Adventures in Driving

I should be doing homework.

I should be studying for that AP Chem test I have tomorrow.

I should be reading Macbeth.

I should be folding my laundry.

I should be doing one thousand things right now.

But I'm not. I'm hiding away in the depths of my computer, pretending to my parents that what I'm writing is a history essay, and convincing myself that I'll be able to focus much better once I'm done something that makes me feel productive. Something that isn't called "watching Spongebob and taking Buzzfeed quizzes." (In case you're wondering, the Adventure Time character that should be my roommate is BMO). Apparently my procrastination techniques have gotten more creative...either that or more desperate, and I prefer the former. Come to think of it, actually, I have become really really good at putting things off lately. This morning, I went driving for the first time, so that I could postpone folding the clothes I had left in the dryer overnight (or get out of it altogether if my mother decided she didn't want to wait until I got back from my first driving lesson to dry her clothes). Wow, that sentence makes me feel like a horrible person. Instead of Away Avoiding Social Interaction, this blog should be called Away Avoiding my Entire Life. So, I guess it was karma that I ran my dad's car into a tree this morning. Just the world's way of telling me that I shouldn't have been using driving lessons as a cheap shot to get out of my responsibilities. At least it was a small tree. Although, honestly, the size did not make it any less embarrassing.

Let me paint the picture for you, so that you all can revel in my shame, and feel a little better about yourselves.We were in the parking lot of my public high school. I was at the wheel for the first time in my life. The seat was as close to the steering wheel as possible, and the mirrors appropriately adjusted. The parking lot was empty, and not that big, but since there was no one else around, it was big enough. Its set up in a circular fashion with two rows of parking spots separated by a row of saplings. I started out slowly, just accelerating and decelerating up and down one side of the oval. After a while, I noticed my dad getting antsy. Just as I suspected, after a few more minutes, he decided I was ready to practice turning. Honestly though, I think it was much less to do with his confidence in me as a driver and more to do with the fact that he was bored out of his mind just sitting in the car as I intently and slowly drove down the lane, braked, and reversed back the way I came. And when I say slowly, I mean I wasn't even putting my foot on the accelerator, just lifting it off the brake enough that the car would roll slightly. So, I picked up a little speed and tried to make it around the trees. I slid my hands around the wheel over and over trying to align the car with the curve of the road. I made it past the first bend okay, probably only because my dad ended up grabbing the steering wheel from me and turning the car himself. But the next time, my dad wasn't so quick. We were going at snail speed, and I was turning the wheel furiously, determined to get the turn right. Actually, I was  turning the wheel too much, and I ended up pointing the nose of the car directly at the neat little row of innocent saplings. I was going so slowly though that the situation in itself wouldn't have been that bad if my dad hadn't told me to brake. As soon as he did so, I started to panic with the thought of my death being as unromantic as a car crashing some flimsy little saplings. So I urgently slammed my foot down on the brake. Except, in my fit of panic I forgot that I had switched my foot from the brake to the accelerator, and the car went hurtling forward straight into the trees. My dad managed to pull the handbrake before we went crashing straight down the parking lot, knocking the trees over like dominoes, but it was still traumatizing (and embarrassing) enough for me decide to hold off on driving for another week or two (did I mention that I'm a pro at avoiding things?). The car ended up getting stuck in the patch of mud that the tree was planted in, so we had to call AAA, and wait in the cold for about forty-five minutes until the tow truck showed up. Joggers kept running by and pointing at the car stuck in the trees while we were waiting. Needless to say, it was extremely embarrassing.

So, you would think I'd have learned my lesson about putting things off, but obviously not because I still have a Chemistry test tomorrow that I haven't studied for, I still have to read an act of Macbeth, and I still have to fold my laundry (among a million other things that I don't want to even think about now). Yet, I still spent an hour writing this post, just so I could procrastinate on all those other things.