License Plates.

This morning on my way to work, I was driving behind a car with the license plate: IMGLAD2. It made me think of the movie, Pollyanna, and how she liked to play the "glad game." Whenever she was feeling a little down, she would think about all the reasons she had to be glad, and it always made her feel better.

I always pay attention to license plates. I will look at the car's plate in front of me and try to make some sort of correlation, with its numbers or letters, to me or people I know. Are the numbers any significant date? Are they someone's birthday? Are the letters initials of someone I know? Or are they a combination of names I know? Do the letters stand for a phrase? (i.e. : NTM - not too much, SJR - see jane run, NYJ - new york joe ... sometimes I just make stuff up!)

During my second year at college, the cutest guy in the entire apartment complex drove a Volkswagen beetle, with a Hawaii license plate. (Okay, in today's society, not so macho - I get that. But it was the 70's ... think psychedelic, beads, and VW vans ... the beetle was just a mini, cool version of that.) I adored him and I adored his car! I wanted one. The Volkswagen convertible bug became my dream car.

That same year, I was coming out of the mall and walked by a parking space occupied by another Volkswagen convertible - white with a black top. The license plate was: DOVE. (Back then Utah's plates were black and white.) The car was color coordinated and was personalized for me! Who owns this car? Where is my camera when I need it? I wonder if they'd sell it to me!

I stood there and stared at it for a really long time ... it had to be mine. Then my friend said, "C'mon. It's cold and we need to get home." I never saw it again ... sigh. (I think Volkswagen realized that now only females would drive a bug. That must be why they installed a flower vase as a standard feature to the right of the steering wheel.)

There is a cute little black bug that parks outside of my dentist's office every day. The hubcaps are daisies and today I noticed that its license plate says: WHITERS. Well doesn't that just "figure" - of course someone named Whitney would drive that car!!! :)

When I got a new car a few years ago (well, technically just a newer car), I tried to figure out something significant that my unpersonalized plate could stand for. Hmmmm ... the numbers added together equaled the number of children I had plus the number of children my boyfriend at the time had. And the letters were: UBA. Hmmmm ... U B A ... mom! You be a mom! Yup, that is how I started to remember my license plate number.

That same boyfriend was passing by my office one day and left a note on my windshield. All that was written on the note was his license plate number and a happy face - it totally made my day!