Driving Lessons

I've a driving licence seven years already... or so. I finally have a car too, an adorable, tiny, beanie little thing I affectionately call "Little bean" or Sookie. So okay, what's the deal? The deal is that I haven't driven in such a freaking long time I'm all rusted. Not exactly my fault as basically non of the cars in the family were ever really made available for me to drive, so it had to pass seven year (or so) and some things (like me seriously making plans to move to Hungary for good, and never again see my close family on daily basis), to get things on the move and get my own car. Why didn't I buy one for myself, you ask? Well, so far, with the lifestyle I had, it didn't seem like the smartest thing to do. Up to a few years buying fab clothes and traveling as often as possible was far more important, and the maintenance costs of a car didn't really fit in my budget, so even if I could have bought myself a car, I didn't want to have all my goodies shackled down and limited because I had to pay for gas, parking, taxes, circulation rights, insurance and all accompanying annoyances.  Every once in a while I've got to drive some, take the car for a ride, do a certain distance when we were on the road towards the beach, and so I was confident of my habilities, but never got to steadily test them, hone them, work them. Then, lets be honest, up to a few years ago I used to go out drinking with my friends a lot - not enough to get drunk! but on occasion I did got warm and fuzzy - so how could I drive responsably in that state? Not a chance. I believe I did thought that driving was like biking: you can't just forget it, no matter what.

Now that I've focused on obtaining a particular goal, it happens that a car - and driving a car - is a rather important matter that means shifting around certain things. The Life on the Fab Line is basically over, like many other things in my life, that was also a phase that came and went - but certain things still stay, such as Benetton, Swatch and NafNaf. MNG has been outcasted inspite of giving me some of my favorite clothes - so now that the foccus came towards lowering and hatching the hefty loans I've accumulated (and doing awesome!), I did my math, spread my Excel sheets and determinated that at this point of my life a car could fit my budget. Also, the practice here with the car would certainly be a great help once I'm in Hungary. It also bothered me to have a licence, to have learned to drive and not do it, so it was about time to put my skills to use.

Well, as it happened, the first time I tried to drive Sookie I could hardly remember how to ingnite the car!!! Oh the horror!! I was thinking, "what the fuck? I've already parked my dad's other car!". The shock didn't end there as I realized I was having difficulties feeling the clutch. It was like being back to zero again. :-(

So there I was, with a lovely car, and no skills to use it. I had to repractice myself into driving. As expected, Dad was less than amenable towards practicing with me, and his step-by-step practices at starting the car were driving me up the wall. Sorry, I don't work on that system, I need to work on my own system. Dad even mentioned hiring again my old instructor, but I wasn't going to have that. That dude does drive me crazy worse than dad (he has all this slang words like "opening" and "closing" I never figured out. Why couldn't he say I'm too much on the left or the right?), and so it happened that the first day I was going to practice on myself I drove into the gate. Ooops. I've got panicky, so it wasn't until recently that I started practicing again, with one of the most devoted, wonderful instructors I've ever met: my boyfriend.

On this note Kari and I have been practicing, which is a real blessing. It's actually nice to have someone in your life that won't shun away from practicing, but egging you to do so. I'm - on the other hand - really hard for this, as it depends on the mood I am, and I don't like practicing for given amounts of time (that stresses me), but rather by distance. This is how today I drove twice as much as usual and the car didn't turn off even once! That's a usual problem I have with cars: getting the start out, but once I get it, I'm good to go. Now I feel more confident, though I know I still have a lot to practice, since starting the car or getting it moving on a hill is a pain in the ass for me, but I'll get there, you'll see. So watch it out, because soon I'll be on the road! (Only not doing stupid stunts like putting on make up and talking on the phone while driving...)