Traffic Court - before

I have to go to traffic court tonight. I've never been before and I can't say that I'm looking forward to it, but here's the deal: I got a ticket for speeding in a construction zone (thus doubling the fine and looking really bad to my insurance company) when I don't think I possibly could have. I'm fighting the ticket in the hopes of saving paying a hefty fine and insurance rate increase.

It happened more than a month ago when I was driving my friend, Bekah, home from the airport. She lived in a small town (one that is completely surrounded by KC proper) and I'd only been to her house once before so I didn't really know the way. As she was directing me, we came upon an intersection full of orange cones. It had recently been paved but didn't yet have lines painted, and I was waiting at the stop light to make a left turn. While waiting for the light, Bekah was telling me where I'd be making my next turn, but I was trying to figure out where I was going to go when I made my left turn. There were so many cones and without the lines being painted I was nervous about turning into oncoming traffic. I slowly made the turn and tried to make sure I was going where I needed to go, and it was maybe a block out of that turn that the cop pulled me over. I don't know how fast I was going - the speedometer had not been my focus - but I was cited for doing 45 in a 25 mph construction zone. I don't think there's any way that I could have accellerated that fast - and Bekah and I were honestly VERY surprised by the whole incident. As it turned out, where I ended up pulling over was also right by where I was going to be making my next turn to get to her house (a second reason I couldn't have been going that fast, if I was going to be making another turn that soon). I used to work for a police department and for the most part I respect the work that those officers do, but this guy wasn't very nice about the whole thing. He never once tried to be friendly or even cracked a smile. He was really kind of mean - and I'm hoping he was just having a bad or something, because I'd hate to think of anyone being like that all the time.

Like I said, I've never been to court before (other than being called once as a witness at a hearing when I was a police dispatcher). I'm dressing up (even wearing a skirt) and going to try to be polite and succinct. I'm really hoping the officer doesn't show up for court, which supposedly happens quite often. Then I won't have to pay the fine and the charges will be dismissed. If the officer is there, I will simply state me case as best as I can and hope for the best. At worst, the charges hold and I have to pay the fine as if I would have just signed the ticket. I've got nothing to lose. I just wish that made my stomach stop flip flopping...