What's in a name?

I realized that most people do not understand what "A Little Pixed Um" even means. Well I'm going to tell you. It actually means, "A Little Mixed Up", but the letters are a little mixed up...

Um is not secretly a supernatural animal or being.
Pixed does not describe this Um in any way. It does not mean "fairy dusted" and does not categorize any specific breed of the Um.
The "Pixed Um" is not even "little", despite the fact that it is blatantly stated right in the title...

I hope I did not dash your dreams of what little wonders my blog's name had secretly stood for. True, there are many possibilities, so who am I to say my way of seeing it is the one and only way? If you feel like you have a better idea of what it means, or if it has a special meaning just to you, leave me a comment. The crazier the better. You just might be able to change my mind. Just maybe.

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.

This will be a long post. But it's worth the read.

I had been needing to get my license renewed for, oh about 2 years. No, no, no, it hadn't expired per se, but it did have my maiden name on it. Besides that, technically, I was supposed to have it renewed no more than 90 days after I arrived in Chicago.... Needless to say, it was time.

Brad got his renewed a couple of months ago and was raving about how awesome the DMV downtown was; fasted line EVER. I thought, "COUNT ME IN!" So one Friday morning we decided it was time, and I got ready in 33 minutes flat (give or take 10 minutes ;) ) and headed downtown with Brad. I then got my license renewed within 5 minutes of being down there, went home, celebrated, and called it a day! Wait.... no that isn't what happened, how silly of me. Here's what really happened.

DAY ONE

PART ONE - IN TRANSIT

So Brad has this nifty CTA (Chicago Transit Authority) pass that lets up to six people ride on the same card! Amazing right? So we get on the bus together, and the crazy bus scanner doesn't like the idea, but the bus driver is okay with it. First leg of the journey down. Next comes getting onto the subway platform. Easy, right? Sure, for me. Brad scanned his card and through the revolving thing I went. As for Brad, no such luck. He tried sneaking in behind some of the other travelers, but the city was too smart for that. One person at a time, ya know? Yay. He called the number on the pass and they explained to him that you had to start the "journey" together, otherwise it wouldn't work. So since it didn't like the bus scanner, and only registered one person, Brad could not get onto the platform. They then told him to ring the customer assistance buzzer, which he did, and they told him to walk all the way around to the other entrance. GAH! Finally we met up on the platform and ate some candy that was in his backpack. It was good.

PART TWO - THE WAIT BEFORE THE WAITING AND AFTER.

We arrived downtown at approximately 10:30, at which time Brad was supposed to be in a meeting at work. So he ran off to his office while I went and found the DMV, which was in a food court in the basement of a building. No worries it wasn't scary looking. Brad had said he wanted to be there when I went to the DMV, so I was to wait for him in the food court. Luckily, I had my laptop with me, so I studied the Driver's Handbook, for 1.5 hours.

Brad arrived right around 12 and off we went. I had a bright yellow folder with all of my identification in it: Old driver's license, social security card, birth certificate, 2 pieces of mail. I was ready to go!.... PSYCH. "Ma'am, you need your marriage license to change your name". "Seriously, the social security card that has my married name on it isn't enough??" "No, come back Monday thru Friday 8AM-4PM to take your written exam, NEXT!"

GREAT! Got ready as fast as I could, took forever to get downtown, sat in a food court all morning by myself, and was told it was all for nothing. At this point, Brad had only about 4-5 hrs of work left, over lunch (from Arby's), I decided to make it a positive experience and stay downtown that day and explore, or just sit at a bookstore and read some books then travel home with Brad. It wasn't often that I went downtown and the sun was shining that day. It was a perfect opportunity!

So Brad went back to work (he took my laptop for me since it was just too heavy to carry around in my purse for the whole day). I went off to find a Barnes & Noble! Let me tell you how I was physically feeling at this point. I had had to use the restroom since that morning, but the bathroom in that food court place was wayyyy less than desirable. I could hold it a while longer. I was also quite chilled because, although the sun was shining, the buildings were blocking it and letting the wind do its work. I had a measly jacket on. But all was well, because life was good, and it was time to enjoy it! Oh another little note, my phone had one bar of battery left, but that was okay!

It was only .6 miles away, but lemme tell ya, it felt like way more than that. When I finally got there, I was feeling pretty excited about finding a book, hoping I wouldn't need to purchase it in order to read one, I searched in the mystery section. I saw a bunch of Agatha Christie novels, none of which I had read before, and found the least expensive one (in case I did need to purchase it) and started reading.

I situated myself in the back at a table next to a large window. Through the window and across the way was a candy shop. Oh my how that candy looked delightful. But I did not need candy, I was fine just reading my book.

