First Toyota’s had to recall gas pedals because they get caught in the floor mats. That’s a little amusing to me, but the really scary thing is something that happened to us while test driving: the brakes don’t like potholes. Basically, if you’re braking the car while you go over a bump (pothole, manhole, whatever), the brake can stop being as responsive and need you to mash down on it. For a moment, you feel like the car isn’t in your control, but then it comes back and off you go.

Toyota and Ford share the regenerative braking system. This means every time you brake your car, your charge the EV. Makes stop-and-go traffic not as much a pain in the ass. Ford’s is slightly different, and has less of a noticeable ‘hiccup’ when moving from EV to gas and back again. When we test drove the Prius and had a braking ‘moment’ but the dealer swore that was by design. That it was just the switchover.

Well now, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration:

The system is calibrated to use one kind of braking or the other for optimum braking performance and maximum efficiency. The calibration and sensors are apparently not responding well to potholes and bumpy roads, and thereby producing an unpleasant driving sensation, and a safety hazard for pedestrians.

Ford? Doesn’t have this problem.

Just photos this week. Thinking things later.

Excuse me, I need a paper bag to go breath into a few times. I’m sure you understand. If not, watch this commercial and put a pillow under my head.

Actually I’m doing okay, I’m just having mild freakouts once in a while and then a squee of delight. I drove it home, since I knew the way better, and didn’t hit anyone.

So. My mother is amazing, and I’m still just flabbergasted at the cost of cars, but also of the level of her assistance. Without that, we’d probably have gotten a used non-hybrid smaller, cheaper vehicle, and known we were going to trade it in within a few years.

We got the car from Perillo Motors, and worked with a lovely man named Horacio Gomes (whom we recommend, he’s very nice). Unfailingly polite and understanding. When we expressed concerns, he said ‘take time.’ When I said I was willing to gamble that the car wouldn’t sell between Monday and the time it took to both sort out money and work around schedules (he’s off Wednesday, I’m ‘off’ Saturday), he understood that. His manager didn’t push either, they accepted and I told them the truth: No matter what, I will call you no later than Thursday about the car. I called him Tuesday, Thursday night we went to finalize everything and sign papers.

And yes, it’s an SUV. Shut up everyone.

Why an SUV? Honestly, I would have been happy with just about anything, I suspect, but we’ve found it’s easier to drive to Mississippi or Cleveland than to fly, even with gas prices and traffic. The train is nice, but if you do that (or fly) you still need a car when you get there, or you’re at the behest of your family. And I love ‘em, but then you’re always on their dime and time. Oh and rentals? Are expensive! They add up, and they smell, and they aren’t always helpful. Which doesn’t answer an SUV, does it? Except I think that looking at the distances, it kind of does. Its first trip will be Thanksgiving. I’ll have to tweet the drive. The point, and I have one, is this. Yes, the streets are skinny in Chicago, and yes, parking is insane, but I’d rather road-trip across the US than fly, even in this economy. An SUV can haul my bike, a tent, and anything else. And a Hybrid SUV still uses less gas than a Toyota Corolla (which is a great car, please don’t knock it!). I don’t have to buy a navigation system (“How do we get there again?”) which is nice.

Why was this car a deal? When I say “fully loaded” I mean it. Navigation system (US and Canada, thank you), parking sensors, running boards, roof rack, privacy windows (which by the way, make it weird looking out the back), auto-lights (for daytime running), four wheel anti-lock brakes, fog lamps, engine block heater, actual outlets (not lighter chargers). The radio also comes as a satellite radio, which I’ll never use (can’t be buggered), but it also has an audio jack. That means the cable you see on the right there is all I need to plug in anything, laptop, iPod, iPhone, Zune, to my car’s stereo. It costs $5 and I had one in a drawer. And yes, it worked fine. The first song I played was “Low Rider.” The last song, as I pulled in to our deeded parking spot, was the randomly chosen Billy Ocean “Get Outta My Dreams (and into my car)” with a dose of Texas Tornados and “Hey, Baby. Que Paso?”

Did I learn anything important about this whole ordeal? Yeah. I learned that you should walk away. Even if it’s your dream car, walk away, think about it, sleep on it. If it’s a used car and it gets sold, that’s okay. If it’s new, they’ll get another model in. Also, you may want to purchase a burner cell phone for the duration, because I currently get a lot of phone calls from people we didn’t end up buying from, and I’m tempted to change my voice mail message:

“Hi, this is Mika. We bought a car and if you didn’t know that, it wasn’t from you. Please leave a message if you’re anyone else.”

