True Life: I Had to Do More Community Service Than Lindsay Lohan

Did I ever tell you about the time I was given more community service hours than Lindsay Lohan?

Lindsay just completed 125 hours of her court-ordered community service, just in time to meet today's deadline.  The sentence stemmed from a reckless driving charge from 2012.  Apparently it took her this long to complete because she didn't have transportation that allowed her to do it sooner. Ha. Look, 125 hours is nothing, especially if you're working from home, getting credit for meeting with fans or you get to work with kids.

About 9 years ago, after racking up 5 driving after revocation tickets, I was sentenced to 130 hours of community service; or what Minnesota likes to call "Sentence to Serve". I actually got off pretty lucky because in the state of Minnesota, for each driving after revocation you get after your first one, you get 30 days in jail.

So how did all of this even happen?

It was really just a situation that snowballed out of control. The tabs on my car had expired; I was pulled over and given at ticket. At the time, I was a single mom, living in subsidized housing and was barely making ends meet. I had a choice, it was pay the ticket (which should've been a warning in the first place), or pay rent and buy groceries. The struggle was real.

I ended up choosing the latter and continued to drive with a suspended license. I had no choice. It's hard to find someone to drive you around and public transportation wasn't an option in the suburbs; I would still have to drive to a transit station to catch a bus and that would've interfered with getting my son off to school each day.

Over the course of about a year, I had 5 driving after revocation tickets. I remember the day I had to go to court. I already knew I wanted to speak to a public defender about my options and luckily for me, when I saw the attorney head to the meeting place, I realized I knew who he was on a very personal level.

The public defender took my case pro bono and his strategy was to paint an image of a hard-working, single mother who was just trying to make ends meet. It worked. (of course it did, because I was.) Ultimately, every charge was dismissed, none of it went on my record, I avoided jail time and ended up honing my landscaping skills by mowing lawns, raking, trimming bushes, shoveling and picking up a lot of garbage in 130 hours.

Take that Lilo.

Once my hours were completed and $500 later, my license was reinstated.