My Rant about the DMV

Let me just start by saying that I know most of these people work hard, and try to do their job right. Today I went to the DMV to get my Virginia License and to get plates for my car. This is something we did a month or so for my husbands, but we hadn't done mine yet. Now getting a title and registration in Minnesota was easy. Getting a license there was a whole other fiasco. Needles to say in Minnesota I went to the DMV twice and still didn't leave with a license. In Minnesota they mail your license to you. It took me over two months and several phone calls for it to finally arrive in my mailbox. Their reason for not giving it to you the day you pay for it, well it is this special new security feature. Frankly I couldn't find it. It had micro printing and a bar code and a hologram just like my Oregon license. Oh well! Anyhow in Minnesota they wanted my birth certificate and my official registrar stamped marriage license, not the fancy one. I of course didn't have it, and when I mentioned it to my friends and family none of them had theirs either. I ask if they would take my Social Security card as I had to have a copy of my marriage license to get it. They said no as it isn't a form of ID(what?) and doesn't show the progression of my name. Whatever! Anyone so now here we are in Virginia. The first time we went to the DMV to register my husbands car we didn't plan on getting our license so we didn't have our birth certificates. We expected to have to take a written test. This was not the case. They told us, after we ask what we would need, we needed birth certificate, proof of our address, and the marriage license for me. So when we went back to do our license, that is what we brought,.....But no we needed our social security card or at least something official that shows our number and name, like a W2. Well fortunately we had my husbands W-2's in the car, but as I don't work outside the home, I was outa luck. How strange we weren't told we needed them, and stranger still, I was told at one point not to carry my card as it wasn't ID. Hmmm..., well then what is it? So here we are at today. I got everything together. Had some trouble finding the marriage license, but left for the DMV. Waited about an hour and when we got to the desk, I had forgotten the title to the car. I was told it couldn't be registered without. Well why not, we didn't have the title to my husband, just the registration and they registered it. I was told they shouldn't have because it is hard to get a title in VA if you have lost it. What? All you have to do is a lost title search with the VIN. How stupid do these people think I am? Anyhow now I have to go back with the title tomorrow as my Minnesota plates expire tomorrow. So now on to the license. She takes the paperwork I give her, doesn't even look at the marriage license and gives me a new license. Now I am really irritated. Why have rules and regulations, and policies if you can pick and choose which ones you are going to follow? My husband said I pissed the lady off and she was going to put me to the bottom of the picture taking pile. Maybe she did, we were there a while longer. I guess having lived in 3 states in 3 years and having to jump through each states hoops, makes me wish that we could all decide on what is needed and then follow through with it. And if a Social Security card isn't ID, stop asking me for my number on every little form I fill out. That's all for now, Miki