No, that won’t go over well. At this point, I’ve managed to call back everyone (yes, I called them, I told them I would!) and told them the bad news. A few people, with whom I’d only emailed, got the generic ‘We went with someone else’ message. Only Northside Toyota (a very nice place as well) wanted to know who I picked and why, and I understand that.

Sidebar. I’m always willing to talk to someone about why I made a decision or do things in a certain way. I vote Green/Libertarian, and lately Chicago’s been hit up with polling people asking if we’re going to vote Republican or Democrat. Invariably, I take a moment to explain that Illinois has three viable parties: Democrat, Republican and Green. Only once has someone been confused by this. So when Toyota asked me ‘Why not the Highlander?’ I told them: The Highlander is expensive, it feels small, it rides like a sedan, and it jerks when it jumps from EV to combustion engines.

I feel bad for car dealers, though, and most other service places. See, even in this crap economy, most people who buy stuff work. And most of us work ‘regular’ hours. That means I can’t get to see my car until after work, which means Horacio has to stay late. Mind you, his hours are till 6pm, but still, what terrible hours! And worse, Illinois is a “Blue Law State” so there’s no major business on Sundays. If that’s new to you, the way it works is that since Sunday is a ‘holy day’ to Christians, you can’t buy booze before noon or purchase major commerce. Like cars. In most places, these get called unconstitutional and repealed, eventually. Illinois is down to two: Car sales are prohibited on Sundays and horse racing is prohibited on Sundays unless authorized by the local municipality. So in Chicago, you can get drunk before noon, but in Cleveland, my dad will fold his arms and refuse to order anything at 11:59am.

I made a lot of use of the internet to research this car, and went quickly from a level where I defined cars by their body shapes to understanding the difference between 4 and 6 cylinder engines, AWD and FWD, and what a powertrain is, mostly. I’m certainly not a car genius, but I know enough that I think I’ll be okay up to the point where I need to change my oil for the first time. And yes, I plan on doing that. I will accept an Idiot’s Guide to Car Maintenance, as well as an air freshener, for holiday presents!

Next up, since insurance is gotten and plates are on the way (generic random number) is a city sticker. Silly city stickers. Hate it, but what’re you gonna do?

I know, I know. It failed the test drive test, which is simple: “Both drivers of a vehicle must take the wheels out for a spin and approve. If either driver doesn’t like the car enough to make faces, the car is out.” There’s a side note of ‘If either driver can’t figure out how to turn the car on…’ but that’s sort of understood. Personally, I feel the biggest problem was the Toyota guy (who shall remain nameless) and his ‘tutoring’ of how to drive.

The hunt continues!

I still love the Prius. I do. I thought it was lovely to drive, it felt like a perfect car to me. The problem is the other driver had serious issues with it, to the point that she was miserable and at that point I explained that since this is going to be our car, then if we’re not both happy with it, we’re not getting the car. Each of us has the power of veto, unlimited vetoes, and we don’t have to justify them at all.

Her problems were exactly what other people had warned us about, and it’s very clearly a ‘feel’ problem since I experienced none of these.

1. Poor acceleration
   She had problems getting the car up to the right speed fast enough, or without jerking. That could be learned, however.
2. Hiccup when the car went from EV to fuel
   Possibly this was the reason she felt jerking with acceleration.
3. Joystick gearshift
   Unlike conventional cars, the Prius has a joystick gear shift which snaps back to center after you change gears. So if you shift into drive, the only way you know is from the heads up display in the dash. And reverse? Well the car beeps.
4. The car beeps in reverse
   I’ve been told that software geeks can turn this off, but damn it was annoying.
5. Poor visibility out the back
   The angel of the hatchback gives you about half to two-thirds the visibility of a regular sedan.

Any one of these alone could be dealt with. In fact, we probably could have handled two. But when she got out of the car, I could tell she was miserable and unhappy. Still, I took it for a short spin myself (and after taking a wrong turn, showed her I do know how to handle speed bumps and a left turn across traffic), and I was delighted. If we had the cash to be a two car family, I would snatch this puppy up and live happy. Other than the park button (yeah, you don’t shift into park, you press a button), it was exactly the kind of Star Trek car I’ve fancied for … well, ever.

Shut up.

