anyway...

i got my driver's license! WHOOOPPEEEEDDOOOOO!!!

i don't know how i did it, it almost seemed like an out of body experience. i was praying for it, i HAVE to pass. i've been putting this off long enough. if i didn't, at least i had to know how it really is instead of just scaring myself shitless with other people's horrendous tales of their first time, taking the road test that is.

friends from the philippines know that while i hold a phil driver's license, i didn't actually drive, i mean i can, i took the classes, i drove a few times, but mostly to "practice" since my mom still thinks i can't do it in the "real world". see, driving, i can. parking, well thats a whole different story. and when i got a job in makati, where the parking fee is just ridiculous, i dropped driving altogether.

it didn't help that we have shuttles, and that a year into working, i moved out and got a place a few blocks away from our office building with my friend, Kat.



so yes, my driver's license collected dust in a drawer in our house. i didn't even know it expired until i had to go here in hawaii and use it to get in bars and order a decent drink, aka beer. (its either that, which they don't always accept, or my passport, which is just a big fricken hassle)

yes, its easier that they mostly have automatic cars here, no more "balancing" of the pedals. i just step on them, one to move, the other to stop. but still, driving here is a lot different than what i was taught, or at least what im accustomed to.

for one, they follow road signs here, especially speed limits. i don't think i've ever seen a speed limit sign in the phils, and if there was, i bet my ass not one driver followed it.

its also hard to keep in your lane because frankly, who follows those almost invisible lanes there anyway? if you fit, you can pass. so what if you can kiss the next car's windows, just be sure not to scrape it, right?

that's just 2 among the rest of the "rules" that i have to "learn" ( i mean, i know them, i just... never followed them LOL) to be able to get a license here.

so yes, scared shitless is what I'm going to call what going to a road test feels like. i'm not gonna deny it, i drive like a manic manila jeepney driver (oh you should've heard my hubby when i first drove with him, i thought he was going to have a heart attack when i cut a car rather sharply, but i swear there was CHOKE room!) and it took a while to "unlearn" what im used to.

3 years to be exact.

so yes, that week, i couldn't sleep. i prayed. even alcohol can't calm my nerves. and it didn't help that my hubbs won't be the one to take me coz he had to go to work.

when the day came, i only had an hour sleep. maybe 2 if you add all those 5 mins when i doze on and off until finally giving in only to be woken up by my baby crying. i also had to take the big ass seqouia since that's what i usually drive and no other car which i have driven is available.

so yes, i was a train wreck. so much so that when the lady said i passed, i sat in there for at least 3mins, speechless. she already went on her way back to the office and was halfway there when i came to and caught up, stopping myself from skipping all the way to the door.

so what if i didn't have time to fix myself up for the photo, i passed. i now have a legit driver's license. i can go to mcdonald's in the wee hours without the fear of a cop car following me and putting me to jail thanks to my french fries craving. (coz you know, it can happen)

so goodluck hawaii, you just let a jeepney driver loose in your law-abiding-driver-filled-streets.