(no subject)

[felicula]

I PASSED!!!

Though the process of catching up with my parents and getting Aidan and I transferred into my mother-in-law's car was a bit nerve wracking, it was relatively smooth sailing after that. I drove the car to Auburn. We stopped at Wendy's for lunch. Then, sometime after one, I drove around Auburn practicing. Left turns, right turns, stops, parallel parking (twice), three point turn (once), lane changes, merges... Anything I could think of and then some.

By 2:30 pm I was already as calm and comfortable in the car as I was going to be. I kept driving, since it was still way too early. 2:40, I pulled over and asked Carolyn to drive me to the site. Pulling up to the site, we saw this somewhat heavyset man in uniform flash a brilliant smile at someone. Then he walks over and asks me to get into the driver seat.

I think I lucked out on examiners. The other man looked like a hardass. The woman looked haggard, as if she'd had a long day. As dispassionately poker faced as my examiner was, he resembled a big, brown teddy bear. I was able to keep my cool. I could have done one thing wrong or a hundred and he wouldn't have shown sign of it.

His calm and my practice worked in my favor. Parallel parking and 3 point turns were practically flawless. My only problems that he pointed out in the end were related to erring on the side of caution.

When we returned to the test site, he took the time to tell me what I got wrong. He let me explain my reasoning on one of the issues, then pointed out why my thinking had been incorrect. Only then did he say that my problems came to 25 points which meant I passed. That was still sinking in as he printed my receipt, had me sign it, and exited the car.

I drove back here to mechanchaos's parents' house. I'm glad I'm staying overnight here. Their land is so calm. Just one step out of the car and I was noticeably soothed. I needed that, after the nerves I've had for the past few days and the sheer excitement of knowing that I passed.