Comments on: Drivers Ed

By: Amy

Amy — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 19:22:07 +0000

Sadie-
I agree with Chris -- your next challenge must be learning how to drive a stick shift. We could do it together. I've had a total of two lessons so far -- over the last ten years. It's just way too much to keep track of -- I just don't get the appeal!

By: Chris

Chris — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 12:34:32 +0000

Sadie,

This is funny. I was under the impression that you'd never driven before in your life, so I was impressed to find that you actually had passed the driver's test. Parking lots are good places to learn how to drive -- that's where I learned how to drive a stick shift. Maybe that could be one of your next blogs: learning to drive stick. Even though manual transmissions are going the way of the velociraptor.

By: Annette

Annette — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:21:50 +0000

I'll provide moral support for your driving attempts in exchange for trader joe's runs!

By: Kyle

Kyle — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 18:07:42 +0000

Sadie,

Hmm. Does this mean I can ask you to drive me around now?

By: Mackey

Mackey — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 17:32:17 +0000

On my first driving day of drivers ed the other student didn't know that birds got out of your way and so when we happened upon one she swerved so as not to hit it, resulting in us crashing into a parked car. Needless to say I had to learn the hard way that birds get out of your way. Be thankful that Beth taught you that valuable lesson.

By: Lara

Lara — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 15:00:03 +0000

I Love it! You took me back to the good 'ole days before I drove everyone around, but rather when I was forbidden to take the wheel. Even though I had acquired my cherish permit and had already passed my lessons, I could only drive with an adult since I was 15 1/2. My mother was terrified at this option and banned me from taking the wheel. I had to be chaufered around in friend's station wagons and reliants, fantasizing when I could finally take the wheel. After pleading for days, my brave grandmother who was visiting us back in 1994, allowed me to drive us down the street to a strip mall that had a beloved blockbuster. I was ecstatic and even when I crossed three lanes of traffic after an ambitious left turn, she stayed calm and collected and told me "I was doing fine", I knew she was freaked out but didn't show it. Needless to say, that with over ten years driving experience, I am still driving and with a better sense of left turns. Except for the one case of running over a pedestrian... It is still being disputed ;-) Good Luck!!

By: Thalia

Thalia — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 03:45:47 +0000

Is the macaroni-mobile that repulsive blue bug someone gave you-- the one where you could see the road through the floorboards? The one you never drove? I remember borrowing it at Smith (since you didn't know how to drive an automatic, much less a 40-year-old standard death trap), to drive to Williams, of all places. That midnight road over the Berkshires was...interesting.

Anyway, if your learning to drive is anything like teaching you to apply eyeliner, I wish your teachers (and terribly gullible friends) very good luck. And probably, by the time I see you next you'll have it down cold-- just like the ease in which you now can approach your own eye in a mirror. Now you have absolutely no excuse for not coming to visit me (Vermont being one of those states with absolutely abysmal public transportation.) LOL

By: Sadie

Sadie — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 22:57:17 +0000

The real reason I want to learn to drive? I want to go to the secret gay strip club that Jessica's writing about in the next issue of the City Paper!

(Just kidding Dad! It's actually because I want to move back to Florida.)

((Just kidding Matthew! It's because I want to be able to shuttle myself to those Takoma Park bluegrass jams we are always talking about hitting.))

By: Dad

Dad — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:27:53 +0000

Sadie

I think I was the first one to be subjected to your driving. As you may recall, I really wanted you to drive, but once our lessons began, I quickly had my doubts. In 20-20 hindsight, I do think that it was your poor peripheral vision that impeded you severely...and I regret that we didn't pick up on that earlier, but now with your contact lenses, your vision is amazing....so I expect that your driving skills will likewise greatly improve!!
This discussion also brings back memories of your first and only car...aka what your stepbrother coined "The Macaroni-Mobile!...(didn't I invest big bucks in that car (1t least $250). You can tell everyone why he called it that! Ok - good luck to you (and the DC squirrels). As always, I am very proud of you!!! Dad

By: Andrew Beaujon

Andrew Beaujon — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 21:00:44 +0000

In case she ever TRAVELS?

By: Matthew

Matthew — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 20:20:47 +0000

I fear these driving lessons are a precursor to you eventually moving back to a state (which shall remain anonymous) where public transportation is practically non-existant. Why else would you want to learn an awful skill, in my opinion, when you reside in a corner of the world that is well-serviced by trains, buses, taxis and those amphibious tourist vehicles that occasionally splashdown in the Dupont Circle fountain instead of the Potomac?

By: sybil

sybil — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:48:58 +0000

Excellent -- I was v. dubious about the "birds getting out of your way" story at first, but after 12 years of driving I can say that it appears to be true. When do you get to try highway driving??

By: Mike P

Mike P — Tue, 18 Sep 2007 19:45:19 +0000

Excellent news, glad you are progressing. My friend, coming home from getting his license, hit a bird. The bird's wing got stuck in his windshield wipers, so he panicked and turned on the wipers. But the bird refused to dislodge, so my 16-year-old freshly licensed friend drove for several miles with an expired bird streaking hither and fro across his windshield before it finally fell off. He was somewhat traumatized.

The very next day, he hit another bird, but this one bounced harmlessly off his windshield (well, harmless to him; the bird probably bit it). For a long time, he thought hitting birds while driving must be a pretty common experience and lived with this irrational fear until he eventually realized his two-day avian massacre was naught but an unhappy coincidence.

So I wish you better that that, Sadie.