Who Da Wo-Man?

When we returned home from Christmas, we found in our collected mail among the bills and Christmas cards a letter from the City of New Orleans Photo Safety Program.  When we opened the letter, it gave us the bad news – our car had caught the eye of a speed camera downtown, and we were being cited for speeding in a 20 mph zone.  Well, it was actually a 30 mph zone, but because it is near an elementary school, it drops to 20 mph during certain hours of the day.  It was at one of those special hours, during the afternoon “get on the bus” time, that our car was clocked zipping by at a speedy twenty six miles per hour.  Heaven help those poor children, with such speed demons as us threatening their lives and safety.

We pulled up the date of the violation on our calendars – our goal was to figure out who was driving, so the innocent party could tease the guilty party mercilessly.  It so happened that we committed our crime on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  A day on which none of the darling little New Orleanian children were even ATTENDING school.

Well, it took me forever (and a second notice of violation!) to get around to it, but I finally called in and had them investigate the ticket.  It has been stricken from our record, and the $150 charge erased.  (In case you’re counting, that’s $75 for going 6 miles over the temporary speed limit*, and $75 for not paying within two weeks of receipt.)

So, the answer to this post’s title is – Me.  I am the woman.  I got us out of a ticket.  And I didn’t even have to be pregnant or crying to do it.

*Please note – even speeding 6 miles over in a school zone when children are milling about is evil, so don’t think I’m all willy nilly about child safety.