress to sweet talk my way out of a warning or ticket with a member of the Holland Police Department on Saturday night. This is the second time I’ve been pulled over in the past 5 weeks. Oops.

The first time I got pulled over last month sparked my pledge to pay all my bills at once. I had been pulled over for neglecting to renew my registration and then, naturally, did not have current proof of insurance in my car either. I somehow skated out of a ticket for my failure to renew, and there is a part of me that thinks it might have had something to do with the fact that Aidan’s toys were strewn across the backseat and a handful of Fruity Cheerios had made their way to the floor. I’m sure the man had no problem believing that I was not pulled together enough to have remembered a timely payment for this yearly expense.

Then the latest incident: I was pulled over because I have a taillight out. I know this; I am a procrastinator and keep forgetting to change it. I pull the expected, “Oh, really?” He of course needs identification. Which I of course do not have. I am six blocks away from my house, where the purse I was using earlier today has my license nestled in the side pocket. I am fumbling through the pile of stuff on my front seat as he hovers next to my door. I finally turn, “Um, I guess I don’t have it on me.” And then I actually say to him, “So about getting this taillight taken care of…where should I go to do that? I don’t have a husband and I don’t know how to do it myself.”

I actually say that to Mr. HPD.

Eww. I am presently the poster child for why women are ridiculed for getting out of these types of situations. And I’ve clearly made myself look way more ditzy than necessary, as though I could be dense enough to not know where to purchase a taillight.

It likely helped my cause that Aidan was snuggled into a fleece Transformers blanket in the backseat, having passed out after enjoying a perfect evening of frisbee playin’ and digging in the sand with a stunning September sunset as our backdrop.

Whatever, it worked. I’m not proud of it, but we were laughing and he was telling me to have a great night by the time I carefully pulled back onto Van Raalte.

List of immediate things to do:

Keep license, proof of insurance and registration (All three! At the same time!) in my car, I will not get this lucky again.

Go to Autozone.

Hope that I do not have any male readers, I’ll never live this down.