Driving (or the lack of)

So when everybody turns the age of 16 they are all excited to start driving and pass their driver’s test and being free in the world but, there is always something that gets in the way of that. When I turned 16 I was in German Village with my friends and family. We were talking about driving and buying a white Volkswagen convertible over platter full of pretzels, potato pancakes, fried pickles, and fried sauerkraut at Hofbrauhaus. But before this happens I need to get my driver’s permit (which I still don’t have because of, well, life.)

I had a plan. A great plan. My plan was to get my permit of Spring Break of Sophomore year. Yeah, that didn’t happen. My mom, my dad, my grandma, and my friend all landed in the hospital for multiple reasons. So that crushed down my dream of the sweet little plastic card. My friend Courtney and I drove to Dayton to visit our friend at Children’s. That was…fun. To say the least. Courtney is the one that has the car old as Moses that I talked about in a later post. In Moses’ time they did not have cruise control and Courtney was freaking out. (I’m actually surprised that she ever got her driver’s license in the first place.) And of course when we were driving on the highway it started to rain. Which made the situation 100% better. I would make comments like, “Well, we are going to die anyway.” and “If we do crash they would take us to Children’s. So either way we are going to get there.” I don’t think she liked that. But in the end we did get there, got lost in the parking garage, spent time with our friend, and ate some Thin Mints.

The first time I ever been in a car that has been pulled over by cop was with my friends and one of my friend’s mom. It was me, Paige, Sam, and Meghan. It was Friday night and we just got done eating with our friend Austen. We got into Paige’s mom’s new car and I made a comment about going to Tim Horton’s to get ice cream (which I did think anybody was going to take seriously but turns out that they did.) So we go, get ice cream and donuts, and get back into the car. We were driving down the street for, like, 5 minutes, and then were hear sirens. It was a cop car. Pulling us over. Paige’s mom pulls into the parking lot of the animal hospital right next to O’Connors. I repeat. NEXT TO O’CONNORS ON A FRIDAY NIGHT IN SEPTEMBER. A bunch of drunk people were hoot and hollering at us. Perfect. It turns out that she didn’t have her headlights on. This may sound really stupid but we were going to down a street that was fully lit so we couldn’t tell the difference. The cop acts like we were a bunch of druggies by flashing this huge flashlight in our face and asking us a bunch of questions. I don’t remember was I was getting but I asked Sam to hold my ice cream. Yeah, she didn’t it. She dropped it. The cop just gave us the evil eye and looked back at the mom. Perfect. Great. “I never want to drive in my life.” is what I thought to myself. When the cop finally left we all made a joke that the cop was after Meghan’s donuts.

I’m not afraid of driving. I REALLY want to drive! It’s just life and school get in the way too much. I have been around driving my whole live. When I was younger my dad raced for Ohio University. He could go all around the country and sometimes even go to Canada. He was in a bunch a parades and festivals and raced against professionals. We go to Indy and Mid-Ohio pretty much every year and one time at Mid-Ohio we saw Mario Andretti. My dad and my grandpa just walk up to him like he was a lost family member or something! Dad always told me and my sister that he was friends with Mario Andretti but we never believed him because it was MARIO ANDRETTI he was talking about people! Some times when we go to the auto parts store people will come up to my dad and ask if he is still racing and if they can get his autograph! (I guess you can call my dad a big star.) My dad is not a driver anymore but he does work at Honda (just like everybody else that lives in Northridge.) He always talks about cars, watches programs about cars, reads magazines about cars, and his always working on his car and his motorcycle. One time dad bought me a little motorcycle and he made me work on it everyday after school.

Now my dad is the only one in my family that can drive. My mom can drive but it’s really hard for her because of her brain cancer and all the surgery she has had on her hard and sometimes when she drives she will have seizures. She, um, I don’t want to drive with her. I don’t want to drive with my aunt because she is…not the best driver. And DO NOT want to drive with my friends because they can’t drive safely. Like, at all. I’m pretty sure some of my friends threaten their teacher for their driver’s license. My grandma did cry for her driver’s license…I might do that.

I’m going to ask my dad if he can take me to the fairgrounds to drive on this awesome four day weekend after I do this weeks homework, next weekends homework, pack my bag for New Orleans, and get my life together. It’s going to be great.