Guilty, Your Honor!

So today was my big date at traffic court for that little speeding ticket I got last month in Wellford. This is only the second ticket I've ever had in all my years of driving, and only the third time I've been pulled over (the first time I got a warning). When the officer pulled me over and asked me if I knew how fast I was going, I had to be honest and say, "Not a clue, sir." He ticketed me but wrote the ticket so that I wouldn't get any points on my license, which was nice.

Back to traffic court. I'd never been so I had no idea how it works. I was imagining some kind of public humiliation where I'd have to stand in front the courtroom and explain myself to the judge, and what was I going to say? "Sorry, Your Honor. I was listening to my Witness practice CD and paying no attention to speed limit signs. No sir, didn't even know there was a speed limit." I had no excuse at all. (side note: I found it quite ironic that that last sentence is true of all human beings and our tendency to sin. We have no excuse and we are just plain guilty, yet Christ took on our guilt and paid our debt. I was hoping for leniency but I figured no judge was going to forgive as Christ has.) By the time I actually left for court I was nearly sick to my stomach from anxiety. So I get to the Wellford courthouse, a building only about the size of my house, to find that there are no empty parking spaces. Hmmmm. I found a spot that wasn't TOO illegal, parked the car and went looking for traffic court, just as 3 other people started walking the same way. We found the right door and opened it, only to find that the place was packed! Why didn't someone tell me that traffic court is a cattle call? Moo! So we start lining up outside the door as more and more people come. As I'm standing there hoping I don't see anyone I know, I see a car pull out and out steps Scott Suttles. Great. He looked my way and I waved to him, a little feebly but at least I acknowledged him. Finally the guy in charge (I guess) explained our options to us: Plead guilty and he will reduce our ticket, and we're done; or ask for a trial and explain yourself to the judge. He took up our tickets and called us up one by one. Meanwhile I was making conversation with my "line neighbors". They were all comparing notes on how fast they were going and how much their tickets were and how many points it would mean against their license. Apparently that officer was more lenient than I thought, because I had NO points and the same ticket amount, but I was going more mph over the speed limit than they were! I also noticed that the Wellford government appears to be a bit suspicious of certain forms of payment because they only accept cash, money orders and cashier's checks. Some of my line neighbors must have been repeat customers because they already had their $100 cash in hand (because that's what the ticket gets reduced to). After I got my ticket reduced I had to race down the street to the ATM to get the cash then come back and pay it, because as Mr. In-Charge said, "if you don't have the Clerk of Court enter the disposition of the ticket today, I will have to issue a bench warrant for you tomorrow and suspend your license." Meanwhile the line outside continued to grow and grow. I came back, paid my debt to (Wellford) society and left, and the line was even longer than it had been before. At least they didn't throw me in the pokey.

Later we went to Karis' softball game, where they lost once again. Luckily the girls don't seem to notice but it weighs on poor Coach Jon. In between keeping the scorebook and keeping up with Quinn, I got to enjoy a few of those life moments, like when Karis started running from first base and ignored all the coach's instructions to stop on third base and instead kept heading for home plate, just two steps ahead of the girl trying to tag her out. Karis was safe and I don't think she ever even knew the girl was coming up behind her. She came to me afterward and said, "Did I look like Dash (from The Incredibles)?" And I told her that she certainly did - she ran so fast the other players couldn't catch her. As long as I live I will remember the sight of her just jogging around the bases like there's nothing going on around her. La-de-da... what ball? Game? What game? Gotta love that girl!