Beginnings and Renewals

So I'm beginning a brand spanking new blog, inspired by my sister, who has an unnatural gift for reporting on the everyday with wit and insight. Hope to follow in her footsteps...
Anyway, as the name implies, I am a nurse at a largish hospital on Vancouver Island. Due to confidentiality, I cannot reveal my name or the name of the hospital, especially since I anticipate bitching repeatedly about some of the patients I may have. If you are a close relative, or worse, a co-worker, I hope you will respect my request to help maintain this confidentiality. This does not mean you should not post a comment; by all means, please let me know what you think, even if it's "you suck!" Just keep it general.
I thought I would start my blog with the funniest story I have this week. I went to ICBC to renew my driver's license, as I haven't obtained a new license since I was married almost a year and a half ago. For all those gasping in horror, I have to confess that my only excuses were sheer laziness, coupled with a lack of enthusiasm for obtaining a bad picture that nobody would see, since I have long passed the age where I get ID'd at the liquor store. But I digress...
I showed up at the Driver Services Centre, after careful makeup and wardrobe planning. I was worried about a particularly large blemish on the left side of my face, but I reasoned that the license picture is usually sketchy enough that it might not even show. I walked up to the counter, produced my old license, my marriage certificate, and even my passport, and crossed my fingers that the woman behind the counter wouldn't ask, "Why did you wait so long to get your license renewed?" Instead, she informed me that my license had been cancelled A YEAR AGO. Apparently, because I had a class 4 license, and not the standard class 5 license, I was required to have a medical exam every few years. ICBC had sent a reminder to the address on my license (about 4 years old itself), and, after hearing nothing from yours truly, cancelled the license.
I was too stunned at the time to ponder how the hell I was able to PURCHASE A BRAND NEW CAR without a valid license; instead I wondered whether I was going to jail for driving for a year license-free and how many hundred of dollars it would cost to get a new license. Turns out that it was actually cheaper to get my new license, since I only get it for two years instead of the usual five. The woman was surprisingly nice about the whole incident, and we even had a laugh about the fact that I must be a good driver, since most people find out their license expired when they get pulled over.
So, I am now the proud owner of a yellow sheet of paper saying I have a class 5 license (no medical exams, please), and I get to wait for that happy day when I get my new plastic license in the mail. The day when I get to say, incredulously, "Oh crap, is that what I look like?" I can't wait.