"The DMV was so fast and efficient!" you've never heard anyone, anywhere say.

Until now. On a hot summer morning, I showed up to the DMV. It was so fast, and so efficient.

Now, to be clear, I didn't show up empty-handed. Poor Axel had had a terrible time renewing his license earlier in the year - he didn't have an appointment, the site he was going to was closed when he arrived. He had to go by a nearby DMV that was absorbing all the overflow.

aaswq23 -- this was written by Meatball, as she set her ball on my keyboard -- gross, Meatball!

Anyway, back to my story. I had an appointment. I was all set. "You better fill out the online paperwork," Axel warned.

"Hey, how did you answer question Number 4?" I called to him. He didn't remember - which turned out to be because, as he now recalled, he hadn't done the online paperwork.

I showed up two minutes early, which hardly ever happens for me. The DMV luck was on my side. I walked in and went to the line that said, "Have an appointment?" A couple was in front of me in this line, and they walked away with a clipboard and a number.

"Did you have an appointment?" the DMV worker smiled at me. Seriously. A smile.

"Yup!" I had a feeling this was the right answer.

"Excellent!" they said. "And did you happen to fill out the online paperwork?"

Now I knew I had the correct answer. "I sure did!"

"Okay, you can head to the back!"

I was not handed a number. Or a clipboard. At this point, I was a little confused. I went to a small waiting area where the couple who had been in front of me was sitting in chairs filling out their paperwork. There was a youngish guy sitting in a chair in the same alcove.

"Should we stand in line?" I asked the three of them, indicating one of those seatbelt type dividers that you see at the airport.

"No, you just have to wait here," the guy told me.

"Yeah, just wait here," the couple told me.

And then something miraculous happened.

A DMV worker walked up to the counter closest to us and called out my name. Honest to goodness. She called me by name!

I went up, got my eyes tested, and was about to go sit back down. "You can meet me over at counter two," she said.

I scurried over to counter two, where I paid my money and signed my name. Because I hadn't entered my social security number online, she had me write it down on a slip of paper for her, she entered it, and then she passed the paper back to me for me to take home and shred! They were not only efficient; they were following data privacy safety protocols.

"This was so fast!" I said to her.

"Well, we love it when you fill everything out online," she explained with a grin. "It makes everything go so smoothly."

I walked out of the DMV seven minutes after I arrived — only five minutes after my scheduled time. I kid you not.

Later, I tried to explain to Little L how wild this was. "Do you remember in Zootopia?" I asked. "The sloths?"

Well, the sloths were not working the day I showed up at the DMV.

As I walked out, the guy and the couple were still sitting in the waiting area. Who knew how long it would be until someone called their number.

"Axel," I said. "Seven minutes."

"I told you," he said. "It's the appointment and the paperwork. That's what I'm doing next time."

It was kind of him to let me learn from his three-hour debacle. This is a definite case of he told me so — and I'm so glad he did.