Anyway, I mentioned before that the Toyota Guy was annoying. Boy howdy. He was a total mush-mouth, not enunciating, and had a tendency to creep into your personal space. He was certainly friendly, but he garbled his explanations, answered the questions the wrong way, and let’s just say there was an incident that ended with a dent and a serious scratch in a car that wasn’t entirely our fault, but wasn’t entirely his either. When the managers pulled him off us and gave us a nice, quiet Dennis, we liked him much better. He was calm, collected, and other than forgetting to tell me where to take a turn twice (resulting in my aforementioned left across traffic), I liked driving with him.

When we talked to the Toyota manager, it was very different from the Dodge/Jeep/Chrystler guys. They asked when we were looking to buy (this month, we hope), what details, etc etc. It was a polite conversation. Then I asked what the base price was for the entry level Highlander Hybrid. $38k. I blinked and said okay, but then the man went on to explain that there weren’t any incentives just then or deals, but there might be tomorrow (something about the dealer’s owner not posting them…) and said we could call back or check online. I had visited them online before coming in, since I’m that way, and I knew what he was talking about. Then he added that they don’t really haggle much on the hybrids, and they are going to cost a few thousand more, flat out. I really liked his honesty, his openness and the fact that he didn’t try to hustle. He listened and understood.

Let’s compare this to the, at first, very nice, Dodge/Jeep/Chrysler fellows. We saw them on Wednesday. They pushed the hard sell. We walked away. Told them we’d have an idea by Sunday. They called to offer a ‘better deal’ on Thursday. Determined they weren’t for us by Friday, but did not call because I had food poisoning. Saturday they called, twice. A message was left Saturday late night to tell them thank you, but no thank you. Tuesday they called and got my BFF in a foul mood, who told them we were still done. Apparently she got so annoyed that when she told me about it she said “I wish I’d said “This conversation is now as over as Hammer pants,” but I didn’t think that fast.” They really were nice people, but compared to the others I’ve talked to, I don’t like their push.

At this point, we’re stepping down a little. I made up a master chart thingy to help sort out costs and what not. The low-end will be the Scion (a friend of mine is cheering, I can hear her). The high end is the Mercury, of all things, which is not the most expensive, but the most I’m willing to consider. I’m waiting on a call back about the test drive for that, though, so we shall see what we see.

For now, I’m riding my bike.

Right now, my friends, family and those who’ve read this blog are probably laughing. Me, the chick who hates driving, who hates cars, who would rather walk from Solana Beach to Del Mar than take a bus (only 3 miles, not bad), the woman who adores her bike so much she likes to bike in the cold October rain, has fallen for a car.

And it’s the freakin’ expensive Prius. A fully loaded Prius is $35k, and honestly, that’s more than I was thinking of spending. The worst part is even the used ones are around $20k, which is the upper end of where I was looking.

Yesterday we went to a very nice dealer, not a Honda/Toyota dealer, but a “Dodge” dealer that is pretty much an American dealership. I have nothing but nice to say at the guys from Sherman Dodge. They let us test a few cars, all SUVs but that was our choice, and we sorted out a couple things about our car wishes, wants and needs. The part where is sucks to be them, and I do feel for them, is what happened when we went home.

Just as we were getting ready to leave, they pushed the hard sell. We both had expected this, and were prepared to walk away. The MSRP on the 2010 Jeep Liberty is $24k even. The first price they offered was $21, and then right away they said “But we can start at $17k, and throw in extras.” Extras like oil changes, car washes, etc. Then we got into warranties and such. They tried to say you could only get extended warranty on a new car, so I upfront asked “Can’t you get that on a used car?” He hesitated, but said you could and then proceeded to pretend I never asked that. Fine, I understand why they do that. They kept pushing “What can we do to sell you a car today?” Finally they got the hint after we said ‘Nothing, we’ll let you know.’ Information was traded, hands shook, and we caught a ride from Rae (who is fast becoming BEST friend for the lifts she’s given me!).

Rae and her sister like American cars. And I understand why. There’s a feel to an American car that really feels … American. I don’t agree that American cars are the best. That said, I think that if you get an SUV, you should buy American because we understand exactly what goes into a big car. The comfort, the layout, etc. On the other hand, if you get a sedan, it should be a European or Asian car, because they understand the meshing of small size and big functions.

