Urrrrrrg.  So I went down yesterday to get my MI license.  No big deal, right?  Take my old license in, get a new one, and go to work.  Simple.

Except it’s not simple.  Noooo.  First, I have to have a birth certificate, social security card, proof of address, etc.  Of course, I have no bills or anything else coming to this address, so that means I have to get my sis to grab HER birth certificate and HER bills, and go with me to the SecState’s office (MI version of the DMV) so that a) our familial relationship is established and then her address, so she can ‘officially’ vouch for MY address.

And naturally, neither of us has a copy of our birth cert.  Fortunately we were both born here in Kalamazoo. No big deal, right?  Costs a little money, but I can borrow it.  Nooooo problem.

And then I’m sitting here drinking my coffee trying to wake up and see this headline:

“Most Michigan state offices closed Friday.”

So now it’ll be MONDAY before I can start working.  And I’m completely broke.  I mean, I’ll eat and all…but still. 

*headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk* *headdesk*

What a pain in the ass.  And of course the drone at SecState never once bothered to mention this yesterday when I was at the office, when she told me to ‘come back tomorrow.’  A weekend’s wages shot in the head, to the tune of at least a couple hundred bucks.

Good thing I’ve got all this money to spare, right?

I have to admit that even from an objective standpoint this doesn’t make much sense.  I mean, I can understand shutting down some non-essential, non-income-generating services.  Welfare offices typically don’t get much of anything accomplished on a Friday (believe me, I know).  The Governor’s office or the state legislature, I could see taking a long weekend.  They don’t generate any income.  They are overhead.  The f’n DMV is one of the very few things a state does that, consistently and without regard to economy, generates income – everyone needs a driver’s license and license plates, regardless of the economy (conceded that they may see a dropoff in vehicle registrations in a recession, but still…).  Plus they collect the sales/property taxes on vehicle registrations. 

So how does shutting down one of the few state programs that actually earns money…save money?

Crap.  So it’s another three, four days now until I can start working.  Which means an additional three, four days until I can get enough essentials assembled (including cash) to get the hell out of here and back into my own place for once.

Some days it’s just not worth the effort to chew through the leather straps.