I got a fix-it ticket late tonight while driving up Page Mill Road. Apparently, I've been driving around with a burned out tail light. I'll get it fixed but really, how was I to know the status of my car's tail light since there's no way I can be behind my car when I'm the one driving it?
Anyhow, that's beside the point. The lesson I took away from my little incident with the officer is that I have too much CRAP in my wallet and glove compartment.
Like most people, I keep my car insurance card and my vehicle registation card together in the glove compartment. But in the darkness and in the andrenaline feuld stress of the moment, I did not remember that my car has TWO glove compartments. I use one for maps and one for important documents. I searched in vain through the maps, perplexed that I could not produce the documents.
My car, you see, is neat as a pin. Well, almost.
My wallet and the glove compartment I'd designated for maps are complete mess.
After 15 minutes of searching around, I did discover a second copy of my car insurance in my wallet - whew.
But the vehicle registration and the first copy of the car insurance did not make their appearance until I pulled into my garage and noticed the second glove compartment. Everything was there, organized and complete. If it had been daylight, I'm sure I would have seen it.
The officer cited me for a broken rear tail light and a missing vehicle registration. I need to fix the tail light and produce the registration form in court, in order to have my citation dismissed. I'm not sure if I have to pay any fees.
See, I'm not into clutter. I hate it. I move things out of my house and I strive to keep everything tidy. I love to organize!
But my wallet, my so-roomy-that-I-forget-what's-in-it Hobo wallet - for shame. And my map glove compartment contained not one but three Bed, Bath and Beyond coupons and as you all know, those stupid coupons are enormous and bulky. I could never close the glove compartment because those Bed, Bath coupons kept getting in the way.
So I tossed them all, along with:
Store Loyalty Cards (Not sure how I amassed so many (10?), since I never use them)
Coffee filter coupons (5 in all, which came with my coffee maker)
Expired museum cards
Cash receipts for incidentals
Yoga studio brochure
Crumpled band-aids
Crumpled alcohol pads for first aid
Blogger cards from bloggers who I already follow online
Several coupons for free coffee at the Johnny Applesee Cafe in Fairyland
And random other pieces of meaningless papers
On and on... it was such a mess that the officer decided to go back to his car and wait for me to sift through wallet until I found my registration.
So from this day forward I vow (again) that I will not carry any store loyalty cards in my wallet except my Bi-Rite card. That one stays.
This is an original post to Chalk and Cheese Chronicles. Akemi loves retailers who let her flash digital coupons on her phone and she loves when retailers can just look her up in a customer database.
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