Well, this morning Megan woke up and went out for her third and final pre-permit driving lesson. Luckily, the rain wasn't too bad, and she was home much later than anticipated, but as she was driving with Mr. Smoke-n-Stop, I figured she had probably driven to the home of his next appointment, who would then bring Megan back here, and that was what had happened. So now she has a learner's permit.
Lately we've had some epidemics of pictures falling off the walls in the house, and that is in addition to those that never were hung when we moved in three years ago. I remembered that Marshall's had some good cheap artwork last summer when I was fixing up the room for E, so I decided to go back. Megan and Kevin came with me, and Megan drove. Well. Let me just say that she may not drive with Kevin for a long, long time.
I decided as we were getting in the car that I was probably the better of the two of us to ride in the front, and I was right. First of all, there is something nobody tells you about new drivers, and that's that they tend to think they are over the center line, and they compensate for this by driving on the right shoulder of the road. I guess this comes from all their years of riding in the front passenger seat, where the perspective is quite different from that of the driver. So Kevin was convinced that she would take out all the parked cars on our block on the way out of the neighborhood. Finally, I told him it would be OK, just as long as nobody had forgotten to close their mailboxes on the main road.
The ride to Marshall's is about fifteen minutes, and he barked at her the whole time. She was going too fast, she was too far to the right, why wasn't she looking? By the time we got there, which was pretty much through rain and unpredictable traffic and a major intersection (where she got confused and drove through a puddle on the shoulder of the road, invoking further torrent from the backseat driver), I think she was happy never to drive again. However, she sucked it up and did drive back from one of our later stops, a shoe store where I spent money that only makes me hope this automated sub calling system works out, and works out quickly. And so begins our year. We haven't tackled driving the Explorer yet.
Oh, and while at Marshall's, I caused a terrible accident, by trying to look at a picture which was at the back of a stack, and when I leaned it forward to check on its price, apparently it also had some others in front of it, and as it leaned, so did they, with nothing to stop them except a poor woman and her leg. So that was quite embarassing. We waited for someone to come and clean it up, and the woman, who insisted she was fine, limped away. We did buy two pictures but now I'm not sure if they are even what I should have gotten. My mind's eye was not the same as what I saw when we got home.
Tonight Megan and Brian are at the same movie, some scary movie, and she is there with ::gasp:: boys (and a girl). Afterwards, Brian is going back to someone's house, and Megan is going to a restaurant near the theater. We have to pick up the two girls. Kevin and I had an exciting dog walk and now he is watching TV and drinking beer, and I am here, updating my blog and drinking a watermelon martini, because I have had to forsake wine since my chocolate indiscretion last week which, combined with jet lag and exhaustion from the day in Paris, brought on an onslaught of migraine aura.
And so in other news, tomorrow is supposed to be the big party day at our beach club, postponed from Hurricane Whoeverhewas last weekend, and now threatened by the dregs of Danny. I plan on going to church again, hopefully in less pain than last week (migraine), and trying to put in the good word for Brian's MRI and future physical state. I am also still following the blog of the boy who fell and hit his head, and he's been in the church's bulletin as well, under prayers for the sick. He has a page on caringbridge, and I've been following his progress. He's been transferred to a coma rehab center - imagine going through that with your 19 year old - and he is doing well, although by their standards 'doing well' has its own meaning compared to ours. He still hasn't opened his eyes. They're very religious, though, in fact he graduated from the school Brian will attend, and their blog is an inspiration when I think of what I worry about with Brian in comparison to what they are going through now.
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