A Mix of Characters

Friday was an odd day in terms of "characters."   We started the day by going back to the DMV so I could re-take my drivers test.   I passed this time and will soon be a card carrying North Carolinian.  As you walk into the DMV, there is an empty desk and a sign that says basically, "stand here and someone will come and help you."  When they come over to assist you, they give you a numbered ticket that tells you when it's your turn.   To the side of the empty desk are chairs.  It was surprising to see how many people just sat in the chairs waiting without standing by the desk.  If you just sit there, you'll never get a numbered ticket.

So, that's what I encountered when I went to stand by the desk.  There were two men sitting in the chairs (I assumed they had tickets already) so I passed them by and stood by the desk.  Well, this didn't sit well with an older gentleman sitting in one of the chairs.  He immediately stood up and said in a very agitated voice,  "excuse me, but you are behind me, I was here first."  I said, I knew that and that he should indeed get in front of me if he didn't have a ticket.  From there he stuck out his hand and said, "I'd like to shake your hand."  I shook hands with him and then he said, "Do you know what a handshake is a prelude to?"   I immediately remembered an old commercial campaign for mouth wash, where two people are out on a date and instead of getting a good night kiss, the man gets a handshake.  An announcer came on and said if the guy had used the mouth wash, he would have gotten a kiss instead of a handshake.   Needless to say I was a bit concerned.  I told him I didn't know, but immediately stepped back just in case.  "A hug" he announced, "A hug."  And I found myself enfolded in his embrace. 

The next person I met was a man with a very bad dye job.  His hair was jet black, but the kind of jet black that looks like shiny vinyl, with no part to be seen anywhere on his head.   Something about him screamed, Mafia.  He too, was there to apply for his NC drivers license.  As we sat waiting for our respective turns, he asked if I was a native to NC and I explained that I was from Cleveland and recently moved here.  He smiled and told me that he was a native of Pittsburgh.  He said that even though there was a football rivalry between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, that didn't mean that we shouldn't be friends.  He asked where I lived in NC and I told him Leland.  He told me that he had heard that Leland was a very nice place and he should go check it out.  His next question took  me by surprise...."so, do you have your own apartment or what?"   "No," I said, "my husband and I have a very nice house."  "OH," he said, "you're married."  "Yep," I said as I displayed my wedding rings.  We didn't speak after that.

Despite my "encounters," I think I fared better than Tony.  Tony sat in a section in the back of the DMV reading the newspaper.   It was really busy there on Friday, so seating was was at a premium.  As Tony was reading, he noticed a group of "interesting" people sitting next to him, one man, in particular.  He looked like a "mountain man," with blue jeans that were worn and torn and a very dirty shirt.  He had something that I think was supposed to be a beard, but rather than going straight down, the hair went straight out from his face.  The people with him were explaining and reading things too him, which made Tony wonder if he couldn't read.  From Tony's perspective, that was the least of the man's problems, because he was apparently not "potty trained" either.  The longer the man sat there, the more Tony's nasal passages were assaulted with the smell of old urine.  Or, maybe it was new urine....like I said, it was really busy at the DMV, maybe he just went right there, who knows?  It must have seemed like an eternity for Tony before I was finally finished and we could leave.   As we drove to a restaurant to have lunch, Tony still had that rank smell in his nose. 

In addition to going to the DMV, we were going to go downtown to one of the sports bars to see if we could see the pre-season Browns game.   It turned out that we couldn't because it was pre-season, so we went back to one of our favorite places, the Reel Cafe. 

We sat at the bar and found ourselves speaking to a very attractive young man from Los Angeles.  We talked about Wilmington and California and Cleveland and Kansas (where he was from originally) and had a really nice conversation.  We finally got around to the, "what brought you to Wilmington" question and he told us that he was here filming a new TV show called "Revolution."  His name was J.D. Pardo.   Revolution is a new Sci-Fi series set 15 years in the future and will finish shooting here in November.   As it turned out, J. D.  has been in several productions and started his career as a Hugo Boss model.   He was very nice to talk to and told us all about the film industry and his passion for his craft.     I asked if I could take his picture and he was very gracious.  Who knows, this could be the next Brad Pitt (although J.D. is already 32...yeah, I know, I thought he was 22.)

So, that was our Friday, a mix of "characters."  Trust me, it's never boring in Wilmington!