…is what I would be able to say if I passed my road test yesterday.
The day was pretty much doomed to be horrible from the start. I was woken by the thunder rattling the windows in my bedroom and the rain pounding on my apartment roof. I had friends staying over, and they slept on the sleeper sofa that belongs to my landlady’s son and that she left in our apartment because apparently she didn’t have anywhere else to store it. Well, the pull-out bed has been breaking down gradually all summer, and yesterday morning I couldn’t even fold it enough to get in the frame. I was panicking because I was afraid she would try and hold us responsible and withhold our security deposit. So instead of trying to focus on my road test, I was calling furniture repair places to have this piece of crap couch fixed. One guy in Jackson said it would be $200 just to look at. A lady in Albion gave me her life story but ended up telling me the couch probably isn’t worth more than $50 at a garage sale. But Leer informed me that his dad said that tenants of an apartment are not responsible for any furnishings that are not listed in the lease. Considering our apartment came nearly fully furnished with the landlady’s son’s furniture but the lease said nothing about any furniture ANYWHERE (just “premises”). I think the best I can do is just tell her that it has been breaking all summer and just finally broke completely. If she tries to press it or withhold the security deposit, I’ll show her the lease and let her know it says nothing about the tenants being responsible for her storing her son’s shady furniture in our apartment.
We got to the testing site and it was pouring rain. We’re talking torrential, here. Streets becoming small rivers, lightning, thunder, etc. And it was freezing cold. I met my examiner. She had to run to the gas station before I started. But she got back, we did our inspection, and I did the parking portion. Unfortunately this meant that I had to have the driver’s side window open. In the pouring rain. By the time I got done with my parking portion, the left side of my body was soaked. Despite this, I passed the parking poriton with flying colors. However, by the time I got on the road it was raining really badly. I could barely see anything, including speed advisory signs on exit ramps and railroad crossing signs. Also, I hate city traffic and I’m not used to driving through busy intersections, which proved to be my undoing. She didn’t even give me a “mulligan” because of the weather.
Despite the rain adding stress to an already stressful situaiton, she insisted that I needed to be able to drive safely through the weather by myself. I wish there was a smaller-town testing site near me because I think I’d have an easier time passing my test, but on the bright side, I don’t have to wait for a week to re-test like I thought I would. The examiner said I could take my test today if I wanted to. It would have been nice to because today’s weather, of course, is bright and sunny and warm, but I scheduled it for Tuesday morning in hopes that the weather will cooperate and I’ll have time to practice more.
The worst part, when we were finished with my evaluation and she had told me I failed, with the pouring rain and me being 20 years old and not able to pass a road test, she told me “try not to let it ruin your day”.
Don’t worry, I’m 22 and have had my learner’s permit since I was 15. While I live in a city where all I need to do is jump on a bus to get somewhere, I am an anomaly here too. I keep thinking that maybe I should rope one of my friends into teaching me to drive, but I just never had a reason to.