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Permit? Check. Keys? Check. Migraine? Check...

In case you missed my first post on our trip to get the Learner's Permit, click here. It's been a journey...

But the look - - Lord, that look. This child is going to break hearts with that look. She will raise grades with that look. She'll wrap her Daddy around her little finger with that look. She'll get into the college of her choice with that look. Walk to the front of club lines with that look. And the other day, she got me to turn on my heel, run out to the car, tear back across town (great example to the up-and-coming driver...), dig through the basement file cabinet for the birth record, leadfoot it back across the city and sweet-talk our way back into the license bureau before they closed for the day. All with that look. That look got her the dreaded learners permit. That look may have landed me my next migraine.

So, we produce the required documentation, and she proceeds to the written testing area. I inquire of the employee test monitors how long I should plan to be waiting. The conversation with the 20-something young lady goes about like this:

"Can you give me an idea how long the test will take?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa - I dont have ANY idea, maam."

"Well, if you could just give me a ballpark..."

"Weeeelllll, it really varies..."

"Like 20 minutes or an hour?"

"Oh. Weeeellll, some take 25 minutes, but some might take 45. Just depends. Thats all."

"OK, well, it sounds like I have time to go get my magazine out of my car anyway."

"Oh, yes, maam. I'm sure about that..." (smiling)

So, I head out to the car, thinking I'll have a good 20 minutes at the least.

Upon my return, I sit down and haven't gotten through the second column in a riveting article on global warming when I see my Darling Daughter pop up and turn her paper in. I bite my lip. What if she fails? She looks less than confident. The woman who checked us in begins to grade the sheet of paper. She stops for a moment. Looks up quizzically at her "student". Then back down. What does this mean? Ah, the suspense is killing me...

Then, I see her write something on the top of the paper and motion to my daughter to go to another station. Sure that well be coming back another day (do they have "makeup exams?), I stand to go console her. But the next thing I know, she's smiling with her perfect orthodontically correct teeth, posing for a picture, and getting the permit. She's legit. She passed. It turns out she missed the first four out of five questions on the test. I'm guessing that's why the lady looked at her funny. Here she finishes the test in ten minutes but then misses the first several questions.

So she passed, and now we practice, practice, practice! I keep thinking of what my best friend in high school's mom always yelled at her when she was learning to drive. "Get out of the gutter! Get out of the gutter!" It was hilarious. I try to be cooler than that.

Anyway, the next step is graduating to Drivers Ed classes. Look for that post in the next week or so. Ah, teenagers. And I thought childbirth gave me gray hair! This is a whole new chapter. That's for sure.