More about Ben

I dragged the boy over when he got home from work on Thursday to the DPS office to get him a state I.D. card so we can open a checking account for him. He's working at G.E. again and we haven't done driver's education yet, so the bank won't open an account without a state issued identification card.

I took the same "proofs" I used to get Jessica her I.D. card which then served as proof for her drivers license.

They would not accept the "birth certificate" document I had. So I asked to speak to the person who told the clerk it was not acceptable. That turned out to be a state trooper. He showed me a form of what was acceptable and I pointed to the wording and then the wording on our certificate and asked him to please explain why it didn't match the criteria. He said it didn't. I said can you explain why? He said I was raising my voice and people were looking.

Of course they are looking. They are bored to tears waiting in line at the DPS office and here is built in entertainment for them! I wanted an explanation and he wasn't providing one. I told him I used the same document with my daughter to get her drivers license and why wasn't it acceptable now? He said "I got lucky" when I used it for her.

Ben's wanting the floor to swallow him at this point.

I again said "I read this to say such and such, the certificate says such and such, how can it not be acceptable?" He finally answered my question.

Why couldn't he have done that in the first place? I obviously needed to see how impatient I was. In hindsight I realized it was a blessing. I thought all these years I had copies of the kids birth certificates and I didn't. The line wasn't long when we got to the office and so I found out rather quickly, also.

I found the web site for Maryland vital records and paid the fee and ordered a certified copy of Ben's birth certificate. I'll get Jess's and Nick's soon, also.

Ben says he's not going back again.