Here Reigns Freedom

Susan is still sick. Poor thing. I hope she gets better soon.

Since she's still sick I won't be going out tonight. That's probably a good thing, since I've resolved to buckle my ass down and graduate in 8 weeks. Once I'm out of high school and I actually have a schedule I think I'll be able to think again. I don't do well when I have no lines except the ones I make. I like structure, and homeschooling simply doesn't provide that.

Once I'm finished with high school I can work a lot more. I'm thinking of getting two jobs for a while until the summer, and then just sticking to fulltime at the J. I figure if I'm going to be stuck at home, I want to take the summer to do something. I have friends that are a decent drive away that I'd love to visit ... which I could do if all I'm doing is working at the J. Beyond the point that I can get off any shift I have to get off, I could work 40 hours a week by catching a 6am - 2pm shift Monday through Friday. I could leave right after work and spend the weekend with friends before I have to be back Monday morning. I could theoretically even catch a class at the community college to get a head start, though I don't know that I'll want to. I've been working three straight years in school. It's a lot for me to take a weekend off. I think a summer off would do me some good.

I need to find out exactly what credits I have left to complete for high school. I'm pretty sure I have 5 credits left, which is do-able, but I'm looking at pulling 16 hour school days almost everyday for the next 8 weeks. It'll be worth it, though. I'm so tired of school. High school is just so pointless. I'm not learning anything anymore. I'm doing busy work, and a lot of it.

I have my provisional license now, which right now, just means that I'll be paying higher insurance rates.

Originally, when I got my learner's permit it was so I would have ID for the SATs since I didn't have any picture ID. I took my driving test and got my provisional today because it's free to get your provisional, but $45 to renew a learner's permit.

I can parallel park anything. I swear, I could parallel park a tractor trailer in a teeny tiny little space. It took me about 20 minutes to learn to parallel park. It took me an hour to learn to pull in. So, after I parallel parked, did my three-point turn (that I turned into a five-point turn, but hey, that's okay, because now they call it a turn-about), proved I knew what a stop sign meant, backed up in a straight line, and showed the examiner that I know how to use a turn signal, I had to pull in to a parking space. I got in okay, even though I was pulling in between two cars, which made me a little nervous because they were both mighty close to the white line, but regardless, I made it. I had to back up and pull back in to straighten it, and then the examiner said, "Aren't you glad that's not part of the test?" WHAT?! Pulling in isn't part of the test? I worked that hard to make sure that my car was straight and equally spaced between the lines, and you weren't even grading it?

It doesn't matter. I passed. I'm now a part of the driving world of America ... or at least have the opportunity to be.

For the record, the little course is pretty stupid. They tell you to treat it as a public road, but please show me a public road with three stop signs within a 200 feet of one another, a little box made up of those curby divider thingies that happens to be right next to two red flags, all of which are surrounded by yellow lines that you've never seen before. The road is weird. There were two yellow lines, and then a yellow line down the middle of the two. I've never seen a road like that.

But hey, I passed. Now I have a pretty piece of plastic that says I'm legal to drive. It also says that I'm not legal to drink or buy tobacco, but that's okay.

I wish I could do something cool the day I turn 18, but I'm pretty sure that May 22, 2005 is a Sunday, which means that I can't register to vote and I can't enlist in the Marine Corps. So sad.

thatothercarrie made me a super cool layout!

Thanks, girl!