About a week ago my mother called our local driving school, trying to sign me up for Segment 2.
We never get a call back, so we just think that I'll show up and see what happens.
Segment 2 started tonight. We realize at 4:52pm that it starts this evening. We assume it starts at 5:30 like Segment 1, so my mom calls just to double check. Guess what? It starts at 5. Which would be fine; except for the fact that we live 15 minutes away from town.
I'm the type of person that gets very anxious if I'm late. I dread it. It makes me all nervous, because I realize that when I walk in, everyone's going to stare at me. Certain attention I love, like telling a good joke, but all other kinds of attention make me sick.
We pull up at about 5:08pm. Should I remind you that I'm not even sure that I can take segment 2 at this time? I walk in, and of course, it's dead silent. All 15 or so of the teens are working on filling out a sheet on driving experience. They turn and stare. Awkward to the max.
They end up letting me take it. I grab the closest seat. I'm so thrown off by everyone staring at me, that I can't focus for a good 15 minutes.
Class starts, and I'm given the driving experiences sheet. Out of the 10 questions, I could answer a solid 4 confidently. "What are two mistakes that could cause a collision at an intersection?" "What does 'zero tolerance' mean in driving?" My mind wanders. Can't focus a bit.
Then, I notice something. There is a flower on the window sill.
But not just any flower.
A dancing flower.
It looked a little like this:
Not only is it a plastic flower, but...
it's dancing. The flower is dancing. The stem and petals are bobbing up and down, and the leaves are moving side to side.
I sit there for a moment, thinking about the flower. I'm dumbfounded. I don't understand why anyone would purchase a mechanical dancing flower. What is the purpose? I think about that. Would you spend your good, hard-earned money on a mechanical dancing flower?
Eventually I refocus. The entire two hour class today was about texting while driving and how you'll die if you do it. This is something I will never do, however, so it was pretty much a wasted two hours.
I can't wait to go back tomorrow.
