this is america. shouldn’t i get to drive for free?

February 5, 2008 Crystal medium

ok. ok. I GET it. I move. a lot. and sure, my licence plates are from South Dakota and my driver’s license is from Iowa and my cell phone number is from the Chicago suburbs and I kind of live in Wisconsin. but NONE of those things have actually expired, so i don’t want to get them replaced.

And, yes three months ago, someone DID tell me that I needed to get wisconsin plates and a wisconsin driver’s licence within two weeks of living here — but I think that’s probably just a myth. I mean it’s not like I’ve been pulled over for my South Dakota plates (which, by the way WERE voted the best in the country in 2007!).

AND when I showed the Illinois cop my iowa licence and my south dakota registration after the ONE accident I’ve been in since moving to Wisconsin, he didn’t seem to care that so many states we’re involved. and I just DON’T WANT to spend the $38 America’s Dairyland charges for a state driver’s licence, much less the $78 I’ll have to spend on plates. and to be honest, i also don’t really want to have to explain to the dmv workers why i have an iowa licence, even though I haven’t lived there in more than a year.

and i WOULD just go on living with all these various UNEXPIRED forms of identification, but NO, my stupid credit union wants me to get a Wisconsin Driver’s licence and I keep telling the nice tellers at my stupid credit union that i’ll get a wisconsin licence NEXT week, but it’s been like a month now, so I’m not sure if they’re buying it at this point. and the thing it, I really am just waiting until i have an extra $38 to spend on a stupid Wisconsin driver’s licence, but seeing as how my take-home pay is about $6, it’s kind of taking me awhile to save up.

So, now I’m in this weird situation where I’m scared to withdraw money from my credit union (not to brag but my account DOES have $22 in available balance in it) because even if convince the women there to let me withdraw my entire available balance with my iowa licence i STILL wouldn’t have enough for a (stupid) wisconsin licence.

and I really don’t understand what the big deal is, seeing as how I proved to my credit union that I live in the area they serve by showing them my lease like three months ago. 

in conclusion, if anyone has either a. tips on withdrawing money without a licence or b. about $38, feel free to let me know.  

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this is america. shouldn’t i get to drive for free?

February 5, 2008 Crystal medium

ok. ok. I GET it. I move. a lot. and sure, my licence plates are from South Dakota and my driver’s license is from Iowa and my cell phone number is from the Chicago suburbs and I kind of live in Wisconsin. but NONE of those things have actually expired, so i don’t want to get them replaced.

And, yes three months ago, someone DID tell me that I needed to get wisconsin plates and a wisconsin driver’s licence within two weeks of living here — but I think that’s probably just a myth. I mean it’s not like I’ve been pulled over for my South Dakota plates (which, by the way WERE voted the best in the country in 2007!).

AND when I showed the Illinois cop my iowa licence and my south dakota registration after the ONE accident I’ve been in since moving to Wisconsin, he didn’t seem to care that so many states we’re involved. and I just DON’T WANT to spend the $38 America’s Dairyland charges for a state driver’s licence, much less the $78 I’ll have to spend on plates. and to be honest, i also don’t really want to have to explain to the dmv workers why i have an iowa licence, even though I haven’t lived there in more than a year.

and i WOULD just go on living with all these various UNEXPIRED forms of identification, but NO, my stupid credit union wants me to get a Wisconsin Driver’s licence and I keep telling the nice tellers at my stupid credit union that i’ll get a wisconsin licence NEXT week, but it’s been like a month now, so I’m not sure if they’re buying it at this point. and the thing it, I really am just waiting until i have an extra $38 to spend on a stupid Wisconsin driver’s licence, but seeing as how my take-home pay is about $6, it’s kind of taking me awhile to save up.

So, now I’m in this weird situation where I’m scared to withdraw money from my credit union (not to brag but my account DOES have $22 in available balance in it) because even if convince the women there to let me withdraw my entire available balance with my iowa licence i STILL wouldn’t have enough for a (stupid) wisconsin licence.

and I really don’t understand what the big deal is, seeing as how I proved to my credit union that I live in the area they serve by showing them my lease like three months ago. 

in conclusion, if anyone has either a. tips on withdrawing money without a licence or b. about $38, feel free to let me know.  

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South Dakota

January 23, 2008 Crystal long

sunset

About one year ago I moved to one of the square states. One of those Dakotas as they say (and apparently the South doesn’t mean it’s the warm one). I was scared out of my mind. I left my safe little copy editing job in Illinois which i hated  which i kind of liked, to cover state government in the middle of nowhere Pierre, South Dakota (note: the town name is pronounced so that it rhymes with beer, and has no French influences in it at all).

I lived in this town — where the closest Target was about two-and-a-half hours away — for about eight months. And the whole time I was there i complained that it was too far from home and that it was too cold and that it was too far from home and that there was no Target store and that it was too far from home and that there was no Applebees and that it was too far from home and that the South Dakotans were SO DIFFERENT and that it was too far from home. So, I found my self a a job that’s a little closer to home and I moved back east (and by east I mean Wisconsin).

And, don’t get me wrong, I really do heart my new job. (although I could live without all this dang snow in this dang state). But earlier today I opened up my cell phone and before I clicked my text message inbox i looked at the picture I have on the phone — a sunset over the Missouri River in South Dakota — and i missed the Mount Rushmore state.

What you should understand is that South Dakota sunsets are legendary. They are almost magical and they take up the entire sky and nothing like them happens in any state that’s not shaped like a square because square states were given big skys by God to make up for the fact that they don’t have many Target stores.

So, at that moment, when I looked at that beautiful picture, I missed South Dakota — desperately. I missed the sunsets, and the friends and the couch I used to have. I missed the local restaurants and walking in the nature areas and working in a capital. And, if five years ago someone would have told me that i was going to MISS some weird square state where their biggest claims to fame were carved presidents and a corn palace — i would have laughed out loud at that someone.

But i miss that stupid square state (and everything in it). I’m sorry. I do.

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