I have been putting off admitting this, because whenever you get a ticket from a peace officer it’s a drag.  But this…this is so…so…so…  I had my phone on speaker.  My friend  said “I can’t hear you” – so I took it off speaker to tell her I was going to pull over.  Here was my big error.  I kept talking while I turned a corner, turned another corner into a bank parking lot and parked – a matter of about 30 seconds.

Looking in my rear view mirror, the paranoia struck deep as the old song used to say.  What had I done?  Oh duh, I’m STILL talking on the phone.  “Grace, I’m getting a ticket for talking on my cell phone, bye” click.  No mercy from the handsome young cop old enough to be my son and he should be ashamed of himself for picking on an old lady like that.  The worst was I couldn’t seem to find proof of insurance, except my AAA card and a “call anytime” card with the insurance number on it.  He didn’t give me a ticket for that (and now my purse is in chaos from ripping through it looking for something, anything) but I was busted for the cell phone.

I hear the fines are brutal – the DMV site says $20 for first offense $50 for second but guess what, in these days of government needing to suck every dime out of us so they can give money to people who study the effect of Cuddly Dudley on the psyche of American children in the 1960’s, the “add on” fees usually rack the ticket up to over $100.  I’m holding my breath.  Some folks have  paid close to $200.

Cost of Bluetooth: In my case, nothing because I found out Al had an unused one lying around.  Score another point for the importance of communication in a marriage.

Cost of Ticket: Anywhere from $100-$200.

Getting to connect with lovely Grace, who is my massage therapist and with whom I trade massages on a monthly basis (we have been baaaaad about that in recent months) and with whom I scheduled a date after the ticket fiasco: Priceless.