balancing on one foot

I went to court. it sucked a major bearded billygoatass (we have
stuffed goats at bn, by the way).

I waited 3 hours to appear before the judge for 3 minutes. I got a
$150 fine plus $70 court costs. This would be okay except that a) I
could have prevented it if I hadn't been such a dumbass and had actually called to make sure my check had been received and b) if there weren't other people with much worse offenses who got off paying less money.

First of all...everyone in friggin hickville missouri (known technically as Houston, population 1,971, county seat of Texas county (cute with the houston, tx, thing, huh?)) is really poor, unemployed, drunk, pot smoking, and completely uneducated. The judge absolutely did not feel sorry for me at all. He was very nice and we chatted a bit, but I was there in my black pants and button down shirt while everyone else was in holy jeans and torn tshirts. Didn't really help me with the not being able to pay the fine look. Also, everyone knew each other. Not like small town know each other, but like small jailhouse knew each other. One person would get up and during their statement would put in a "good word" for a case that had already been before the court. Funny shit.

Second...there were a bazillion pot and dwi cases. That's normal.
Most people who did either of those got some kind of probation and a
2 or 3 hundred dollar fine. However, there were two marijuana
possession cases that only got a $50 fine, and four dwi cases that
got an $80.50 fine. How is that fair? All I friggin did was fuck up
the speeding ticket payment and I have to pay a hell of a lot more
than that. No matter people drive drunk all the friggin
time...nobody gives a shit out here. I mean, I know when there are
only two people in the town it's not as big of a deal, but tractors
do more damage than cars so it should balance out, right?

Anyway, my record is cool, the drivers license points are down to 2,
the judge was amazed that I had everything in the order I did, and i
just owe a shitload of money. Will not be a speed demon anytime in
the near future. Bah.