Today Did Not Go Well

I Have Learned Things

Strange things. For instance, in the town I live in you must have a legitimate license to ride a bike. That is correct, bike riding requires a license. And yes, it requires passing a test to get (on bike laws, not the actual act of pedaling). But being the incredible rebel I am, I rode to the library anyway to drop off books. And then I rode back...most of the way. There was a particular hill I had to take a breather on. At one point I just hopped off and walked the bike the rest of the way home. It felt like there were bands of steel wrapped around my thighs. Also, my butt is still hurting.

I also drove a bit today. And I learned I suck. After driving around the highschool parking lot (because when I woke up this morning I decided I wanted to turn in circles while asshole teenagers stared at me) we went on a bit of a jaunt through a residential district. And I sucked. And I don't mean kinda suck. I went up on the curb at one point. And nearly got hit (but in my defense it was a 4 way without signs and I GOT THERE FIRST). Dad was yelling, telling me I was going to kill him and that if I kept driving like this I would never pass the test. The whole time I kept cursing society for making operating a vehicle capable of taking human life a necessity for day to day life. And more than once I thought about just quitting and going back to being the weird hipster that can't drive.  

But I made it home with no obvious damage to the car. But I've learned that I don't even have the correct mindset for a car. The "observe everything at once" mentality does not come naturally to me. The majority of the time I'm lucky if I'm fully in reality at all, much less cemented in it. Which you have to be, if you're going to be on the lookout for all manner of signs, speedometers, and other drivers who have been driving for longer but are still pulling dick moves on the road.

The solution, at least the only one I can think of at the moment, is to practice observing whilst a passenger in a car. This is kinda heartbreaking, as listening to music and daydreaming in a moving vehicle is in my top 10 favorite things to do. But I figure if I get used to noticing parked cars and signs while I'm a passenger, then it'll be second nature to look for them when I'm behind the wheel. But I'm still not going to enjoy this. Tonight I shall mostly likely fall asleep cursing Henry Ford's name to the depths of Dante's Inferno.