Chaos Attraction

I Can Has Driver's License

2010-12-03, 10:48 p.m.

On Thursday, on try #2, I officially got my driver's license.

Yes, I did it yesterday! I did it, I did it, I did it! Wooooooooot! Couldn't believe it. It went so well. Okay, not so much the practice time beforehand-- Elsa got here at 1 p.m. and she said I was MORE nervous and generally iffy than I had been the first time and I was thinking, "oh, fuck," and "let's get the fail over with already." Let me explain--

See, people have been giving me crap about thinking negatively about this, saying stuff like, "Okay, if I get this done in less than 7 times, I'll be doing well," and "It's gonna take me until 2012." There is a specific reason for this: to keep me chilled out and not getting my hopes up. I am a big believer in the power of opposite thinking, i.e. "if I think something will go overly good or bad, that may very well make the opposite thing occur." In high school home ec we had to write a quote down on the board at some point during the semester and I picked out "The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised. ~George F. Will." My home ec teacher was Not Happy with me, alas, but I think it's awesome. Anyway, the point of this was so that I didn't get my hopes up and then cry for hours again. Accept that this is gonna take me longer than I thought, save all of my DMV test papers for future re-permit-taking use, and just get used to the idea of this being a long-term thing to deal with.

But you know what? I think it works.

I will say that I have been downright CHILL about driving all fall. Ridiculously relaxed, even when I was getting myself into accidentally dicey situations. "Oh, whoops, I'm in the wrong lane, I'll just move right out" instead of "OMGAAAAAAA!" Even though I was at the DMV, completely unable to take deep breaths and thinking that my bizarre driving calm might have gone out the window for this particular day, when I was in the car it kicked right in. Drove the proper speeds, stayed behind the limit line, YES, I DROVE IN THE BIKE LANE (had the same guy as last time), blah de blah. At one point I thought, "Hm, this is kind of fun." YEAH.

And other than, "you could turn your head a little more," I passed. He said that right off!

Oh, total shock. We went out for dessert afterwards and I called everyone who didn't have a job that prevented them from phone calls until 5 p.m. My shrink was all, "Nananana, I told you so."

Finally, the long national nightmare (kidding) that has been dealing with the DMV for half my life is over! I threw out all my test papers! I deleted all the DMV video links! I don't have to deal with this shit again! WOOOOOOOOOOO!

Man, it was weird getting in the car as a licensed driver, though. "Huh, I could be in this thing BY MYSELF now."

I will still be having driving lessons-- my navigation skills DESPERATELY NEED WORKING ON, I really can't navigate too well anywhere other than the town I live in past about where I can see. That will be in the winter. Okay, so at some point I may get a GPS, but navigation skills would be good too. It's a little sad how much I have driven around the town I took the test in and I still can't find things so much as I go "huh, that street looks familiar." This needs fixing.

As for the question everyone asks me, "Will you be getting a car?", the answer is "Not any time soon." Yes, I may be a spoiled brat, but Mommy will not be buying me a car. (They told me that if I didn't drive at 16 I'd never get a free car, and now Mom is waaaaaaaaaahbroke, so never mind that either.) This is not a surprise. However, I know diddly squat about the entire car process... and I don't have a real credit card, which is a double problem with that. I fear credit like mad, but at this point I'm not gonna get to avoid it any more (sigh).

THAT is what I will be dealing with in 2011: the financial end.

But you know what? I finally took the first step towards actual fucking adulthood and being able to take care of myself and move on with my life yesterday. And that is DAMN good.


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