TIL That if you take all the letters from the word "wizard" and swap them with opposite letters (a->z, b->y), it spells wizard backwards.

The story of my nightmare:

I got pulled over at 2am because...I don't know, it was 2am. I think I was going like 5 over the speed limit. I didn't realize at the time that I was incapable of passing a field sobriety test (I didn't realize just what they entailed) so I tried to be a good sport and do what I was told. Once I realized that I was failing miserably, I asked for a breathalyzer.

I blew a 0 on the handheld breathalyzer, but that wasn't good enough, so I was arrested and taken to the station for the full-sized breathalyzer. Blew a 0 again, but the cop was sure I was on something, so I was dragged to the hospital for a blood test. Came up clean. Still not good enough. Charged with DUI purely on the basis of the officer's testimony that I appeared to be intoxicated.

I was poor, so I got a public defender, who advised me to plead out, but since I was so completely obviously not guilty, I insisted on going to trial. I got a medical evaluation confirming I had ataxia, had two doctors ready to testify, should have been fine.

What I didn't realize, since nobody told me, was that my license had been suspended automatically when I was arrested and that I needed to file some paperwork before a certain deadline to get it back based on my clean breath/blood tests. Apparently there was a notice mailed to me that didn't get forwarded to my new address.

So a few weeks later, the same cop pulls me over for driving on a suspended license. I can't afford to pay the fine, so I go to court expecting to just explain the situation and have my license restored.

But the judge sees that it was suspended based on a DUI charge. Her information doesn't include my breath/blood results, so she just assumes I'm bullshitting. She ends up deciding to forgive the fine on the condition that I attend a drug/alcohol program, but she refuses to do anything about the suspension.

At this point, I'm angry (have I mentioned that I barely drink and don't use any other drugs besides ibuprofen?), so I don't go to the drug/alcohol classes. This turns out to be a big mistake. Failing to comply causes the fine to be reinstated, and not paying the fine triggers another license suspension on top of the existing one.

My DUI court date finally arrives. This judge is (thankfully) a sane and reasonably kind person, listens to my doctors, acquits me, and has some words with the arresting officer and the prosecutor. The automatic license suspension is removed. But he couldn't (or wouldn't?) remove the second suspension that I got for not paying the fine, which had now gone to collections and been inflated from three digits to four. The only way to get my license back was to pull an extra month's paycheck out of my ass.

By this point, I'd gotten rather used to public transportation and the thought of driving was giving me panic attacks, so I just said "fuck it, I'm not going to drive anymore." Sold my car and haven't driven since.

/r/todayilearned Thread Link - en.wikipedia.org