Ramblin’ man

Trevor signs some paperwork before taking his driver's license test.

Last Thursday my almost 18-year-old son finally took his driver's test. He'd been working on the book  training while driving at his leisure for the last year. And through all that time, I have been dreaming of the day when I wouldn't have to drive him to play rehearsals and back again. How wonderful it would be to just say, "Here are the keys; see you when you get home."

To those who say, "What's the big deal? It's just taking him to his school, right?" I say, "My point exactly." His school is in northwest Fresno. We live in east Clovis.  It's just over a 7 mile drive which, given the time of day, can take anywhere from 20 to 40 minutes, each way. And when I've just spent the previous two hours shuttling kids home from school, shopping for groceries, making dinner, cleaning up, after a long day of work blah blah blah in my sweats and slippers wanting to relax in front of the Food Channel-- the VERY THOUGHT of  having to extract myself from the snuggles of my hubby, my 7-year-old and my dog and haul my lazy self off the couch, stuff myself into a coat and cram my fat fanny into the car to spend the next 40 to 80 minutes driving across town and back again EXHAUSTS ME. Utterly.

Like many my age, I took my driving test at the crack of sixteen. A car meant independence. Total freedom from the glaring eyes of my ever watchful parents. So this waiting and waiting and lazing it out and not really caring about getting a license until he's almost 18-years-OLD?

I don't get it.

Alas and alack, the very evening he took and passed (WHOO!) his test, my son had the pleasure of taking my car and driving from home to school and back again-- TWICE.

His Facebook post on the matter::

"got my drivers license, and as awesome as that is i feel pretty indifferent about it haha. after driving back and forth across fresno for the last 40 minutes (from callbacks to home) I feel like I've been driving forever..."

It's tough losing one's chauffeur. I felt his pain... albeit from the comfort of my couch, in my sweats and slippers while watching the "Top Chef" on Demand.