cimorene

I got my driver's license today on the third test! I was fighting for my life to wake up and fully eat my breakfast and everything, actually walked to the bus stop an hour early by mistake due to setting two of my alarms wrong last night and then had to walk back, had an upset stomach after breakfast and then like three scary random situations and two big mistakes in a row in my driving lesson on the way to the test, so my teacher asked if I wanted to pull over in a parking lot and calm down. Which I did. First time that's happened in a lesson! But then the test itself was actually uneventful. No big mistakes on my part and no scary traffic situations or close calls, and I handled myself well and recovered from the minor mistakes correctly, I was just... DROWNING in stress and white-knuckling it to remain as calm as possible. The examiner told me that my main thing is just that I'm too stressed while driving and have to calm down (YUP, KNEW THAT!!!!). Apparently I was gripping the steering wheel way too hard, which I wasn't aware of but that doesn't surprise me at all.

Aaaaaanyway, on the final drive back from the test to the driving school my driving teacher told me he lived in the US for four years, and I said, oh, where? When he was 20 he moved to the New Jersey area and played on a minor team (now defunct) that feeds into the NHL Jersey Devils, actually, he said, in Albany. And I was like hey!!! I lived in (a suburb of) Albany for three years as a kid [before the disastrous life-ruining move to Alabama at age 6, I did not say, but just try going from Montessori school in upstate NY to shitty authoritarian public school in Alabama some time and see how you like it].

So. Anyway. I told

waxjism this story like "Hahah, and then we met here in Finland! Isn't it funny?" but she immediately was like, "There's a Wikipedia list of all the teams that feed the NHL!" and started combing around through the internet until a few minutes later she called, "Is this him?" and showed me his headshot. Apparently he was also the captain of our local Liiga hockey team in 2015, around the time we were going to quite a few matches, and one of his kids is currently on that team. Welp.

As I mentioned recently, I was planning to buy a milk frother so I could make lattes once passing, originally. But if I can't source decaf matcha and chai tea domestically, I wouldn't be able to make my favorite two lattes (those are the two I've been dying to make myself). I have not gone looking for those yet. I should order some old-fashioned stove black (polish) for our woodstove though, although that will not be nearly as exciting. My caffeine-free trial is still in effect until early December.

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princessofgeeks

I am so happy for you!!!!

That was a long anguishing expensive odyssey. Hurray for you!!!!!

cimorene

It really was!!! Just the added busfare after the first test I failed was almost 30€ and the extra driving time and test dates were probably like 500+.