After jumping through all the hoops (getting insurance and an inspection, filling out forms with notarized signatures), I finally made it to the county records office to get our car titled and registered in Texas. My dad bought our car years ago, so it was titled and insured in his name. He recently gave the title to me so we could switch it to my name.
Yesterday, Jason and I had dentist appointments, so we decided it would be a good day for me to go get the car registered and titled while Jason watched the kids at home. The records office was down town, and I was cutting it a little close for time because they closed at 4:30 and I left the house at 3:49. I also didn't really know where it was, but just followed my phone's directions. I had this silly idea that it would just be one building with parking on the street and would be easy to find. Before I even found the building, I saw an underground parking garage labeled "county records parking" so I turned in and found a spot.
I think it was already after 4:00 by this point and I didn't really know where I needed to go, so I sort of scrambled to gather my papers. When I went to get the car inspected, I had to get a particular form from them to take when I got it registered and titled. I put it in the jockey box beforehand because I wanted to remind myself to take my insurance card (I wanted to leave my insurance in the car in case something happened). Well, as I pulled out the form from the inspection, I couldn't remember what else I was supposed to get from the car (it probably didn't help that my brain was still a little foggy from the laughing gas I got a the dentist). I hesitated for a minute and then just decided to go because I was running out of time (bad idea).
Once I got out of the car, the only thing I saw was a sign for the courthouse. Since I didn't even know which direction to go, I headed for the courthouse, hoping they could direct me to the right place. A security guard pointed me to a building across the street, so I quickly made my way there. Once inside the building, I again didn't know where to go. There were lots of offices in the building, so I looked at the directory and saw that I needed to go down a floor. As I was looking at the directory, a lady came up to me asking where she needed to go. I said I didn't even know where I needed to go, so we both got in the elevator and went to different floors. As I got out of the elevator, I found that I was in the right place (phew). While waiting in line, the other lady walked out of the elevator and joined me in line. We laughed as we realized we both needed to go to the same place.
I handed the attendant form after form and was feeling good about having everything I needed, but then she asked for my insurance card and I realized what I had forgotten in the car...She told me to go get it, return, and get in line inside. I looked at my phone and saw that it was 4:21! I ran back outside, found an elevator a ways off that went down to the parking garage, ran through the maze of the garage and found my car, grabbed the insurance card, and ran back. I think I got back about 2 or 3 minutes before they closed. As I began handing over my pile of forms to the lady, they closed the doors. I was so relieved and happy when I walked out of the building with my new Texas plates and registration sticker in hand.
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