I haven't gotten a traffic ticket since 1985. That run of luck ended this morning. I was driving out to Wolf Trap to pick up tickets for two more concerts the boyfriend and I decided to go to. On the way home, I decided to take the toll road and pay the 50 cents instead of winding through the neighborhood streets at 25 miles per hour. Everything was going fine until I paid my toll. Just as I was pulling away from the booth I heard a knock on my window. I was a bit surprised. I rolled down the window and saw a state trooper at my window.

Unfortunately I had the earphones to my iPod in my ears. The first thing he asked was if I had earphones in my ears. I said yes. Mistake number one. He asked me to pull over to the left side of the road. I did. He then came to the window and informed me that it was illegal to have earphones in your ears while driving. He then told me that my state inspection had expired. I was shocked by this but sure enough, I looked over and saw it was two months past due. Damn!

He then told me he was going to write me TWO citations. One for the earphones and one for the expired inspection. I was so mad at myself at this point. How could I have not noticed my inspection was due two months ago? What was I thinking? I'm usually really on top of things like that. So he came back to the car with the two tickets. I signed them and he informed me that one could be paid through the mail but for the other one I have to go to court. He said I might be able to pay for it through the mail but that he rarely gives out a ticket for driving with earphones that he's not sure. He then told me to drive safely and I left.

I drove right to the nearest gas station and got my state inspection. When I got home I checked online about paying by mail because I did not want to go to court for wearing earphones while driving. As it turns out I CAN pay that one through the mail as well.

So what I thought was going to be a simple 50 cents to save some time ended up costing me $128 and more than an hour of my time.

Is this Friday the 13th?