Bad Court/Good Court

Here is a picture of the PGN window. The message says it all: No cases are being released.

Rumor in the blog world is that PGN is reviewing all cases in their office. First: cases will be those signed and ready for release. Next: cases that were awaiting signatures. Then: cases on the second reviewer’s desk. (All second reviewers are attorneys. All second reviewers have been fired.) From there, PGN will continue to work through cases.

There is some speculation that this preliminary review may take a month. Others hope for a quicker turn-around time. But everyone agrees: there will be delays.

Bad PGN Court. Bad!

Here is a picture of Gracie tearing up a ticket. I received it about a month ago for forgetting to renew my license tabs. I forgot to renew my tabs because I never got the renewal reminder notice. I never got the reminder notice because we moved and my address was never changed by the department of licenses. I registered my change of address with them two years ago.

I decided to take this ticket to court and beg for mercy. The fine was $105 and in addition to the cost of the license tabs.

I had my case prepared. Be humble; accept responsibility; demonstrate good faith effort to comply with the rules; parade out my excellent driving record and lack of a criminal record. (I have the notarized, validated, authenticated dossier documents to prove it!) Finally, I planned to beg for leniency while pointing out the challenges of a single-income family. The final prong of my court strategy was to bring my daughter. I resisted the temptation to smudge dirt on her face to make her look like a pathetic urchin.

I knew things were looking up when the first thing the judge said was: “Oh! What beautiful hair! Is that naturally curly hair like Sally in Charlie Brown*? Oh! My wife would love to see this. She would love hair like that!”** Sixty seconds later, after a gentle chiding: (“our notices are only a courtesy – it is your responsibility to keep your license plates current...”) my fine was waved, we learned that Grace and the judge’s grandmother share a birthday, and Gracie was ushered out with a lolly-pop and an invitation to come back and visit any time.

After the ordeals we’ve been through with the Guatemalan court system lately, I almost wept at this man’s kindness and understanding.

Good Traffic court. Good!

*It’s actually Frieda who has the naturally curly hair in Charlie Brown, but there was no way I was going to point this out!

**Although I did have a pleasant flashback to my toddler days when I heard the same thing, he was of course talking about Grace’s hair.

P.S. Thank you for your kind words, meaningful prayers, hugs, e-mails, and comments. They are boosting me up!