While my birthday was only two weeks ago, I’ve learned a few things since turning 36 that I hadn’t taken into account before.
In fact, the most alarming one actually woke me out of a dead sleep the day before my birthday.
Now, this time last year I was wheeling around with my broken leg and had to use my driver’s license at doctor’s appointments or a lab testing facility to check in.
It was around the sixth time or so that I actually took a look at my license and noted that it would expire in about a year – this year.
So, I foolishly thought that I’d remember it later and get around to renewing it before it expired once my leg was healed.
Well, fast forward several months, and since I didn’t write it down or make some sort of digital calendar reminder with Google, I forgot about it.
I woke up the day before my birthday worried about my driver’s license and checked the expiration date – which triggered one of those fun, all-day DMV affairs.
Apparently, having my voter’s registration card, digital copy of my phone bill, and social security card weren’t enough for an in-person renewal anymore.
And because I’d done my last renewal digitally before certain laws were passed they needed to scan in my actual birth certificate to the database.
My birth certificate is honestly something that I don’t have be
cause mom has it for “safekeeping.”
Naturally, when I asked her for the original, she had no idea where it was for sure and that meant I had to go to the courthouse and get a copy.
Cue another long wait before heading back to the DMV and spending another hour in an uncomfortably hard plastic chair.
By the time I walked out with a paper copy of my license, it was almost 5 p.m. and I was done dealing with people for the day.
Needless to say, the next time I needed my license would only come a few days later when I tried buying some Sudafed at Walgreens.
I had my old license in my wallet to scan and assumed it would be enough – I was so wrong on that one, too.
The clerk needed to see my paper copy and I was shocked because the paper version had literally next to no personal information on it or an area to scan.
While I get that checking licenses is needed to make sure someone is the right age in order to buy the medicine behind the counter, apparently I was unaware of the fact that scanning the back of driver’s licenses does much more than checking a person’s age.
The “Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act of 2005” limits the sale of cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine behind the counter, the amount of medicine an individual can purchase each month, and the requirement of photo identification before purchasing.
Pseudoephedrine is a drug found in products used to relieve nasal or sinus congestion - it can also be used illegally to produce meth.
Needless to say, when my new license finally arrived in the mail, I managed to do a little happy dance while putting it in my wallet – hopefully I won’t forget about renewing it in eight years.