Speeding Ticket . . .

In the 17+ years I have been driving (uh-oh I just revealed my age) I have only been pulled over 4 times and only gotten a ticket twice. The first ticket I got was a speeding ticket in Tucson, Arizona, nine years ago, as a result of a speed trap--motorcyle officers were working as a team to pull over as many cars as they could and give them tickets. This happened just 6 weeks before I graduated from law school and 8 weeks before our wedding. I didn't really have time to go to traffic school, but I made time, shelled out the $40 for the ticket and $10 to take the class and it was behind me in a few weeks. The second time was LAST NIGHT--again as a result of a speed trap. This time I was driving home from our church building at about 7:45 at night with all three of my kids in the van. (For those of you that are local, it was just after I crossed over the toll road and about to enter the neighborhood. And I guess I should have been warned because I had seen an officer on the south side of the toll road pulling people over.) I knew the speed limit changed there, but I thought it was closer to the neighborhood that it changed--apparently not! Anyway, he was standing on the corner (on foot) with his radar gun and pulled me over by waving me off the road. He said I was going 13 mph over the speed limit (I didn't think I was going quite that fast), which means the ticket is $175. Yes ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE dollars. That seems a ridiculous amount of money for a speeding ticket to me, but I guess the fair city just to the south of the one I live in decided it was a good way for them to make some money.

For some unfair reason, my husband always seems to talk his way out of speeding tickets. I have been with him twice when he got pulled over for speeding. Once in Tucson, Arizona (do I sense a theme) where he proceeded to tell the officer he was speeding because "you were pushing me pretty hard" meaning that because the officer was following him so closely he HAD to speed on the two-lane road. The officer didn't give him a ticket (which was really fortunate since we were on our way to our niece's baby blessing and would have missed it if we had to wait for the officer to write a ticket--and both my mother-in-law, who was in the car with us, and I were shocked that the officer let him get away with talking like that.) The other time (late at night in Northern Arizona) after the officer pulled us over and asked us where we were going and Jim told him we were going to my grandpa's funeral, he didn't get a ticket.

I don't think I could have talked my way out of this ticket. Despite the fact that I had three properly seatbelted kids, I was cooperative, Joey started screaming while we were waiting for him to fill out the ticket, and he did ask me where I worked and I told him I was an attorney (I guess I could have told him I represent police officers, but I don't know if that would have helped either), I think he was going to give me a ticket no matter what because it was a speed trap (AGAIN) and his job was to sit there and give ticket and not be sympathetic! So, I guess traffic school is in my future (although I just learned from a neighbor that you can watch DVDs from home and take a test on-line to complete traffic school).

Although this speeding ticket did ruin my day, it is nothing compared to what happened to my dad on Monday morning when he went to get his semi-truck (the one he drives to make a living) and discovered it had been stolen. (For more details on that you can read my sister-in-law's blog post here.) So a speeding ticket was really nothing in the grand scheme of things!