We got home, and I said “Bet you anything they call before Friday.” They just called and asked to work out an lower price. They were already $7000 off MSRP on a new Liberty, so I was amused. Still, we had to tell them what had happened when we got home. See, I went to FaceBook and posted that I’d been car shopping. Immediately my friends jumped in with comments, suggestions, advice, and ‘yay!’ I realized I’d yet to tap into the greatest source of help I had, and re-posted right away with an outright request for advice, as I am a newb.

Well.

My friends rock. They explained how to use Kelly’s Blue Book and other such tools to price compare, get reviews, and such. One friend swore by used cars, another said she only bought new. Obviously your mileage may vary (you see what I did there). It was enough to get me started and sort out that there’s a reason the Liberty was being offered at dropping prices. The resale value and 5-year cost to own on it are utter, total, entire crap.

The Liberty would be about $16k, lets say. A Prius would be about $25. Over five years, the Liberty would cost us about $45k. The Prius would be closer to $25… That’s $10k difference. Not to mention the resale on a Prius is double that of the Liberty. It is, simply, a better investment.

So we told the Jeep guys what we’d determined. They weren’t pleased, but understood.

I have nothing against them, and frankly, IF I get an SUV, I’m going through them. The problem is, we’re not. And that’s actually their ‘fault’. Thanks to the test drives, we know the following.

1. an SUV needs a v6 engine or it’s pretty much worthless
2. power windows are worth it
3. if a car has 4×4 drive, it better be monkey simple to use
4. if the dealer has to crack the handbook to figure out how to do something, it’s a bad car (Rav 4, I’m looking at you)
5. daytime running lights are a bonus
6. audio jack for the MP3 players would be nice
7. trunk space! the rear seats MUST fold down
8. security systems are good things

That’s a pretty short list. The ‘basics’ I consider a requirement are kind of the basics on most cars. Power steering, anti-lock brakes, power windows, automatic transmission, etc. And obviously I consider gas mileage important (which is about 90% of the reason I want to marry the Prius). What we don’t need are things like Sirius radio, leather seats, a built in nav system, and the show boat crap people put on cars to prove their worth.

So why the Prius still? Because I found this on Flikr:

These photos are taken on our return from a $860 shopping trip to Ikea. Two adults, a baby in carseat, his stroller and all our Ikea purchases, all fit in the Prius. Barely.

Shown here: 3 boxes for Bonde shelf with glass doors, 5 boxes for Effectiv storage unit with 2 add-on units and 2 pairs doors, white shelves to fix to walls, storage baskets to put in Effectiv unit, box and plastic storage drawers for simple storage unit, a couple drawer organizers, big plastic storage boxes for garage, driver, baby, carseat and stroller. All this plus the photographer went into the Prius, drove home and came out again safely.

Credit: milele @ flickr

While, looking at our long term plans, that won’t cover everything we need to haul, it’s a hell of a good start, and would do for at least 5 years, easy. And storage? Not as bad as you’d thing.

My man Flynn claims that the Prius has a ton of storage with the seats down (I knew that thanks to Fickr). Next I did a quick search to see how much extra crap we could do. Turns out people like to do things to their Prius like put on a fanny pack, tote around a canoe, haul a couple bikes and even go surfing.

The problem is the lowest price I’ve come up with for a bare bones (with what I want) Prius is $24,279 in Lincolnwood. Since we don’t have a car to get there, I may end up printing that up to bring with us to a more local place and say ‘Well this guy is offering similar for less…’ and see how that goes. I admit, the financing terrifies me a little bit. I don’t really know how much is too much to pay a month. I mean, I know what I can afford, but I don’t know if that’s realistic. I have absolutely no baseline when it comes to this. (Aside: Thank you Ari, for telling me he thinks most people end up paying $400-$500 a month. And Flynn for saying $300 was reasonable. Now I have a baseline. And it makes me flinch a little.)

So … Anyone wanna hand me $25k for a new car?

I didn’t scan in my own since it has a new fancy reflective thing on it, which makes it hard to scan. Anti-theft being what it is, I can’t really say I’m upset about this. Oddly, when I first moved here (at age 20), a red background on your license or ID meant you were under 21. Now they have a vertical license (photo on top, info underneath) for the kiddies. I suppose that makes it easier to catch, but they’ve ‘redesigned’ the license at least 4 times since I’ve been here, and I’m sure it just makes everyone more confused.

