Deadliest Catch

Since I received a citation from a St Johns County Sheriff for speeding, I had to take a basic driving improvement exam to prevent points going on to my record. Well, I passed!!! It took, what seemed forever, four required hours online. The cost is kind of ridiculous, but if had not been speeding, I would have saved myself some money and the headache of all of this crap, right?

Moral to this story: Lead foot on the accelerator=hefty pay out to the law enforcement of your choice. I do not recommend it!!! Especially, if you have a suspended license in the state of Florida.

Here is the kicker, I had no idea that my license was suspended. That was a nasty way to find out. (When I moved to NC, I surrendered my Florida driver license. So, I have an active license in the state of North Carolina.) If the Easter bunny has a naughty list, I must had been on it, because I got the tickets on Easter. Ironically, if my husband was not with me with a valid license, I would have went to the "crowbar hotel" of St Johns county. This hotel is not in "my wonderful places to stay" list.

The deputy that pulled me over told me that I can drive anywhere, but in the state of Florida. (At least she was nice to me--not to my hubby though.) The irony is that I have moved back now living in the state of Florida. So, I have to correct the mishap here and get my FL license back. My old license from here had an awesome photo, too. :-) I miss driving my Tiburon!!!! (Her name is Tibbi and she is part of the reason I got pulled over: black and chrome colored, sports car--tuner, with loud music playing--almost always, has all the extras, dark tinted windows--as dark as the law allows, law enforcement attention getter--appearently.) I am on my way to getting that license back within the next thirty days, I pray!!!

I received three tickets that day. I have not had a speeding ticket in 18 years or any moving violations in 17 years and my license had "safe driver" on it. I am a great driver and I drive very defensively. Yes, I was speeding that day. But, the lady cop told me that I was doing 57 in a 35 mph zone. (I looked down at my speedometer whe I seen the sheriff's car on the wrong side of the road.) Wrong. The posted speed limit was 45 mph. I got off with a ticket that showed 10 mph over. However, at the top of my citation, she scribbled 57/35. That still ticks me off. Then, on top of that, I didn't have the right insurance card with me. Basically, the Easter Bunny brought me $500.00 worth of debts to St. Johns County, Florida. That sucked!

Here is my Holiday Horrendousness list:

2008, St. Patrick's Day--St. Johns County had a warrant for my arrest for a worthless check, I went to jail, courtesy of my exhusband. I had no idea that there was an unpaid check out there from Publix. I found out that daythat there was one! This was the cause of my current license suspension. (I didn't pay all of the court fees by the due date, of which I am still paying today.) Maybe, should have been wearing green, like I normally do on St. Patty's Day. Afterall, I am 75% Irish! I have never been to jail prior to this. However, this arrest got me to the booking department and that was it. I got out of there pretty fast! Never made it to the jail itself. Thank God!! I am morbidly scraed of going to jail. No Freedom, No Way!!! I faithfully pay my taxes, obey the law (except speeding on that day), basically try to be a model citizen. But, sometimes, life has other plans!

1997, Memorial Day, got pulled over for supposed speeding (I wasn't that time) and got a seat belt ticket. Back then, the officer had to have a reason to pull you over, other than not wearing seatbelts. Now, according to the exam I took today, they can pull you over for that and so many other reasons. If your vehicle appears or is suspected to be unsafe, they can pull you over and issue you a ticket and/or cause you to park your vehicle until it is up to safe standards.

1993, Valentine's Day, got in a wreck and was found my fault-I hit the other truck in the rear end, even though he had no running, parking, brake, or any lights at all on his rear end of his truck. It is automatically your fault in Florida. There is no way to prove there were no lights working after the crash and they assume that you were following too closely. I was not following that closely and he kept slowing down and speeding up for over two miles while I was behind him. I could not pass him, because for the traffic in the other lane. Moral for this one: do not follow closely, in the least, to the rear of another vehicle; instead of hitting the vehicle in the butt, sideswipe them or another vehicle (the state trooper told me this!).

1991, Halloween, got a speeding ticket because the cop could not get with a fix-it ticket (I fixed my tail lights). What a wiener!

The moral to this story: I am staying at home on holidays from now on!

Attention Florida drivers: if you run a red light or a stop sign, be prepared to pay out the yin yang and mandatorily go to driver school. The law just went into effect this year. Do not be in a hurry and end up paying for it!