My First Driving Experience

Dear Wal,

This isn't technically my first driving experience, because I had to drive for driver's ed this week as well, but it was considerably more eventful considering I drove with my dear father in the passenger seat. Driving with the driver's ed teacher was extremely boring and very quiet, which I guess was good. My dad, however, has a tendency to chatter when he's nervous, and considering this was his first day out with his youngest driving a very large, dangerous machine I don't blame him.
Anyway, I drove back from the DMV once I got my permit (Down back roads, of course. No big highways for me, no thanks. I don't like them at all.) which was mostly uneventful. Except I took this one corner to fast (it was at the bottom of a hill, I misjudged, can you blame me?) and scared my poor father to death. He spent a good amount of the ride back clutching to the door. He kept going off on little rambles about how people were idiots when they were driving and they would pull in front of you and cross into other lanes. And then of course there were all the ones about how bad it would be if I ran off the road or went to fast or something. He did a lot of complaining about how high the speed limit was on a couple curvy roads we drove on.
That evening I had to go to cross country practice (In 90 degree weather. Some might call me brave. Others would call me stupid.) so I drove down to practice, which involved going down this giant hill at the end of the road we live on. I don't know what percent grade it is, but it's steep. Dad coached me in the art of not burning up the brakes, which I was very grateful for. I didn't like that hill at all. Not only was it steep it was also curvy. Anyway, we made it through without crashing into anything or losing control. Then after that I had to navigate. Heaven forbid. I missed the last turn because I was trying to make a corner and Dad was telling me to slow down. I drove for another four miles until we decided to pull over and get directions off of Dad's phone. So then we doubled back and I managed to turn on the right road. Once we got onto the gravel part (It's a tow-lane paved road for a while and then turns to gravel. We run on the gravel part.) he started talking about how bad it would be if I ran off the road. Yeah, really encouraging, thanks. But thankfully I have very good selective hearing, so I could block out the useless rambling and pick up the important parts.
We finally got there and I ran. Dad drove back. I was grateful. I was really tired and really didn't want to drive.
Then today Mom needed to go to the post office, and Dad had the car because he went grocery shopping, and so all we had was the giant, lumbering truck. Which meant that I got to drive it into to town to the post office. I had to get the truck out of the driveway in the first place, which meant doing a three point turn around a tree. Then I got out on the main road and headed toward town. Once I was on main street I had to park, which in the truck was an..experience. I managed it the first time without being halfway out of the parking place though. We went in and Mom sent off a shawl (She makes patterns for KnitPicks, for those of you savvy in the wild world of knitting.) and then I cam back out and started up the truck.
But the problem was that some idiot hadn't pulled into his parking place all the way, which meant that I couldn't get out. Any other vehicle would have been able to make it, but not the truck. This person took an age and a half to come out of the bank, and then Mom got out and chewed them out about parking halfway out in the way through the parking lot. By this point I was freaking out. Just a little. And Mom was freaking out. Just a little. And then we were both freaking out.
But then we went to the library and had ice cream and everything was happy again. Mom found out that apparently Dad didn't want me to drive the truck, even though I did fine. The only hiccup being the stupid person who doesn't know how to park.

/endrant

P.S. I just got back from riding Buzzy at night. It. Was. Cool.