Learning to drive

At this age of mine,(turning 30 in two weeks, if you must know) I am learning to drive.

Carlos takes me for a spin in a parking lot we know that is totally vacant on Caturdays. At first he stayed on the car giving me directions, but now he gets off and tells me to drive around a few times and return for him. It gives me more confidence. No more sharp indrawn breath when I make something stupid.

I am still having trouble judging distances, and it's not like I'm learning inside a ginormous-monstertruck- SUV. I am driving in a sedan. Small, compact, automatic transmission.

Still, everytime I turn right I misjudge the distance and either invade the other lane or jump the curve.

I am aware that I sound pathetic. I should have learned sooo long ago that it would be second nature to me. Hindsight is 20/20.

the guys at work tell me that I should get me a professional teacher. Learning with family and friends is harder because they love you and will not force you to go farther than you want to go at that moment, so you learn slooooowly. Or they get nervous easily and rattle your nerves too!

They tell me a real teacher would place me behind the wheel on day one, and we would go on a long-ish trip. Two hours or so. After three days of this, they say, anyone is ready for the test.
And that is scary as hell to me.

I will do it, but after I have passed a slightly smaller test Carlos devised for me.

You see, Carlos goes to work at 4:45 am and takes me to my job. At the time there is very little traffic.

There is some traffic, so I am not in my confort zone, but since I fear I might be a risk to others on the road, this is the best way to test me and give me confidence for the professional teacher.

I will be driving to work on Monday morning. After a week of this, I will be ready for a trip to Ponce and will be blogging about it!