Yesterday I took my road test, passed it, and now I have a brand-spanking-new drivers license, proclaiming me legally permitted to drive around the USA. Fear. And you know what, fear was a great deal of why I didn’t do this sooner. Fear and a bit of rebellion against everyone who said I ‘had’ to do this because that’s what was done. One of my favorite books is Tom Brown’s School Days, and in it, Tom’s best friend East wasn’t confirmed with the rest of his friends because he felt that they only did it because it was what everyone did. “‘Twas ‘because the Doctor liked it’; ‘no boy got on who didn’t stay the Sacrament’; it was the ‘correct thing,’ in fact [...]”

When I was young, I really felt like that a lot of the time. People demanded you do things without explaining why it was needed or good, just that ‘everyone does it.’ I hated it then, I hate it now. I want to know why this versus that, how come one way and not the other. And when people just say ‘because’ I get annoyed and mulish. To make matters worse, the higher people’s expectations of me regarding a test, the more like throwing up I feel. It’s diagnosed as ‘Performance Anxiety’, but I’ve figured out that it’s expectations. No one knew I was going to take the written test, and while I was nervous, it was manageable. Multiple people knew I was going to take my first lesson and I was terrified. More people knew I was taking my road test, and I was living off TUMS yesterday.

My friend Rae (to whom I am eternally grateful) was all gung-ho about this, got me in touch with Northwestern Driving School so I could take lessons. I admit, my cardinal rule about companies is ‘A crap website means I probably won’t shop with you.’ I’m picky about that, but it’s 2009 and I have my hangups.

Speaking of, CyberDrive Illinois has had a nice facelift in the 12 years I’ve been in Chicago, and things go pretty fast. Actually, I’ve never had an unplesant experience at the DMV in Illinois. Everyone is very nice, polite, and the one time I had a bitchy woman (yesterday afternoon), I looked her right in the eye and said “I know it sucks for you to work late today, but I am very appreciative and I do not take this for granted.” She blinked, grinned, and then I asked if she could please make sure I was correctly identified as a female on my drivers license. That cheered her up.

Oh yeah, for some reason my permit said ‘Gender: M’ on it. Which is wrong, and my tatas would like you to remember that. Thank you.

So we got to the Chicago North offices, Rae loaning me her car, and I went in to fill out the last forms and get ready. The written test in Chicago is pretty simple. Memorize the shapes of the signs (you’re not permitted to miss any) and remember to always pick the most restrictive option on the multiple choice questions, and you’ll be okay. If you’re ready, you can take the road test then and there, but I wasn’t and took driving lessons. Six hours of lessons at $50 each. They gave me the ‘youth’ discount since I was a first time driver. John, the instructor, is a great guy. He’s smart, educated, well spoken, and calm. He taught me to drive, to parallel park, three-point-turn, backup, backup and turn, merge lanes … the whole nine yards.

John also walked me through the driver test three times. Seriously. He knew exactly what the test was, exactly where you’d be driving, and he took me through it. If you’re on the North Side of Chicago, go to Northwestern Driving School. Period. Send your children, send your grandparents. Tell them Mika says hi. They’re good.

The road test itself is dead simple, too! You get in, fill out the forms, show them proof the car is insured, and pull around to the ‘Road Test’ area. While you wait, they check your car lights, signals and if you can start and stop the car. Then you wait a little while longer until your road test judge comes out. I had Joe C., who was a bit hippie-ish like my father is, and was very nice. Joe’s instructions were just like John’s, and it was easy.

You pull out and up to the exit, where there’s a stop sign. You stop once at the big white line and prepare to turn right. Since you can’t see if it’s safe to merge with traffic, you pull up to the third white line, poking the nose of the car out. Once it’s safe, you pull out to the right and watch out for the signal about two car lengths down. You’ll drive along (the limit is 30, stay UNDER it), until you get to the stop sign, where you’ll turn left. There’s a side street before the stop sign, so turn your signal on AFTER you pass it.

If you’re under 18, they pull you over after that and make you park. Once the car is parked, they ask you these wonderful questions. “If you’re parking uphill with a curb, which way should your wheels face? What about without a curb? What about downhill?” You’ve taken the written test, you should know the answers are ‘Away from the curb’, ‘toward the curb’ and ‘toward the curb’, respectively. Then they tell you to continue on. Back up a little if you need to, remember to turn on your left blinker (my teen-aged friend made sure to remind me of this), check your mirrors, and pull back out. You’ll drive down the street to the light, turn right again (I went a little too fast there, forgetting Rae’s car has a ‘need to MASH’ brake). Drive down that street to the next light where, again, turn right. This turn is a sharper angle, and you need to have the right mix of slow and speed. I nailed it perfectly.

