Tuesday, December 12, 2006
I'm still alive...
...which is somewhat of a miracle!
My oldest got her learner's permit today.
As we were driving back from the BMV, I told her we'd go to a big parking lot, learn the basics, and practice where there was nothing she could hit. She then said she already knew how to drive as her father would let her drive home from the neighbors back in Indianapolis. That drive wasn't very long, but it involved threading down a fairly narrow street that often had cars parked along one or both sides, making a ninety degree turn, and crossing a small bridge before turning into our driveway.
Ok, I thought, she's figured out steering and how to manage the gas and brake. She can handle the drive down our wide, not very curvy street.
Wrong.
In the half mile the mosque and our house, she nearly ran over a mailbox and then almost crashed into a street light, and pissed off at least three other drivers for driving erratically. Thankfully, she pulled into the driveway without running down the mailbox or hitting our old van which was parked there.
Ironically, after she told me she had been driving home from the neighbors, she also said that she wasn't very good. I thought she was being modest, as she usually is very self-effacing about her abilities and talents... she claims not to be very smart, even though she has excellent grades and is in all honors classes. She says she's not so great at karate, even though every one of her instructors says she is excellent, and she has placed in national competitions. She says she's not that good at flute, though she was first chair of the junior band as a sophmore, and one of only two flutes to make it into the swing band. Naturally, I assumed she was being modest about her driving skills too.
Hah! Turns out to be sort of a reverse crying wolf situation... the boy kept crying out that a wolf was coming, but it wasn't, and then when the wolf finally did come, none of the villagers believed him. Tasneem keeps assuring me that she's NOT so talented, but she is, and then I didn't believe her when her assessment that she wasn't so hot was actually right.
Ah well, lesson learned. Next time we're heading to the parking lot.
My oldest got her learner's permit today.
As we were driving back from the BMV, I told her we'd go to a big parking lot, learn the basics, and practice where there was nothing she could hit. She then said she already knew how to drive as her father would let her drive home from the neighbors back in Indianapolis. That drive wasn't very long, but it involved threading down a fairly narrow street that often had cars parked along one or both sides, making a ninety degree turn, and crossing a small bridge before turning into our driveway.
Ok, I thought, she's figured out steering and how to manage the gas and brake. She can handle the drive down our wide, not very curvy street.
Wrong.
In the half mile the mosque and our house, she nearly ran over a mailbox and then almost crashed into a street light, and pissed off at least three other drivers for driving erratically. Thankfully, she pulled into the driveway without running down the mailbox or hitting our old van which was parked there.
Ironically, after she told me she had been driving home from the neighbors, she also said that she wasn't very good. I thought she was being modest, as she usually is very self-effacing about her abilities and talents... she claims not to be very smart, even though she has excellent grades and is in all honors classes. She says she's not so great at karate, even though every one of her instructors says she is excellent, and she has placed in national competitions. She says she's not that good at flute, though she was first chair of the junior band as a sophmore, and one of only two flutes to make it into the swing band. Naturally, I assumed she was being modest about her driving skills too.
Hah! Turns out to be sort of a reverse crying wolf situation... the boy kept crying out that a wolf was coming, but it wasn't, and then when the wolf finally did come, none of the villagers believed him. Tasneem keeps assuring me that she's NOT so talented, but she is, and then I didn't believe her when her assessment that she wasn't so hot was actually right.
Ah well, lesson learned. Next time we're heading to the parking lot.
