I lost my state ID on my birthday. The last place I had it was at Vaccaro's when I had to show it to the waiter to prove it was my birthday (complimentary dessert). It goes without saying that I contacted the restaurant, but the staff did not find it there. So I spent about an hour and forty minutes yesterday just waiting on line at the MVA to get a new one. I want you, gentle reader, to bear in mind that almost everyone except me was getting there getting his or her liscense renewed, and leaving with their spiffy new MD state-designed card. As expected. Of the four or five times I've needed to have state IDs issued to me, I have always gotten the card on the day of the transaction.

I was told my card, which was processed effortlessly enough, would need to be mailed to me. I politely challenged the concept, saying that A) people were leaving with drivers licences, and B) I am flying on Wednesday and could not do so without proof of identification. Essentially, I was told that if I could come back on Monday morning (when it would be mailed out to me) and show my flight itinerary it would be given to me then. So that's what I'm doing. Proving I'm getting on a plane so that the MVA can give me a state ID card that I held in my hand before I left on Saturday afternoon to verify the spelling of all my personal information.

Bina and I came home and ate an old shool mixed with a somewhat new school vibe lunch. We had bologna and cheese sandwiches with creamy couscous with oranges and nuts on the side. We finished up with delicious and sharply tart key lime pie. I cleaned up after us, then sat on the couch to read the awesome book Bina gave me for my birthday Baltimore Transitions, a photo retrospective of the city's evolution.

I was expecting Jim, my mother's good friend, to come pick me up to spirit me to my mom's house to collect her and my sister for birthday celebration part III (I had a girls' night with Sarah, Victoria, and Marge on Friday night). We went out to dinner at a lovely Chinese food buffet, and then to see a community theatre presentation of "Annie," which was delightfully rendered. We wrapped up our evening at some truck stop in Anne Arundel county where the coffee was weak and the pie freezerburned, but even that was lovely somehow.

I returned to Baltimore a little after midnight and watched the balance of a "La Femme Nikita" episode with Sarah and Michael, then went to sleep, still feeling that something sinister is afoot at the MVA.