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yesterday, i finally declared myself sufficiently settled in and rested to go to the local branch of my old temp agency to get my files transferred up. after an hour and a half of fooling with them, router and internet are up and working, so i printed off driving directions from yahoo maps. i can more or less find my way around west knoxville these days, but the university and further east is a mystery. downtown, where i was headed, is just scary.
i head out around 3 p.m., it's about 15 miles so that should be plenty before closing, right? oh no, the interstate exit doesn't let off on the street yahoo claims it does. with my infamous sense of direction, i proceed to get lost for about an hour and a half. halfway back to my place on middlebrook before i find a suitable turn-around, the all over the old city, somewhat out of the old city, back in, finally into what's formally considered downtown... leading to a grand climax of seeing the street i was looking for. and turning onto it. followed directly by a cop. and slowly, slowly, in slow-motion, the knowledge seeps in. it's a one-way street. the cars on both sides are parked the same direction. the opposite direction from that in which my car is travelling. and there are pretty blue lights in my rearview. oops.
and that, my friends, is how i got my first-ever traffic citation. i was able to point to just where the hell i thought i was going, right there a block in front of me. and to add further incompetence and idiocy, i managed to hand the cop two different insurance cards: one for 2002, the other for 2003. as long as i show up to traffic court with a valid one, they'll probably dismiss it as a warning and keep my record clean.
by this time it was 4:30... and despite being within a block of manpower, flustration (yes, i know i'm making up a word, but i like it) led to total defeat and retreat back home.
the happy ending: today, it only took ten minutes to find the place. and when i finally got there, despite looking very not-busy, they told me to come back monday. by the end of next week, i should be an expert.
i head out around 3 p.m., it's about 15 miles so that should be plenty before closing, right? oh no, the interstate exit doesn't let off on the street yahoo claims it does. with my infamous sense of direction, i proceed to get lost for about an hour and a half. halfway back to my place on middlebrook before i find a suitable turn-around, the all over the old city, somewhat out of the old city, back in, finally into what's formally considered downtown... leading to a grand climax of seeing the street i was looking for. and turning onto it. followed directly by a cop. and slowly, slowly, in slow-motion, the knowledge seeps in. it's a one-way street. the cars on both sides are parked the same direction. the opposite direction from that in which my car is travelling. and there are pretty blue lights in my rearview. oops.
and that, my friends, is how i got my first-ever traffic citation. i was able to point to just where the hell i thought i was going, right there a block in front of me. and to add further incompetence and idiocy, i managed to hand the cop two different insurance cards: one for 2002, the other for 2003. as long as i show up to traffic court with a valid one, they'll probably dismiss it as a warning and keep my record clean.
by this time it was 4:30... and despite being within a block of manpower, flustration (yes, i know i'm making up a word, but i like it) led to total defeat and retreat back home.
the happy ending: today, it only took ten minutes to find the place. and when i finally got there, despite looking very not-busy, they told me to come back monday. by the end of next week, i should be an expert.
