sticker shock

So about a week or so ago, Duksim tells me she noticed that my license plate sticker expired in May. I looked at her and just blinked repeatedly before asking her to repeat herself. So she did, and presented me with my registration paper, which clearly showed 05/05 as the expiration date. So for a couple of months, I was driving around with expired plates. Great! So last Saturday I went to the DMV in Niles to get my new sticker. The line inside seemed daunting, but wasn't altogether slow (surprisingly). Maybe because it was close to closing time, and they were trying to get everyone out the door. What's more, I ended up in a separate waiting area to get my sticker, and it only took me about 20 minutes of wait time. Not bad! Unfortunately when they called my number and I got to the counter, they ended up charging me the sticker price, but also a late fee. Turns out that according to Duksim, they give you some kinda grace period of 30 days after the expiration date to get the new sticker without a late fee - but I missed the cut by a few days! ARGH!!! So grudgingly I forked over the combined grand total of 95 bucks (or something like that). Man, what the heck...well, looking at the bright side of this event - at least it's cheaper than getting pulled over for expired plates, I guess...