A couple hours later- I really needed to find a bathroom, I had been drinking WAY too much water. But on the other hand I didn't want to lose my spot at the table, or my book for that matter. What a pain it would be to put the book back, go to the bathroom, just to come back and find them gone. Nah, I'd just wait it out till I finished the book. My that candy looked good. I got a text from my cousin, oh, and one from a good friend, plus my mom called. All of these things would have been great had I had more than one bar of battery left on my phone. I had to ignore all of these and save up the battery for when Brad would let me know he was ready to go home.

A couple of more hours later, the book was finished! It was a good read! AND I COULD FINALLY FIND A BATHROOM. Or could I? Sure I found two, but the one labeled "public bathroom" on the "You are here" map, had a sign on it saying for employees only. Hmm... That made sense. Okay, it was time to look for another one. Found it! But you have to have a DePaul Student ID card to get in. Seriously, who does that? Oh my goodness I was going to die. Well, I decided to take a peek in that candy shop I had been tortured by for 4 - 5 hours of my life. It was lame. Off to the streets to find a bathroom.

Macy's there has to be a bathroom available in there just for me. After about 15 minutes running around the store, I found one! Success. Now I was just waiting for that text from Brad. I waited and waited..... and waited. I got a frozen yogurt in the meantime. Fresh strawberry with toasted coconut. Yummy. Then it came!! A text from Brad that is! And it said, "hey stuck in a meeting. Don't know when I'll be done." Awesome. Too bad Brad had my laptop. I could have thought of a million things to do with it. Physically feeling, exhausted, freezing, headachy and hungry. I felt bad for Brad too. He'd had a crazy day and was stuck in a mtg he didn't want to be in. Finally a text came saying "You should just go home". Yikes. I didn't have a pass to go home. What to do??.... Wait. That's what I did.

A while later, he was done, and we started our journey home. We were both less than happy and needed some cheering up. We tried to cheer each other up and it was working until, when we were on the train, I asked, "So did you bring my laptop?". Dead silence and panic on his face. Oh this was not our day. We get home and decide we need to treat ourselves to something nice. We go to Corner Bakery Cafe and the night ends wonderfully! DMV would have to wait till the next week, and we'd be going to the one closer to our house.

DAY TWO

Well, Friday came again and this time I was up and ready for us to head to the DMV by 7:45. It didn't open till 8:30 though so we left at 8. There was already a line forming outside once we got there and it was FREEZING cold. (With the wind at least). This time we had all the identification we needed, including our marriage license. By the way, Brad had the hardest time finding the marriage license that morning, but me looking, where he had previously looked, for oh 2 minutes led me to find it in perfect condition. :) The door to the building was finally opened and in we went.

There were 2 people checking everyone's IDs and asking what they needed. One was nice and quiet. The other, the exact opposite. We got that one. I explained I needed a name change and new license. She said, too bad, your mail isn't good enough. She said she needed a bill in my name or a lease. Too bad the guy at the other DMV hadn't let me know that. At this point both Brad and I were extremely angry. I was crying my angry tears and he was meaner than I'd ever seen him. He explained that he had his license and she said that would work for one of my mail identification thingys, but that I still needed one in my name. Too bad I don't get bills or anything.

We go back to the car and he calls to see what we should do since none of the bills or the lease are in my name. He gets transfered to another line, explains, gets transfered, explains, gets transfered, and then sent right back to where he started. Great phone tree system there. He was told he could vouch for both of my needed address verifications. So we went back home, he brought his whole life with him (all his personal documents) and found my name was kind of on the lease. Otherwise he had plenty of bills in his name that should do the trick. We got back and Brad was still fuming, and amazingly enough I was feeling pretty chipper. I told him I didn't like this version of him and he should start being happy again. The lady in front of us sneezed I blessed her, and then she told me she was back in the same boat we were. We laughed. Luckily we got a nice lady that time.

Now we just sat waiting to get called up to the desk and start this process. about 30 minutes later that happens and it was pretty darn smooth. The guy behind the counter was very nice and friendly and I was off taking my written exam before I knew it. It was a little scary to take this exam just because as the people in front of me were having their tests graded, it seemed they missed quite a lot. One guy missed 8, another lady missed 6, and everyone of them was trying to plead their case saying that their letter "a" was really a "c". I sat down and finished entirely too quickly. Not to mention the 7 A's in a row that were on my answer sheet.... Oh well. So I wait for it to be graded and find out, I got everything right. Yay for me. I was a little happy about this since Brad had missed a few himself. :D Picture was taken and then we were finally done. The guy taking the picture could have told me my hair was a bit messy, but at that point I just didn't care anymore. Brad was only a few hours late to work that day too. My license doesn't need to be renewed for 5 years. Thank goodness.

THE END

Next Post: I have no idea, I'll let you know then.