Monday, November 15, 2004

...oh i'm drivin my life away...

Ok so I am a really nice Aunt. I have been teaching my oldest niece, K, how to drive early on (she is only 14) so she will have lots and lots of practice by the time she gets her permit. First of all I think I should note why I am the one doing this. Well their mom, my Sissy , tried to teach our other sister to drive and after the experience vowed to never EVER try to teach someone to drive again. So I decided I would take the job. So anyway I was dealing with a moping teenager last night so I was trying to bribe her into better spirits by taking her to the school parking lot and letting her pitter around the parking lot a few times.


It takes all of two seconds before her 12 year old little sister, B, starts to grumble that K gets to drive. So I let K have several loops, practice with the blinker and getting a good feel for the clutch, I let her park and reverse, and all of that fun stuff. She doesn't scare me and she doesn't peel out. She seems to be calmly driving about. So out of the blue I tell her to park the car and trade places with B.


The car immediately breaks out into pre-pubescent bursts of giggles. B gets behind the wheel and after a couple minutes of nervous snickering I take her through the steps of taking off. Foot on the brake, clutch in, go from neutral into first, let off the clutch while SLOWLY giving it gas. I make her repeat this back to me. After she repeats it to me I am confident to let her give it a go (while my hand clutches the e-brake). She guns it. Everyone squeals as the car lurches forward. BRAKE, CLUTCH IN! I yell, STOP! She tries to stop and in the process kills the engine. We do this over and over for about as long as I can stand (10 minutes)


Then K wants another turn so I tell her she gets 5 more minutes. She must have been all hyperish after her little sisters turn cuz all of a sudden she is plowing her foot into the accelerator and we are going like a bat out of hell with its ass on fire, straight for a curb, I ended up grabbing the wheel and yelling TURN! As we park she says she didn't hear me say to slow down or to turn, I shake my head in utter consternation. B gets another quick 2 minutes which she did a good job of, but I just couldn't put my heart through anymore.


I drove home with two girls with face breaking smiles on their face and their little brother whining about being soooo hungry. In my mind I was wondering how his stomach could think about food after the rollercoaster ride we had just been through.


Now they want to know when they get to go again! I am so skeered!

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