That said, irrespective of what you call these places they all have interminably long lines in common. I had to buy license tags for 2 vehicles today. Of course, I should have renewed them by mail weeks in advance, but I--like the 200 or so people crammed into the office when I arrived--didn't. Anticipating having to take a number and then twiddle my thumbs for a couple of hours, I had preemptively loaded several television show episodes ("30 Rock," "The Office" and the like) onto my Droid 2 smartphone.
However, much to my delight and surprise, brand new license renewal computer kiosks were sitting in the glass-enclosed foyer of the office. I had the necessary documents and credit card stipulated as being necessary to complete my transactions without actually entering the seething throng of humanity on the other side of the entryway's glass walls. Of course, I was dubious as to whether it would work right up until the moment that the mechanical beast spat out my registrations and tags.
The process wasn't without glitches. It would be generous to describe the responsiveness of the--no doubt enterically-opportunistic-bacteria-encrusted--touch screen as shitty. And, the bar code reader did not work at all. Had it worked, the necessity to enter any information via the touch screen would have been precluded entirely. Still, after one abortive attempt to enter a code that would access my records, it actually worked. I had reconciled myself to the loss of 2 hours of my day. But, as it turned out, the entire process of renewing the license plates for two vehicles took less than 5 minutes.
It was all I could do to restrain myself from opening the door and shouting "Suck it" to the technologically impaired ramble sitting on their respective duffs and fingering tickets who's numbers wouldn't be called until well after I'd enjoyed a leisurely lunch and casually made my way back to work.
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