You all know what I'm going to tell you….
In short, I failed my test.
Let me explain.
I got up early this morning feeling nervous but confident. I did some breathing exercises (all tests make me very nervous, not just driving exams), visualized myself parallel parking, and all other sorts of zen driving techniques. I got the baby and the boyfriend situated, kissed them both goodbye and my mom and I were off. It took awhile to get out there, but I was kind of glad that it was out in the sticks. That way the actual road portion of the test wouldn't be too stressful.
We got in line and when it was finally our turn, the examiner came up to the window to get all of the paperwork done. He asked me for my permit and I handed him the little update thing that they had sent me in the mail when I had failed the test the first time. Randy, the examiner, informed me that this wasn't my actual permit and I needed my original in order to take the test. The original, of course, was sitting in my purse at home. Since this was the last day that my permit was valid, I had the option of renewing my permit on the spot and waiting around to see if he could squeeze my exam in between appointments. I was getting flustered, but figured that I should at least renew my permit. We drove to a National City to buy a money order, since neither of us had our checkbooks.
Back to the driving center, where I waited in line while several snotty teenagers got their snotty pictures taken to put on their snotty driver's licenses. After I got the permit renewal all squared away, I ran into Randy on my way out. I asked him if there was any chance I could test today or if I should just reschedule. He looked at his clipboard and told me to go ahead and get in line. Word.
When it was my turn again, we started doing all of the paperwork. Randy looked at my mother's registration and asked her where the little sticker was that was supposed to be on her license plate. She had no idea and he began to look more exasperated. He told us that due to the inconvenience, he would test me today. If I failed, however, she would have to get the sticker before I retested. Whew.
The test began and I went through all of the horn, lights, wipers, signals stuff with ease, unlike the first time when I choked and couldn't remember how to turn the headlights on. I was feeling confident as Randy got into the car and told me to proceed to the parallel parking obstacle.
I was surprised at how calm I felt. I backed into the space and ended up using all three of my backups, but was able to straighten it out perfectly. “I rule,” I thought. “I'm actually going to pass this bitch.”
Not so.
Randy opened his door to reveal that I was roughly four feet from the curb.
Oops.
Randy looked at me, grinned and said, “Well, you obviously have a lot of work to do.” I wasn't sure if he was going to just pass me on the parking section or not. I mean, I really didn't do that bad. However, he told me to pull up next to the building and he would send out my mom.
Sigh.
I was kind of upset, but I didn't burst into tears…at least not right away. I waited until we were out of the parking lot.
I don't know. Maybe it's just not meant to be. I guess I'll try one more time but I'm seriously so over this entire process.
