Dear Kid,

Monday was a bit of a disappointment for your sister. As I’m sure you have marked on your calendar, it was her half birthday. Which means she was old enough to take the test to get her learner’s permit. As luck would have it, my appointment rescheduled so I was free and on Mondays football is from 6pm – 8pm. So we had a window of time to scoot over to the DMV.

I zipped home, said hello to Booker who was 6 kinds of happy to see me in the middle of the afternoon, gathered the paperwork we would need to prove that she’s herself, and off we went, me driving, Pi studying.

Did she pass the test? No. Did she fail the test? No. Turns out that while the main part of the DMV is open on Mondays, the part where you take your “written” test is not.

Due to her football schedule, we won’t be able to go over there again until Friday.

In other news, the IRS is starting tax season late due to the government shutdown. I find it difficult to understand why something that has been on the books for years is so affected by a 16 day lock-out. Seriously? It’s going to take you three months to catch up??? However, in true IRS fashion, the filing date remains the same because who wants to miss a good birthday celebration? (Yes, as a reminder, my birthday is April 15th. But you knew that.)

Opting to follow our government leaders (ha) and go back to work, the San Francisco Bay Area Rapid Transit System (BART to those in the know) is running again after an agreement was reached with union leaders.

Hope all the initials in your day are good ones.

Love, Mom