Order in the Court!!

The crack of the gavel thundered through the dark paneled courtroom.  The judge leaned forward in his enormous seat and stared at me.  "Never", he whispered, dangerously quiet.  "Never in all my years of service have I seen a case so despicable."

I shook beneath the weight of his gaze and started to tear up.

"Let the court take note", he continued, his voice slowly growing louder, "that on this day this deplorable criminal finally met her appointment with justice."  Tears rolled down my cheeks and I attempted a backward glance at Michael.

"LOOK ME IN THE EYE!" the judge suddenly boomed, knocking me off my feet.  The spectators gasped.  "Do you not appreciate the significance of what you have done?  Or need I explain further?!"  Crying and sniffling pathetically, I crawled to the base of his podium, and slowly raised clasped hands in a last desperate grasp at mercy.

"Oh no," he chuckled, wicked amusement in his eyes.  "Your record is permanently decimated."  "This atrocity shall haunt your children's children for all eternity.  The verdict is guilty."

I felt my hands being chained behind my back.

"You are hereby sentenced to 60 years in prison.  No parole.  No visitors.  May you rot in your cell and never see the light of day again.  Take her away!"

Before I knew what was happening, two burly officers had forced me to my feet and were pushing me towards the dark paneled door leading to my doom.

Okay, just kidding.

But before I went to the traffic court last July, this is just about how I imagined things would go!

Now let me make it very clear, I was quite innocent.  I wasn't even speeding.  But the fact that I'd never been to court and had never so much as spoken to a police officer (with the exception of my uncle) really set me up for some trauma the day I got pulled over.

I remember the officer approaching the car as I sat frozen with anxiety.  Through my open window he pointed out that I had a burned out brake light.  Had that been the only issue he said would have let me off with a warning, but he also wanted to check our window tint because it looked too dark.  Uh oh.

Virginia is unusually strict about how dark your window tint can be.  We were made aware of this when we moved here and registered our car, but the person doing the inspection told us that they checked the tint and it was fine.  Well, apparently they didn't.  And apparently it wasn't.  Because before knew it, I had been handed a ticket, told the date and time to appear in court, and was left to sob and wail with my forehead on the steering wheel as the officer drove away.

The next month was pretty agonizing as I anticipated my appearance in court.  I felt guilty even though I wasn't.  Every time my mind slowed down, I'd remember what was coming and found it impossible to relax.  It was like a little demon lived in the back of my brain.  I was overwhelmingly anxious about this unknown situation.

But the day before the court date, I had a small revelation.  We were driving back from an overnight camping and hiking trip in the breathtaking Shenandoah National Park.  It was a lovely summer day and the glow of late afternoon was just setting in.  All of a sudden, my teeny little assertive streak came out and I had this thought: "I refuse to let something like this deprive me of my joy today.  I am NOT going to stress any more about tomorrow and I AM going to enjoy this beautiful drive home."

And you know, it worked!

It may not always be that simple.  But in this situation, it worked for me.  To realize that I had more control over my emotions than I thought was extremely empowering.  My resolve coupled with prayer enabled me to have a lovely ride home and a relatively stress-free evening!

Well, the next day finally arrived. Michael and I drove downtown and entered a formidable building in the sketchy part of town known as the Newport News Traffic Court.  We were both nervous enough that we forgot to leave my purse in the car - good thing we were there plenty early so we could run back and stick it in the trunk.  But otherwise emotions and anxiety were pretty well under control. We went through security, and entered a dark paneled room with flags and benches and a high seat for the judge.

It was quite an experience sitting in there.  The judge really chewed out the first person, which scared me to death, but he was surprisingly lenient with some of the other defendants.  We were fascinated by the balance between justice and mercy.  It seemed like the judge went easier on people if the offense was minor and/or the person was obviously willing to accept responsibility for their actions.  That's a whole separate blog post right there.

But anyway, finally it was my turn.  I had a whole spiel rehearsed for when I was asked to give my story, but I hardly had to use any of it.  The only element similar to the nightmare above was that the judge talked a lot more than I did.  I was fine with this, deciding it was best not to speak until spoken to, and to give short, simple answers.  The only thing the judge really asked about was whether we got the light replaced and the tint removed.  I said yes to both, and he asked about how much it cost to get the tint removed.  When I said we removed it ourselves, he asked how.  I allowed myself to smile a little and said that we used a technique found online.  (It involves letting Windex-soaked car windows bake in the sun while being covered with black trash bags...look it up, it's legit).  I think the judge was amused by this and asked to see my receipt.  And that was it.  All was in order, and after a few last words he said I was free to go.

YAAAAAAAAAY!!!!

I felt so incredibly free!  Man what a difference it was not to have something like that weighing on me anymore!

So there you have it folks.  The story of my appearance in court.  Moral of the story: check regularly for burned out brake lights and never trust car registration people.

Actually the real moral of the story is to try not to let anticipation of a negative event spoil the rest of your life.  More often than not it won't be as bad as you think it will be. :)