Ta da! I passed!! But due to no great skill of my own, I should add. I was such a nervous wreck by the time that I got to the driving test that I made enough errors that he could have failed me, but thankfully the cute old guy giving the test liked me. And, sure enough, he had some connection to my family – turns out his wife played golf a few times with my Grandmother several years ago (what an odd little world this is…) Here’s what I did wrong:

Ever since I passed out, it’s really hard for me to look over my shoulder because my neck is *so* tight. On most days I can’t get my chin parallel with my shoulder, so I’ve developed a rather bad habit of only glancing over my shoulder when I’m driving. On my BMW, the mirrors are angled just right so that it minimizes the typical blindspot, so I don’t have to worry too much as long as I’m constantly aware of everything going on around me, which I tend to be pretty good at.

Well. He told me to merge into the right lane, and there happened to be a parking lot entrance/exit right where I was merging. I had already looked into the parking lot and saw that it was completely and utterly empty, so I didn’t check my blindspot to see if anyone was coming out of the parking lot. Oops. That was one mistake against me.

That’s when a little red Pontiac decided to come speeding around the corner at 40mph, out from behind a row of pick-up trucks that were blocking my view, and it whirled around the pine tree and nearly hit us. I still maintain it wasn’t my fault – there was no way to see that car. Even if I hadn’t assumed it was a four-way stop, there was no way I could have seen her coming. But I stopped before there was any accident or anything even close to one. She made an obscene gesture at me, to which I just smiled and backed up to let her go.

Unfortunately, this made me so nervous that I probably made a few more minor errors on the way back, but I think he could tell I was just really upset by what had happened. Plus, it didn’t help that he was so dang talkative. I thought it was against the rules to distract the driver during the test.

All of that aside, the important bit is he let me pass, so I got my little certificate and off I went with Uncle Bud to the DMV in Littleton, Colorado (which also happens to be right across the street from South Park Plaza, but we couldn’t figure out why it was named that – we weren’t even in South Park [thank goodness].)

Of course, the DMV was an absolute mess. We went in, I got a number – I was number 5, and they were serving number 70. We decided to go get some breakfast (it was nearly 11:00 and I hadn’t eaten yet) so we went across the parking lot to a Waffle House. That was lovely and we talked about cars the whole time. When we got back to the DMV, they were serving number 77. Ouch. Turns out their printer had completely crapped out. But by the time we had gotten there, things were up and moving again.

Until they got to number 95. Then it died again. We had to wait for 45 minutes for the repair guy to get there, fix the printer, and get things going again. I read some Dickens that I had brought with me, I let my eyes wander all over the place, I smiled at a bunch of babies; then finally my number was called. I went up to the counter as several people cheered me on (by that point I think we were all delirious). They didn’t even look at my identification that I brought with me, they just took my permit, asked me some questions about weight, height, etc, and then a few minutes later, I got my picture taken. And that was that.

So here I am, sitting in my Uncle’s basement, eating the last of my peanut butter cup frozen custard from last night, and trying to remind myself that even after all of that mess today, I got my license. It’s in my back pocket. It’s *mine*.

To celebrate, when we got back earlier from the DMV, Uncle Bud let me take Julie’s car and drive to the mall. We thought that would be highly appropriate, and I figure it fills one of the final requirements of teenage life. I put my CD in, I drove off, and had a great time. Although, it seemed rather anti-climactic once I got to the mall – I don’t really like big malls, my feet hurt, and I didn’t want to buy anything. So I walked around for a little while then decided to come back home. So here I am.

The first song I listened to driving out on my own was “As the World Falls Down” by David Bowie, a classic from ‘Labyrinth’. My how I had a crush on him when I was three… 🙂 So it was just me and David Bowie, cruising down Van Gordan Avenue, looking out over downtown Denver, having a beautiful time.

We’re heading out to dinner at 5:00 with Bud, Julie, my cousin Jennifer, her husband Kyle, and their two baby girls. I’m excited to see them – I haven’t seen Jennifer in something like four years, and I haven’t even met the girls yet. It’ll be fun. 🙂