In the Interest of Justice

It seems as thought today is a big blogging day.  Every day I have a list of about 21 blogs that I check at random times in the hopes that someone will have blogged.  treymorgan.net is pretty much the only one I can count on, on a daily basis.  But today while I had an extra few minutes between classes I was looking around, and to my surprise lots of people had blogged.  There must be something in the air!  I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon and post one as well, seeing as I haven't in a while and all!

The title of my blog; no sweeter word have been heard when it comes to a speeding ticket, I would know, I got one, and I heard these wonderful words!  I was the not so happy recipient of a speeding ticket on December 14h, the start of a lovely day, I had only gotten maybe 2 hours of sleep the night before and I was already running late to work.  The police officer pulled me over claiming I was going 42 in a 35 zone which was really a 25 zone because it was a school zone.  I; not being skilled in talking myself out of tickets, and not having time or mental cognition to argue with him took the yellow slip of paper and headed off to work to process the events later.  Upon gaining mental clarity, I decided there was no way possible I could have been going that fast, I'll admit that I was going faster than the alloted school zone speed, but no way was I willing to accept that I was going 42.

So I get the notice in the mail that my court date is set for Feb. 4th if I want to go before a judge, or I could just send a check in the amount of $172 before that date to pay the ticket.  Well there's no way I was going to just write a check, I can't afford to part with that amount of money in my current situation, so I decided I'd "take on the man."  Two weeks ago while reading over the information they mailed me, and trying to figure out how to make it up to Placerville for court and back down to Sac for school without missing class in the first two weeks, I stumbled upon the fact that you can go in any Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday before your scheduled date to appear before the Judge.  I decided to take them up on the offer, and headed in last Wednesday morning.

I got to court in plenty of time, and in fact if anyone was late it was the Judge, he came into the room probably about 10 minutes late!  He seemed like a pretty nice guy, and was very easy going on the people who went before me.  Then my name was called.  Even if you've never gotten a ticket, you know that feeling, a little nervous, a little scared, a little bit of everything.  Oh, going in I had planned to plead not guilty, but upon hearing the different charges and realizing that if I plead not guilty there would have to be a separate court date set, I decided the best thing to do was go for a guilty with explanation and see what happened from there.

So, I go up to plead my case, and as I start to explain how I understand and am willing to admit I was speeding for the school zone, I don't believe I was going as fast as the officer said I was going for either the regular zone or the school zone.  So I was either making things very confusing, or he just didn't want to hear me talk, but he asked for my copy of the ticket.  Thank goodness I grabbed it and put it by my purse the night before!  I showed him and it took him maybe 5 seconds to glance over it and say "Case Dismissed;"yes, victory over "the man."  Later when I was looking over the paperwork I noticed that the box he checked under the dismissed section was "in the interest of justice."  And never have I felt 5 words fit a situation so well!  As I left the building and called my mom, the first words out of her mouth were; "did you stick it to the man" and I said "yes!!"

I'm still reliving the moment of excitement a week later.  And it was such a big triumph in my eyes that it was worthy of sharing, I just hadn't gotten around to it yet.  Not only did I "stick it to the man" but I also saved a lot of money and so here again is another master-card commercial:

Speeding ticket -$172

Paying the court for the option to take traffic school -$49

Traffic school -$20ish

Sticking it to the man and not paying any of that -Priceless!