Driving

I am learning to drive. I got my permit on the twenty-seventh and I have had two lessons and spent 14 hours driving. To keep me safe there is a knotted rosary hung on the driver's seat of the van. Until I take my test I am wearing one of Mom's rings whenever I drive so I can channel whatever led her to miss only one point on her permit test and score 98/100 on her driving test (70 is passing). So far driving is pretty much how I expected, kind of hard and really fast and I am pretty good at it.

After my first lesson with an instructor I have gone out with different combinations of people: Dad, Mom, Mom and Dad, Mom and Nick, and Dad and Nick. The worst was Mom and Dad, because they directed me with instructions that didn't conflict, but were not identical either (like "turn left" and "speed up" or "{go around this guy" and you should have turned right there!"). It was very stressful and I do think my driving will get better once I don't have anyone with me, or once the people I have with me fall asleep or get distracted. And today (driving Nick and Dad to school) I made progress on that because on the freeway Dad trusted me to dig around on the floor finding a little broken thing and telling a story about how it would be if people picked up.

The best driving was up at Tilden park, which has curvy curvy roads and narrow narrow streets. It was a little scary but I could go slowly and it was really pretty scenery. I would like to go again, at night maybe (it does -sound- scarier, but I think no one would be out on their bike which was the scariest part of the trip in the day)

Driving is still a very strange thing, I can tell that I did not evolve to drive. Or I guess technically my adaptations don't ... interface properly with driving. (biking and skiing are two transportation things I am good at although I obviously did not evolve specifically to do them.)