If the title of this blog post is confusing to you, you may have missed my post I smiled at the DMV this morning (but can I look cool without a neck?). I’ll wait here while you catch up.
Okay, ya with me now?
So my new California driver’s license arrived in the mail yesterday and Hallelujah! the new photo looks pretty decent. Way better than the disheveled ‘my kids are making me and everyone else in the DMV building lose their minds, plus my hair is half-dreaded and I’m wearing what is probably pajamas under a rainbow down vest’ picture from my last ID. You totally want to see it now, don’t you? You are in luck, I’m in a sharing mood.
First of all, let’s go back to the year my first child was born, 2004. I was born in 1980, so I was 24. (I don’t know what happened to my older driver’s licenses – maybe I kept them in box somewhere?) Here is the photo from the California driver’s license I was issued that year.
Cute, huh? Who knows what I thought of that photo at the time it was taken. Now I look back at any photo of myself ten years ago and I think “Gawd, I looked GREAT!” Funny how time can do that. No make-up though, because I was such a hippie. And my lips are closed so I’m barely smiling, I look a little serious.
Okay, now it is time for the photo disaster. I didn’t realize I would be having a picture taken that day at the DMV, so I was caught off guard. My kids were five and three, so as is typical of kids that age, they did not sit quietly in the hard plastic chairs and wait for Mommy to be photographed.
Once again, the close lipped sort-of-smile, and I’m trying to not looked stressed, but I am. No make-up, cuz who has time for that when your kids are that age? Not I. Maybe a little lipstick though. Why does my skin look so orange? Seriously, is that my pajamas under that sweater? Ick. And the hair. I’m ready to forget that ever happened.
Now, we can happily move on to my brand new facial-recognition-recognizable photo a la the California Department of Motor Vehicles. Here it is:
Decent huh? This is one I will totally look back on ten years from now and say, “Gawd, I looked GREAT!” Thanks to my husbands helpful suggestion, my smile shows a little bit of teeth and I actually look happy. My hair is shiny and smooth again. A hint of eye make-up and light lip stick, not much cuz I’m still such a hippie, but enough to keep my features from being completely washed out. And thanks to my long chin, they were forced to include a little bit of my neck in the photo.
I will no longer feel a compulsive urge to apologize every time I show someone my ID, so that’s a nice feeling.
If you didn’t share your DMV story or your ID photo story on the last post, now is your chance. Feel free to put a link to your own blog post in the comments. Honk at me!
If anyone is interested here’s my post with Honking Goose’s post linked:
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Thanks for sharing, Kimberly. 🙂
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You bet.
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Pingback: Driver’s License Photos | A Wife's Reflections Blog
Looking good. 🙂 My first two DMV pictures were great but this last one is pretty awful. Every time I pull it out for something I cringe. (sigh)
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Yeah, I know exactly how that feels. I hope you get a better one next time.
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Great photo!
I got my first license during the unfortunate time of gigantic hair. I ratted up my bangs really large in order to preserve my coolness in photo for four years. My permed hair was so tall, it didn’t even fit in the picture. It got cut off at the top and I was pissed! I wish I could find it now because it was hilarious.
I have to get a new one on Monday. My kids are 2 and 5, and not super patient. I don’t have high hopes for the photo on this one.
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Did you get a new one yet? I hope it turns out well. 🙂
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Ha, thanks!
The photo is ok considering the circumstances. I had an incident last night involving a toddler skull to the bridge of my nose (blog to come on that fun treat). Luckily, the ice and makeup did their jobs and you can’t really tell. 😉
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Well, that’s relatively good news, I guess. 🙂
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You do look good. I renewed my license 2 months ago. They let me do it by mail, which meant I’d be keeping the photo from 5 years ago. I am so glad because somehow I’ve aged more from 55 to 60 than I did from any previous 5 year span.
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What a deal – maybe I can try and do that next time.
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It’s so true that you look back at earlier driver’s license photos and (with a few exceptions) say, “Gawd, I looked good!” Even in her 80s, my Mom said she still felt 18 inside. It was just her body that looked old and tired. I’m 60 now and feel the same way!
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That’s gotta be a good thing, I think!
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Hey congratulation for your new license.
Thanks for following my blog.
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TY
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On my licence photo I look like a refugee from a wanted poster. Yours looks good.
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Thanks, Jim
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That is a great DMV picture! My state (Massachusetts) prides themselves at capturing the very worst driver profiles for each and every driver. 🙂
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It’s a conspiracy, I know it!
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The very first license that I was issued was snapped with my eyes nearly closed. I blinked! I look stoned and wanted another photo taken. They gleefully denied me. It is a conspiracy! 😀
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Great picture..
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🙂
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You lost me around that last turn. In California they MAIL your license to you???
