What difference 24 hours makes.

[randomness]

At this time yesterday, I'd just driven down to Connecticut from Boston.
It was going to be a quiet visit with Mom and Dad. I wasn't sure what my
summer plans were going to be, because I had a court appearance I was waiting to hear about, but I was hoping to get away sometime in August.

I arrived and looked at the mail that had piled up while I was away in
California. In the pile of bank statements, bills, and random junk was a
date for the court hearing I'd requested.

Hmmm. 11:10AM, 6-6-03. Somerville. Wait. For a brief moment I thought
I'd missed it already, which would've been annoying. A glance at the
calendar showed that it was *Friday*. Fifteen hours away.

Aw, hell.

So I apologized to Mom and Dad, and drove back north to Boston that night
so I wouldn't have to fight my way through morning traffic to be in time
for my court appearance.

Sometime after midnight, mostly out of curiosity, I decided to check one
last time to see if the fare to Europe I was unable to buy on Tuesday
(because I didn't want to leave with the case still unresolved)
might still be available. I wasn't very hopeful because most of the seats were already gone then.

It was!

After a lot of flailing around (and losing two better departure dates
while I was trying to reserve), I managed to get a couple of flights at
$178 round-trip. Yay!

Later that morning I went to court. Time passed while I waited for my
case. I spent most of it observing the odd assortment of people,
overhearing courthouse converation ("Listen, 'just driving around and
hanging out' is not going to cut it when you talk to the judge, okay?"),
and trying to stay awake.

When I finally did go in, it was over in two minutes. I didn't realize
they were dropping the charges until after they had done so.

Court officer: "I'm willing to waive this if there's no objection."

Police officer: "No objection."

And that was that. The clerk handed me my receipt, and I was free to go,
with smiles all around.

Wheee!

(Now all I need to do is get some sleep.)

Comments

[irielle.livejournal.com]

Congrats on the excellent tickets to Europe! Where are you thinking about visiting?

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Thanks! One of the reasons I'm particularly happy to have gotten these tickets is that I told a friend I would try to see her while she's in Florence this summer. Now I can.

There are a number of countries in Europe I haven't been to yet, but they are inconveniently located at the fringes (Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Cyprus, Turkey, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine) so I'm not sure I'll get to go to anywhere I haven't been to yet, which is what I like to try to do. I may just be social this time and visit people. Dunno yet; still too stunned (speed of events as well as lack of sleep) to have done any real planning for this trip.

[agrimony.livejournal.com]

Are your parents south of CT now? If not, you take a /really/ round about route to Boston if it takes you 15 hours. :) :)

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

*grin*

You're right. I should have come up with another way to say "15 hours from that time" that was less easily confused with distance yet less awkward sounding. Unfortunately, I'm *still* too sleepy to come up with anything. :)

[tla]

I'm glad they waived the ticket that easily. Did you actually have to say anything?

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

All I said was "I didn't think I was going 42," which was true, as I believed I wasn't going that fast at the time, and I still do. It was more to have something to say rather than an actual defense, as the court officer then went through the drill with the police officer to verify that the officer who had pulled me over had calibrated the radar gun, was checked out on the equipment, etc. But I figured saying something that was true was better than not saying anything at all.

In any case, I got the impression that they were looking for a reason to reduce the fine, or (as it turned out) to toss it out entirely.

I talked to a lawyer before I went in--yay, Lawyer Referral Service--and he said you should always go in and try because you might get somewhere if you do, whereas if you don't you're sure not to. (As a bonus, he didn't charge for his phone consultation.)