Saturday, April 18, 2009

Driving, Part Deux

I'm a driver. I drive. I'm an INTERNATIONAL driver, in fact. So there. Add it to my resume. (Remember that movie with Bill Murray and Richard Dreyfus called What about Bob?? When Bob gets up the guts to sail, and he is strapped to the sailboat shouting, "I'm sailing! I sail!" Another movie that I HIGHLY recommend...the dialogue is hilarious. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103241/ oops...another digression) Anyway, I'm a driver. I drive.

You may be asking, "How did that come to be, Renee?" Well, let me tell you. It came down to whether I wanted to spend a rainy afternoon at home...at home with John, Jack and Ian, (all of whom were watching some soccer match on tv) or an afternoon of freedom, essentially. Freedom from the responsibilities of the house stuff. From the guilt that accompanies an afternoon of doing nothing. (I know, I know, I put that evil on myself. You don't have to tell me that.) Freedom to just stroll around the store (rabid cart wheels aside) and, if I so choose, compare every single per-unit cost of every single item I buy...or to read every single label of every single item, or to double back a few aisles because I forgot an item. HOWEVER, getting there to be the lame, strolling-about, label-reading, aisle-repeating weird lady was up to me and my ability to drive.

I wasn't great at it...you know, taking up both lanes a few times as I tried to orient myself to just exactly where I needed to be on the road. And it was tricky in the parking lot, for sure. Turning into a parking space from the opposite side of the car AND road is challenging. Going the wrong way in the parking lot really threw me because it is such a small space with no room to "get over" if I found myself going the opposite way of everyone else. But I did pretty well. Okay, actually, I forgot A LOT while trying to park, and I got honked at. If I could hear them cursing me, I bet they would have said "stupid yank" or something along those lines. But I am exactly that...a Yankee in their country, doing stupid things as I try to get by.

You know what? In general, it was EASY. The driving was easier than the parking. Granted, I was out on a Sunday afternoon, but still...it was much easier than I imagined it to be. Am I ready to drive in London? Hell-to-the-no. But around my neck of the woods? Yep.

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