There it sat, in my hands from the Oregon State Board of Nursing, a letter I was anticipating. Looking at the size of the envelope, I thought it seemed to kind of...well, immense for just a simple letter stating that I was licensed to be a CNA in not only Idaho, but also Oregon.
To my dismay, the letter stated no such thing. I've been waiting so long to actually start working in Oregon, and this has been the hold up that has prevented me from starting.
The words on the page said something to the effect that the Oregon State Police had accepted my fingerprints, but the FBI couldn't use the very same prints due to their low quality.
Why would one red-tape organization readily accept them, but another governmental branch scoff at my prints and put a big, old, fat rejection stamp across them? Ugh! How Rude!
I didn't think much of it, but I definitely felt like there was a bustle in my hedgerow over this news. I went to the bank and got the $7.50 for the new fingerprints, because I couldn't even think about arguing with someone who could easily just throw me in a cell since it's conveniently located an entire 20 feet away from where they actually fingerprint you.
As we were having dinner this evening, I explained to my brother what had gone on with this, and he said just go in there and play dumb. You shouldn't have to pay, because it's not your fault.
This was his suggested conversation:
officer: it's going to be $7.50.
me: I already paid for it.
officer: No
me: Maybe I'm not explaining it better, I'm sorry. I paid for this last time. I'm just asking for a reprint for the same thing.
officer: It's still $7.50.
me: can I get your name, because I'm a blogger and I have some followers that might want to read about this. (He was teasing me here)
Me interrupting my brother's banter: Wait. Bub, are you being serious right now? Because you know that I'm prepared to go in and just say everything you just told me to say. If this is funny to you right now and you're not serious, now might be a good time to tell me so I don't say something I shouldn't. (This is how much I trust my brother's word)
He was halfway serious, the blog thing though.. not so much, haha!
So there I was at 7:15 PM, prepared to fight world war III (not really) inside the fingerprinting area of the Emmett jail and just hope I wouldn't have to wait for my one phone call to ask my brother to bail me out. I was running through the dialogue in my head before I got out of my car, prepared to stand up for the injustices of poor quality fingerprinting, when the very polite and kind-faced officer explains that a reprint doesn't cost me a penny. Well if that wasn't the best news I'd heard all day! I wanted to sing and dance like it was nobodies business, but I course held it in because that also might have required them to throw me in the cell.
I know this was highly dramatized, but honestly I shrink when it comes to standing up for myself sometimes. I don't think that it's important to argue, and I would rather just let things slide then go up against authority for myself. If others are being hurt or are in danger that's a completely different thing. I try to always do the right thing.
I am reminded of our sermon this past weekend when Tom said that we sometimes too often give away our authority. We don't stand with confidence in our convictions.
Sometimes I think I need to practice being brave more. Not for the sake of being a tyrant, but for the sake of not giving up my authority...
Love,
Amber
That's hilarious! The things we do to save $7.50. Good story.
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