Licensed to Drive

I got my driver's license!

There were definitely some touch and go moments there--and comedic ones too. The car I was going to take my test in had to be swapped at the last minute. The registration was mysteriously missing from the car I did most of my practicing in, so I ended up borrowing a friend's car instead, and dragging her down to the DMV with me from work.

But of course since it was a car I was less familiar with, there were some quirks. The first thing the tester asked me to do was flash the blinker. And on came the...windshield wipers. I blame it on the unfamiliar car, but in truth I'd used the blinkers on Meg's car before and they are in the same place as on Manda's. It was really just nerves. And then I couldn't get the bloody wipers to turn off. The tester scolded as Meg came back and showed me before scurrying off again. I thought the test might be over right then and there, but no, I got another chance.

Meg's breaks also halt at a feather's touch, so the tester marked off points for all my abrupt jerky stops. Bah. It's a good thing it wasn't my very first time in that car--now those had been abrupt stops!

All in all it went ok though. And now I have it, a license. Better late than never, eh? Since I still don't like driving, I think those around me might be more excited than me. But still, there is a sense of accomplishment there, and a sense that certain things that were not possible might now be. I can go return my library books or go buy us some milk by borrowing a car rather than a person and a car.

All this new freedom was immediately put to use. I felt like I had to drive all over creation today when Manda took sick while we were out. Really it was just across San Jose and Los Gatos, and back and forth up and down the hill about three times. I drove Sky and Rhys and Manda and managed not to crash and kill us all, even with the toddler shouting in the back. I drove myself back up the 17 in the rain alone and even braved the fast lane to go around a truck (with traffic to merge with, no less).

I crossed two lanes in rapid succession to get an off ramp on the 280 and then three more lanes on Moreland once I was off, again in rapid succession. For those of you who don't know me, that was scarier than the 17 in the rain. For those of you who don't know the 17 it's a twisty narrow mountain freeway, though it's becoming home turf for me (and no, I have no plan of getting cocky; I have a healthy respect for those drops and rocks; it's just that other drivers scare me even more and the 280 is busy).

Anyway, it may be crazy scary, but it seems I have joined the driving masses at long last. I don't regret waiting so long. I really didn't need it as a teen or even as a college student. Public transit is more ecologically sound, it was perfectly feasible in many of the places I've lived. But not here. The last bus that ran this was was canceled half a year ago; there is no safe way down the mountain except driving. (Crazy people can bike or walk along the edge of road even crazier with narrow lanes and long drops and blind curves than the 17 with the locals zipping past at half again the speed limit...but not for me, thank you.)

So there you have it. On my...fifth? sixth?...driver's permit, more than a decade after my first one...and yet on my very first ever driver's test: I passed.