Officially New Yorkers

I don't know if "officially" is the right word, maybe more like legally. We got our New York drivers licenses shortly after we moved here because Gabe didn't have time off once residency started so we made that a priority. Then our Iowa tags were going to expire on our white car in August so I took care of that in late August, but we didn't change the grey cars tags because we didn't want our expenses to always fall on the same month (thanks for teaching me that trick Dad :) So I waited until just recently. It was harder to license the gray car, lots of hoops to jump through but it finally got done. I've now been to the DMV 5 times, each time I get the pleasure of paying $4 for parking not to mention the 40 minutes of driving each way and the pleasure of often waiting over an hour, usually averaging close to 2 hours. I feel like I've worked at least 12 hours doing DMV stuff, maybe the state of NY will compensate me for my lost wages ;) 

The other interesting thing about New York is that after you get your car licensed you have to have an emissions inspection done at the local service station. Once you pass that (of course you have to pay for it) they give you a sticker that you put on the inside of your windshield that's good for a year, when you get to go back and have it all done again. Our white car didn't do so hot with the inspection and that resulted in new brake pads and rotors. In the long run it's good to have it done, but doesn't it kind of seem like a scam between the state of New York and all the service stations. If you are checking "emissions" why are you suddenly looking at our brakes? But I do want Gabe to be safe so I'm happy to shell out the money for his safety, and that silly little sticker. The blessing in all of this is that our gray car passed with flying colors and it only cost $10. Maybe the service station saw that we already spent $500+ with them a month ago and cut me a break :)

 Our lovely cars in our lovely parking spaces (for a "small" fee of $80 a month)

 Gabe being so sweet and changing the plates on my car

Bittersweet to see both cars with New York plates. My only hope is that people don't realize that I'm not from here when I'm driving and will be less likely to honk :)