Thank you, DMV!

About 15 years ago, I walked into a California Department of Motor Vehicles ("DMV") office to have my driver's license renewed.  In California, licenses are good for five years.  I can't remember specifically how much I weighed at the time, but I'd guess it was around 230 lbs. 

No matter what my true weight was, my license has shown "200 lbs." for as long as I can remember.  It was a good round number and I always thought eventually I'd lose weight to reach it again.  Little did I know how many decades it'd take me! 

For the next two renewals, or another 10 years, DMV sent me a new license automatically by mail without asking if there were any changes in my physical specifics.  If they had asked, I don't know whether I would've been truthful anyway.  Seeing your weight in black and white when you're morbidly obese is quite jarring, especially when it's on a document that is often seen by strangers.

So for 15 years, even when I was 300 lbs. for most of that time, my license still read "200 lbs."  Whenever I had to show it to someone, such as when I wrote a check, I always felt like the cashier was thinking, "Are you kidding?!  Lady, you ain't no 200 lbs.!"   People often commented that the photo on my license was a good one and I suspected they were telling me nicely that I looked better in the photo than I did in person.  One cashier confirmed that suspicion.  I was at PetSmart one day a few years back and the cashier reviewed my license because I handed her a check, at which time she said, "This is a really nice photo."  I was too quick to thank her for the comment because she immediately added, "Yeah, it doesn't look like you at all."   Sometimes people can be so rude, it's actually comical.  I just chuckled to myself.  After all, how could I be angry when she was being truthful.  I myself have innocently uttered words to people that later caused me to cringe when I realized how what I said came across so I couldn't fault her too much for her faux pas.

For the past couple of months, for the first time in my life, my actual weight is less  than what's on my license.  As luck would have it, my license expires soon and this time DMV sent me a letter informing me that I had to renew it in person so that a new photo could be taken.  Although I'm going to miss the old "nice" photo, it was a great opportunity to update my weight particularly because now I can honestly show a "1" in front of my weight.  When I walked into DMV yesterday to renew my license, I weighed 190 lbs., but I told DMV my weight was 165 lbs.  Although I'm still lying to DMV today, I have every intention of reaching my goal weight of 160 lbs. so in the near future, my license will be correct.  I'll even have 5 lbs. to play with!  I should receive my new license in the mail in about two or three weeks and I hope the photo is decent.  Either way, it'll be nice to see a "normal" weight on my license, preserved in lamination to boot!  I've never been so happy having to go into a DMV office.