Notary Public

I am the king of procrastination. I took a course to learn the procedures and duties of a notary public back in May. I knew I had to arrange a time to take the exam, but I kept putting it off. First, I had Grand Rounds to use as an excuse because both rounds and the exam were on Wednesday morning. Then Grand Rounds ended for the summer and I was left without a justification for not taking the test. It got to a point where it was so long after the course that I didn't say anything for fear of getting in trouble for waiting. It's a vicious cycle! Plus, I had forgotten everything I'd learned in the course, so I'd have to re-teach myself everything.

But, I finally made the decision to take the exam last Wednesday. I emailed my boss and let him know. Surprisingly, he just told me to take my time and that he'd see me later. I spent about three hours the night before trying to cram 140 review questions into my brain. I felt like I was in college again. I may miss Radford, but I don't miss studying.

I got up extra early the morning of the exam because the test site was all the way near Wall Street. It's the furthest south I've ever been in Manhattan. I thought I'd be able to find my way around pretty easily. Nope. Once I got off at Fulton Street, I was completely lost. I feel like it's good to have false confidence, so I just picked a direction and went with it. Wrong way. Eventually, I asked someone and they told me to go back where I started and then go straight instead of turning. Oh well. I made it to the site with plenty of time to spare.

I went into a huge white room with rows and rows of white desks - very sterile. The proctors were so obviously over their job. It may not pay well, but I think it'd be fun to proctor exams all day. You read some instructions, hand out pencils and then read a book until the time is up. How bad can that be? I realized that I forgot to bring a check. At this point, mortification set in. But I was relieved to learn that I could pay with my credit card.

We were a diverse bunch. There were some old ladies, young girls in skirts, old Jewish men, Hispanic people, one guy that looked like he just rolled out of bed, etc. I texted Antonio and he said that it reminded him of when Carrie had jury duty and the guy sitting next to her pulled a coconut out of his briefcase. So true - that's exactly how it felt!

The exam itself was okay. I definitely knew a few, guessed on a few and then completely blanked on a couple. But, since it's multiple choice I've got a 1/4 chance of getting it right. We'll see - I should get the results in two weeks. I'm nervous because I don't really want to take the exam again.

At the very least, I got to take the morning off, go down to the Financial district, and explore a new part of New York. And if I didn't get 28 out of 40 questions correct, I'll have even more time to explore lower Manhattan.