Finally you drive back to the DMV, go to the end of the parking lot and drive through 50 feet of cones. Then you reverse the 50 feet. Don’t hit the cones and don’t over adjust. Drive back out of the cones and take a right to park. Reverse and turn left as you do so. Then you drive up and park on the right side of the waiting building, go in to get your certificate of non-failure, and ehad over to the main DMV for your license.

Since they’d goobered my gender on the permit, they canceled my permit and issued a new one, so I went to the Supervisor, who had a new update this license thing issued and sent me to the cashier. Since my permit was still new, they didn’t charge me an extra fee and sent me to the pre-photo line. There they took all my info, officially corrected my gender (and yes, I did remind every last person there about is so they’d be aware), and sent me to photo-guy. Apparently sicne my hair was long 5 years ago, when the last photo was taken, they wanted a new one. The new photo, I look tan and a little stunned in, which is appropriate. And it says female.

I went back to the car, where Rae was in the passenger seat reading, I drove and picked up Judith and Jill, and went out to dinner.

I’m a driver.

I am 32, and for 15 years, I’ve not had a drivers license or permit.

I am 32, and at 18, I once failed the written drivers test.

So yeah, there’s one part of my life that’s always been a ‘failure’ in the sense that I never achieved the goals my family had for me, and that was in driving. I just don’t. I don’t like it, I don’t even like being in cars.

But here I am, 32, and it’s becoming a bit much to cage rides or take cabs and buses and so on.

So on Friday the 7th, without telling anyone, I went and took the written test, got a permit, and signed up for some lessons.

The lessons are because it’s been a long time since I’ve last driven. I vaguely recall driving, illegally, my step-uncle’s car the mile or so down a deserted country road. I clearly remember my family friend, Peg Lauer, giving me stick-shirt instructions (yes, I learned on a stick) while I drove us to the res to go swimming in the summer. I used to be able to start the car pointing uphill, back down the hill, take a left and head on out. So really, this is all stuff I’ve done before, but never officially.

The exam itself isn’t very complicated. Start a car, back up, turn about, park uphill, start uphill, park downhill, start downhill, obey the rules (per The Rules of the Road). But that’s stuff I’ve not done in so long that I felt it was most responsible of me to actually get a total stranger to teach me.

Sunday I hit the road.

I won’t deny that I was tense, really tense, like death-grip on the wheel. And an automatic is generally a bizarre feeling. I kept listening for the car to need to be shifted and right when I heard it, the automatic tranny flipped over. It took me about 30 minutes to stop trying to shift. It also took that long for me to relax and not be terrified “Oh God, oh God, we’re all gonna die!” It’s a testament to my teacher, John, that he was able to calm me down and keep me relaxed. I stopped babbling and got better about checking my mirrors (looking up every 10-15 seconds was hard to remember).

But the biggest revelation of the day was I’ve finally been able to pinpoint why I hate driving. It’s clearly a case of my frontal lobe finally developing past the ‘I don’t like it’ point and into the ‘because’ additions. The real reason driving, and cars, have always been difficult for me to cope with is really quite simple.

I can’t HEAR.

Seriously! The make cars really soundproof these days, which is silly since we’re supposed to use horns and other audio cues, but it’s those lack of cues that make me nuts. Even with my headphones on, when I’m walking on the street or biking or rollerblading, I can hear traffic, I hear the engines, horns, brakes, etc. I listen to what’s going on. In a car, it’s more a visual thing. You have to be looking all around you constantly, and my brain just doesn’t like doing that so much.

Then again, now that I’ve been biking in the road, versus rollerblading on the Lake Shore, I’m more in tune and aware of the visual cues. Like the driver on their cell phone is something I see and react to as easily as the sound of a car with bad brakes (both get extra distance). I was able to, when I came to a complete stop at one point, glance into my rear-view mirror, see a woman flip me off when I was checking traffic all around me, and lazily mutter “Yes, ma’am, I apologize for being a student driver who comes to a complete and legal stop before proceeding. Your children have missed months of school.”

So lesson one is done, and I feel a lot better about this whole thing than I thought I was going to. Thursday is lesson two.

Stay off the sidewalks.