SarahAnnAlien's Journal: Driving Lessons, Day 1

The day did not start particularly well.

I couldn't sleep the night before. Too nervous.

Eventually dragged myself out of bed, exhausted, with a headache and stomach cramps. I figured it was just nerves, which was mostly the case. I managed to stumble through my morning routine and drag myself to work. I knew I couldn't do any actual work, so I just paged through the PDF version of the California DMV Driver's Manual a bit.

Then my cell phone rang. The instructor was waiting just outside the building.

Gulp.

Okay, okay, it will be fine, it will be fine, almost everyone can do this without any problems, there's nothing to worry about...

Found the instructor. Introduced myself. Explained that I already have a license but don't drive. He was, of course, curious about this.

Ok, well, my life story in a nutshell: came here in 1986 to go to school. Got the license in 1987 after parental pestering, but never drove after that. 1992, college career disintegrates just as I am ready to graduate. Ten very unpleasant years follow. Then, the discovery: I'm an alien. With the proper diagnosis, we get my brain chemistry readjusted, and now I'm trying to put the shattered fragments of my life back together, and I need to be able to drive to help me do that. Therapist wants me to start driving. Dad wants me to start driving, and last week he bought me a car. I have two weeks to get ready.

I thought he took it pretty well. It didn't seem to be an issue for him. Then again, this guy spends all day riding with high school kids out in traffic, so he must have nerves of steel anyway.

So, first we drove out to a quiet residential neighborhood to try some basics. He said that I was doing just fine with that, and that I was obviously remembering some of my lessons from before, because I was doing things that "new" drivers never do. I'm not consciously remembering anything in particular, I'm just trying to do what seems sensible.

Then we made a wrong turn and ended up on a Really Big Road... which was fine.

We followed Really Big Road down a hill, and back up the other side into the next neighborhood over. It was fine. We found another medium-sized road, which led to someplace we didn't really want to go, so we had to pull into a company's parking lot to turn around. That was fine too, even though it was on another steep hill.

After some more driving around the residential neighborhood, he asked what I wanted to do next.

I had to pee.

Which was not a problem. But where do you go during a driving lesson? Well, of course, you get on a Really Big Road and start looking for a fast food restaurant.

Several miles later, the instructor speculates that we may have "missed it".

A couple miles after that, we found a little strip mall with a burger place, and I pulled into a parking space (another part of the lesson), and ran in to look for the ladies' room.

When I got back to the car, the instructor asked what I wanted to do next. We decided to try some parking practice. That went ok (not great), except for the one spot where I whacked into the curb trying to back out of a spot.

By now we were nearing the end of the allotted time... so I had to drive back to the office. From like a million miles away! (Well, ok, more like... six.)

And it was... ok. Even with the traffic and all the crazy people, it was fine.

And, I was amused that at one point we drove by one of my bus stops; it's one of the two transfers necessary for the 90 minute bus journey to my therapist's office.

In two weeks, I'll probably make that trip in my very own car for the first time ever. Expected travel time: 20 minutes.

So we made it all the way back to my office with no problems. I even knew the way! We pulled up outside the building and thanked my instructor. He said he'd see me again tomorrow, and left for his next appointment.

And that was my first official driving lesson.

The really hard part came once I got back to the office. For the first couple hours, I was completely wired from the adrenaline, and of course I had to tell *everyone* about my adventure. Once that wore off, I had to struggle through the afternoon completely drained of energy.

I've now driven a total of... four hours. This decade. Zero hours in the 1990's. Probably a couple dozen in the 1980's, including an epic journey from Campbell, CA to San Francisco (45 minutes, according to Google).

Tomorrow I think we're going to go on the freeway. A Very Very Big Road!