Here in Illinois, I’ve always had my renewed license in hand before I left the DMV office. No waiting for the mailman. No waiting to see that, yes, indeed, my photo does look like I ought to be arrested for something. I go in, surrender my old license, pay my fee, take the vision test, may or may not have to take the written test– they do that occasionally– get my photo taken, and leave with my new license in my wallet, ready to be displayed at the airport when I pick up freight (yes, as an expedited driver I do that a lot).
Of course, I suppose every state is different, but this is the first I’ve heard of having the DMV mail your license to you. Usually, if the mail is involved it’s because you got pulled over for speeding and opted to pay the fine rather than go to court, in which case the clerk of the court in the county you got busted in mails your license back to you.
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Yep, in California they send them to you in the mail. In the mean time, you get to leave with a crummy old piece of printer paper with your updated information on it, which you can show in lieu of the real thing.
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We are no longer allowed to smile in Virginia for our DMV pictures. I renewed my license online and they had switched to the “new” format (etched pictures, weird holograms, etc) but it took my old picture over. So I have a smiling, OKish picture on the “new” format.
Now, you can’t renew two times in a row online, so I will be miserable looking next time 🙂
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Is that a plot to better recognize the miserable looks on our faces when we get pulled over for a traffic violation? If so, I protest! They do not know that we will get pulled over or violate a traffic law before we’ve even done it. That is pre-crime and that is just not right!
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Great picture! I feel the same way about my 20 something license. And then there was the year I wore heavy dark lipstick. I never wear heavy dark lipstick, what was I thinking? I look like a Russian hooker in that picture. This year was the retake, finally, and it’s fine. Nothing to write home about but nothing that will get me a citation either.
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I love seeing other women wear bold dark or bright lipstick, but anytime I have tried it myself it scares me. I don’t know if I just can’t pull it off, or if I just can’t see it right because it’s me.
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Open or close lipped, all your pics are great! 🙂
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Aww, thanks (but don’t lie to me – that middle one is scary!)
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Hahaha! If I were to rank the three, the middle one would be number three but I still think its cute. Seriously! If you don’t mind me asking – are you Hispanic?
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Soy morena pero no soy hispanica. (And my espanol isn’t great either.) I am of European and 1/4 Japanese descent.
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(Y) Btw I had to Google translate that. I don’t speak Spanish. 😛
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Bwaaa yours looks great! I just got my license recently and was really happy with it, But apparently when you change your name they take your picture again (someone could have given me a heads-up on that!) So now I have to wait a week and view this new disaster >.<
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I hope you luck out and it’s less of a disaster and more of a relief. 🙂
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My story includes that bit too @creepymom.
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Lovely. Especially for a license photo. Much better than my recently procured peach orb photo.
My favorite one had to be where I had to go before my birthday, which was involved in holiday time, and the only day I could go was when my youngest and I both had a stomach flu. She was three and extremely needy, and so in my pic, not that anyone can see, she is holding onto my leg crying. Excellent day. Really comforts me when I realize it’s not that day anymore 😉
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Those moments when our kids were especially, ahem, amusing (not at the moment, but when you think about later, perhaps while drinking a beer) will be forever engraved in our minds along side the endearing precious moments, as well. 😀
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Ha ha ha 😄 you make laugh in the way you describe yourself.
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Yay! I made someone laugh! That makes me happy 😀
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☺️
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This is a great pic!!!
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TY
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Ha, I cannot honk with any grace, but I shall say that your photo is lovely, and I think your husband may be right in general, a bit of a show of teeth is an attractive look. Not that I’m advising people to go round barring them like fangs mind you, but a small show of pearly whites, just how you have done there, is definitely a winning look. * sonmi smiles, showing a little flash of toothyness*
– sonmi upon the Cloud
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I officially declare that honking shall always be done without any grace, because all honking should be equally ungraceful, but enjoyable all the same!!
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That’s a great DMV photo! Mine always look like I just woke up from an all night drinking binge. Scary.
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Thanks, I’m so relieved. It really could have gone either way.
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Me to Join. In going to create a blog post like Honing Goose has and tell a story of my past 15 year progression. My newest license photo I was sick and had to sit in the DMV for 6 hrs. No food or water. I thought I going to die before I got out of there.
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John, not join. Sorry.
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The DMV can be hell. The offices in Vegas have little food outlets that you can get hot dogs, chips, drinks, candy and other items.
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That’s nice!
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No way! You’re lying…
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About the food stands inside the DMV locations? No fibbing, serious as a heart attack.
I have been to two locations, both have the food venue… Good deal for me as i am type 2 diabetic, having a food source nearby is a big plus.
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Making a visit to the DMV even more like a rodeo or a circus, I guess.
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