I guess you know that you are a true Southern Californian when you feel the need to give the world a little glimpse of your life by expressing yourself on your license plate. OK. I did it. I ordered personalized license plates. I suppose there will be no chance of me relocating to Kansas now. While my husband thinks of personalized plates as narcissistic, I choose to look at them as more of an opportunity for artistic and altruistic expression. Aside from adding a little personal style to your vehicle, each background design purchased from the California DMV contributes money to an admirable cause.

Plates with an American flag background fund scholarships for the children of those killed in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The fees collected from personalized plates with a small, blue child's hand on them are forwarded to a program that helps keep children safe from injury through prevention. And while there are several other creative backgrounds and excellent causes to choose from, I chose the plate decorated with palm trees and a beach at sunset, with my $90 contribution helping the California Arts Council.

Of course, there are those who choose to emblazon their plates with messages that skew the whole arty/philanthropic argument. While the DMV attempts to screen out any requests for messages that "carry connotations offensive to good taste and decency, or which would be misleading or in conflict with any license plate series already issued," the issuance of some plates proves that good taste can be highly subjective.

For instance, some choose to blatantly extol their opinions of themselves with true vanity license plates such as; QT PI, IMA10 and 2QT4U. Others choose to send a message to their former significant others via the 12-by-6-inch bumper billboards: IH8MYX, PD4BYEX or NOMOYFE (no more wifey).

After figuring out what some license plates mean, you can't help but wonder if the vehicles' owners should really be allowed to get behind the wheel. Plates with the messages CD8D, CYCOPTH and MTBRAIN (empty brain) might be telling us a little more than we really need to know.

Some people do find clever ways to advertise their vocation on their license plates. Two different optometrist plates that can be appreciated say DR IBALZ and DR I I I I (doctor 4 eyes). Dentists have shown that they can be quite clever as well, with plates like: OPN WYD and 2 3PAIR (tooth repair). Not to be outdone by his PhD'd brethren, one witty urologist had his plate designed with the message: 2PCME.

You are on your own figuring out that one.

Then there are the license plates that make you look twice, like the car driven by a woman with the plates 4MR BOY or the plate on the white Bronco that said NOT OJ.

Some drivers use their license plates as an opportunity to taunt the authorities -- TIKET ME, 2FAST4U and CNTCHDS. The most notable license plate scofflaw, however, was an unwitting victim of DMV bureaucracy. In 1979, Robert Barbour, of Los Angeles, put in a request to the DMV for personalized plates. When asked to enter 3 choices for his message, he chose BOATING, SAILING and -- since he couldn't think of a third option he was interested in, wrote NO PLATE. Since his first two choices were taken, the DMV sent him his third entry -- license plates that read NO PLATE. Over the next many months, Barbour received thousands of parking violations that were written for vehicles with no license plates.

And what do my new license plates say? IMNTELIN.