License to Drive

After many months of begging me to allow him to get his drivers license, I relented and made an appointment for Ryan to take his road test. I also finally gave in since his permit was going to expire in January and he had to go while he was on break from school because testing goes on while he is still in class.

Getting everything together in preparation for the road test involved some last minute scrambling. I knew I needed to get a notarized statement confirming that he had completed the required practice driving (40 hours daytime and 20 hours nighttime). I didn't know that I needed to turn in said notarized statement to the drivers ed instructor, who will then in turn issue a certificate needed in order to be eligible for the road test. Ryan had already brought home one certificate which indicated that he had completed the mandatory drivers education class. He had also done some practice driving with the drivers ed instructor. I thought we were all set until I read through the requirements another time to make sure we had everything.

So his test is on Wednesday at 3 pm. Tuesday morning I am rushing to the bank to get the statement notarized. Ryan is contacting his drivers ed instructor to make arrangements to meet and get the statement to him so that Ryan can get his certificate. Darrell is sick and absolutely no help with any of this.

We had to drive out to Kaimuki to get the certificate but we were finally all set. Wednesday wound up being a crazy busy day, with getting my car serviced so that it wouldn't have a "maintenance required" light on when Ryan took the car out on his road test. I had a Miche Bag breakfast meeting while the car was being serviced. Rushed home so I could take Darrell to the unemployment office to submit forms since the deadline is December 31 and they were on furlough December 31. Ryan and I headed out early to the Dillingham office for the 3 pm appointment and there was NO parking anywhere except across the street. So I informed the woman who checked us in about this, but she just shrugged. So we figured it was ok.

Ryan's road test examiner was an older Asian guy with an Elvis pompadour and gold chain. And I had to go and get the car since the road test had to begin there. I was probably more nervous than Ryan! He started the test by checking if all the lights and indicators were working on the car and I panicked since I hadn't verified this. I just hoped that since the car had just been serviced that any deficiencies would have been caught. Then they were off. I had no idea how long the test would be, but when I looked up from my Blackberry, I noticed they were back really soon. I watched Ryan and the examiner guy in the car for a while and he was talking and shaking his head and gesturing. Since I had heard that when a person fails because of something unsafe they did, the test is terminated right away and they come right back. This thought plus all the conversation going on convinced me that Ryan had failed. Then the examiner got out of the car and Ryan called me. He just said, "Mom, you need to move the car," which made me think the worst. Then when I walked out to the car, Ryan started doing a little happy dance behind the wheel - he passed!

He was so happy and I was relieved since all my lack of confidence in his abilities was misguided. He got his picture taken (the lady behind the counter helped him fix his hair!) and got his license. He asked me to drive home though since he was exhausted!

But having him drive has come in handy already. He went to pick up Kylie and drove her home that evening. The two of them also went to 7-Eleven to buy ice cream, which made me nervous, but they got home ok.

So, wow, my son is old enough to drive!