And so it begins again. I picked Day up after school and we went over to the Department of Motor Vehicles. We went to one a little farther from the house than the one I usually go to but Mr. Philately was correct. It was a little less busy. It was DMV hell but it was more efficient DMV hell than usual.

Day, of course, has no idea how bad it can get. With her, I set a new record for in and out. It only took an hour. The least impressive thing was that, after she got her learner's permit, she realized that they had listed her as male. The most impressive thing is that they did not send us back to start to get it fixed. We only had to go back two windows and they did not make us take a new number.

They have changed the permits, at least at this DMV place. Apparently, some DMV places, including the one to which most kids from Day's school go, still issue the paper, pictureless instruction permits. Not this DMV. At this DMV, they issue a plastic card with a picture. It looks like a regular driver's license except that it says it is a instruction permit. How cool is that?

I immediately took her out for the first time because I just love teaching driving. It's so relaxing. (Not!) We went to an abandoned parking lot and drove around a bit. For some reason I cannot fathom, she turns to the left much more smoothly than to the right. We practiced for a half an hour and then I let her drive some side streets. Her first move almost landed us in a ditch but she (and I) recovered nicely. What I couldn't understand was the woman in the van behind us who had seen this almost-ditch-the-car maneuver being stupid enough to ride barely short of tailgating behind her. Some people have no self-preservation instinct.

Then we celebrated with ice cream. With Day, it's not a celebration until you have the ice cream. I even let her get a shake. How cool am I?

And then she did the very, very teenage thing. After I came home from my water aerobics class (please, someone, remind me tomorrow why I am so stiff), she almost blew it. She almost got herself grounded from driving for a week for getting snarky.

So it begins anew. Driving, the ultimate teenage lever.

|