Something to read as I work on my next novel.
Two years ago, I failed my driving test. It was horrible. The instructor screamed at me because she realized her clipboard was inadequate in shielding herself from incoming vehicles (as if that was my fault…).
Praise God no one was hurt.
I was thoroughly traumatized. I never failed anything in my life, until that moment. I bawled my eyes out at Taco Bell, then returned for a second test, two days later. It was a man instructor with all the chill in the world.
I passed, hyperventilating and all.
We spent last night at a Best Western in Columbus, Ohio. I’m mentioning it because it was very nice. They had a fitness center, heated pool, spa, and sauna. I was really excited about the sauna because I’d never sweated it out in one, but it was out of order. That was the only disappointment.
The pool really was heated. I’d been in a lot of “heated” pools. But never a HEATED pool. Very nice. And it was clean, in comparison to another hotel with a pool we went to that had what looked like clumps of dirt at the deep end and a green spa.
Because we lost a day from moseying around yesterday, we had ended up about four hours down the highway, but stopped at another hotel, still in Missouri.
My brother gets off of school on Wednesday, so we don’t have any more extra time to mess around.
We drove about eight hours today, but I got some cool pictures in. I’d definitely want to stop by St Louis next time. It’s gorgeous. There are all these cathedral looking houses and I got a few drive-by pictures. Also a picture of the arch.
Oklahoma has been. . . interesting.
But more on that later.
Yesterday was my drive test, take two.
You better believe I was nervous. But this time, I wanted to do it right.
The night before at church, my friends and I got together and prayed. I got hugs. A “Good Luck” sign, a fake ring made out of string (long story), and a lot of encouragement. So the next morning, I woke up at a decent hour, devoed, tried to eat an orange but it was disgusting so I tried to eat cereal instead, got dressed, and I even did my hair and makeup.
I had decided that before, I didn’t treat the test as well. My mindset on Monday was “just don’t acknowledge it was happening”, that way, I could stay calm and not even feel like I was on a test. Obviously, that didn’t work. So yesterday, I treated it like I was going out with friends. I told myself we were thrift shopping, or going on an adventure, or a church event or something. NOT a test.
We got to the DMV way too soon for my tastes. I keep forgetting that our “new” house (we moved here last November) is so close to civilization. We used to live on a ranch which was about thirty minutes or more from anything. (Bet you didn’t know that about me.)
So many things are happening nowadays. Job interviews and searchings (I just had an interesting job interview, but I’ll leave a cliff hanger and tell you about that later). But the biggest and newest and most horrible thing is driving.
Yes. I’m a late-bloomer. Yes, I’m eighteen and don’t have a license. . . I have my permit though.
Yesterday (was it yesterday? Seems so far away, praise God), was my driving test. . I was scheduled for 10am. Got there early. Went through the line. Was given instructions. My Mom drove the car into the little driveway. And we waited. We were there for thirty minutes before this cranky, worn looking lady wearing a floral shirt tapped on my wind shield, where my permit and appointment time was, seeing I had been there for so long, and went inside. Soon, she was back out, telling me my instructor was MIA or something and she’d take over instead.
