I have a story to tell you, and I'm curious if anything like this has ever happened to you.

I recently got a letter from the Department of Motor Vehicles, saying it's time to renew my driver's license.

This is a letter that no one looks forward to receiving.

In many places, the DMV is famously hard to deal with.

Long lines, confusing protocols, etc., etc. But as I read the letter, I see there is a loophole

that if you are a member of AAA, the American Automobile Association, which I happen to be,

then you can renew your license at their office

and even better. You can set up an appointment ahead of time. That was exciting. So I made my

appointment online, put it in my calendar, got all my documents together, and I showed up on the

right day, the right time, and found, to my surprise, a long line of

people waiting for what looked to be just two or three clerks.

I asked a couple of people online what time their appointments were for, and they said they

didn't have appointments.

They had just walked in.

And so I, being an optimist, I thought maybe there's a separate line for appointments.

So I asked around and one helpful AAA employee told me that, no, the line is the line, is how he put it.

And how long do you think that line will take? I asked.

Oh, probably just two hours, maybe three, he said. I had pictured myself buzzing in with

my appointment, being done in 15 minutes, maybe 30, even an hour would have been okay, but two hours

or three, that I could not swing. So the next time you hear about a guy being arrested for

driving with an expired license,

that will be me. What happened at AAA surprised me, especially because after I'd made my appointment,

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