Traffic court and serendipitous encounters
One day back in April, I was rushing to meet up with M and the boys at Detweiler Park after a long day at work. What better recipe for de-stressing than a spring evening walk with my lovely family, the falling sunlight filtering through the young green of newly opened leaf buds? In my haste, however, I was stopped for speeding by a crusty old park district police officer on my way down that steep windy hill that leads from Knoxville Ave into the park. Unfortunately for me (and our checking account), I couldn't find my wallet when I left for work that morning, so I didn't have my license on me - nor could I find the current proof of insurance card in the glove box. (Symptomatic of the underlying, systemic disorder in our lives, to be sure.) The old one was there, and I offered to call my insurance agent on my cell to have him verify current coverage; but the officer said gruffly, "I don't do that," and instead wrote me three tickets.
Multiple tickets require a mandatory court appearance; however, I failed to put the court date on my work calendar... that morning ended up filling with meetings, and I didn't realize until after lunch that I had made another boo-boo. The tickets turned into convictions plus $1000 in fines and a suspended registration for driving without insurance. Hooray.
So I took a personal half-day last Wednesday to go to traffic court to overturn the convictions. Traffic court was a new experience for me; in fact, I don't think I've ever been in a courtroom before. In the end, I only paid $122 for the speeding ticket plus court fees, and the no-insurance and no-license convictions were vacated. But the dispositions would take 4 weeks to process, during which time I would be driving on a suspended registration, which itself carries a $1000 fine. Ha. So I ask, what are my options? Well, the prosecutor told me, I could a) not drive for a month, or I could b) handcarry the dispositions down to Springfield and file them myself. Or I could c) take the chance of driving on a suspended registration, but he wasn't going to advise me to do that. No kidding.
So the personal half-day turned into a full day as I drove down to Springfield, essentially volunteering as the Circuit Clerk's new office mailboy, and hand delivered the dispositions. And I am now, once again, a legítimo driver.
Actually, though, I had a great day. In line at the cashier, I met Guillermo, this migrant worker guy from Jalisco who was being helped through the court system by a volunteers from Catholic Charities of Peoria. We got to talking about Guadalajara, and his family, and mine, and the pinche federales in Mexico City, etc. He had to pay a $140 fine, and I felt moved to pay it for him. He asked me why, and I said that in the three years I spent in Mexico, I was for the most part received very well, and it's only fitting for me to extend him a similar hospitality. So he says he'll mow my lawn for me for free (I guess he must work in lawncare/landscaping), and I say why don't you just come over for dinner instead? At which point another CC volunteer shows up and says I look very familiar, and am I part of the Cat Latino Connection, etc. (No.) After a round of twenty questions, we figure out that we were standing near each other in line to get into Cinco de Mayo two weeks ago, and she remembered me because I was this tall Chinese guy speaking Spanish with the staff. And it turns out that she is the Hispanic Outreach Coordinator for Catholic Charities, which is really exciting for me, because I've been wanting to get involved with some kind of Hispanic ministry since we moved here, but haven't met the right people. Until now.
Multiple tickets require a mandatory court appearance; however, I failed to put the court date on my work calendar... that morning ended up filling with meetings, and I didn't realize until after lunch that I had made another boo-boo. The tickets turned into convictions plus $1000 in fines and a suspended registration for driving without insurance. Hooray.
So I took a personal half-day last Wednesday to go to traffic court to overturn the convictions. Traffic court was a new experience for me; in fact, I don't think I've ever been in a courtroom before. In the end, I only paid $122 for the speeding ticket plus court fees, and the no-insurance and no-license convictions were vacated. But the dispositions would take 4 weeks to process, during which time I would be driving on a suspended registration, which itself carries a $1000 fine. Ha. So I ask, what are my options? Well, the prosecutor told me, I could a) not drive for a month, or I could b) handcarry the dispositions down to Springfield and file them myself. Or I could c) take the chance of driving on a suspended registration, but he wasn't going to advise me to do that. No kidding.
So the personal half-day turned into a full day as I drove down to Springfield, essentially volunteering as the Circuit Clerk's new office mailboy, and hand delivered the dispositions. And I am now, once again, a legítimo driver.
Actually, though, I had a great day. In line at the cashier, I met Guillermo, this migrant worker guy from Jalisco who was being helped through the court system by a volunteers from Catholic Charities of Peoria. We got to talking about Guadalajara, and his family, and mine, and the pinche federales in Mexico City, etc. He had to pay a $140 fine, and I felt moved to pay it for him. He asked me why, and I said that in the three years I spent in Mexico, I was for the most part received very well, and it's only fitting for me to extend him a similar hospitality. So he says he'll mow my lawn for me for free (I guess he must work in lawncare/landscaping), and I say why don't you just come over for dinner instead? At which point another CC volunteer shows up and says I look very familiar, and am I part of the Cat Latino Connection, etc. (No.) After a round of twenty questions, we figure out that we were standing near each other in line to get into Cinco de Mayo two weeks ago, and she remembered me because I was this tall Chinese guy speaking Spanish with the staff. And it turns out that she is the Hispanic Outreach Coordinator for Catholic Charities, which is really exciting for me, because I've been wanting to get involved with some kind of Hispanic ministry since we moved here, but haven't met the right people. Until now.