Breakin' the law

I've been telling Jake that we should get our car emissions tested. It's required by law to have emissions tested yearly in Virginia, and our emissions sticker expired back in January. He said, "That's a stupid law...our car is new enough and it's going to pass inspection. Even the lawmakers think it's a stupid law. I read they want to get that changed." Still, I worried a bit about it. People have told me that the police can see your car parked somewhere and give you a ticket if they notice that your emissions sticker is expired. I told Jake I thought it was probably worth it to pay the 15 bucks or whatever to have the car tested so we don't wind up with some big ticket to pay. He insisted that he wasn't going to do it, because he wants to protest the law that he says is "stupid".

Anyway, I was driving to my job interview yesterday when I had to go through a toll booth. There was a cop standing outside at the toll. As I stuck my hand out the window, the cop said to me, "After you pay the toll, I need you to pull over to the side of the road." I thought, "Crap, what the hell did I do? Was I speeding somewhere beforehand?"

The cop walked over to the car and said, "I stopped you because your emissions sticker has been expired for six months." I made myself look pretty clueless. I said, "Oh,um...this is my fiance's car." He said, "I need to see your license and registration." I handed him my license and started digging around in the glove box for the registration. I said, "What does the registration even look like?" He said, "It's a big white card." I really couldn't find the registration in the pile of stuff in the glove box. I found an insurance card and handed it to him saying, "Is this it?" He was like, "No..." He stood there for a while, looking at my Wisconsin driver's license and looking at how stupid I was being. I bet he was thinking I had absolutely no clue. He said, "So...fiance, eh? What does the ring look like?" I showed him my ring. He handed my license and insurance card back to me, rolled his eyes, and said, "All right...just go."

Whew. I'm lucky I'm a girl. If it was Jake going through that toll, he would have been totally nailed. I also don't think it would've worked quite as well if I said, "my husband's car" instead of "my fiance's car". Now that I told Jake this story, we're getting the emissions inspected.