Cars and me don't always get along... but somehow I have a full license!

I'm not altogether sure I should have got my license today. Although, there is no part of the test that is marked on "How to fill your gas tank" I guess.

I took my G test this morning, after 4 years and 9 months worth of procrastination. Passed, with what I will call flying colours, because there is no percentage involved, but he only mentioned two things which I should not do, and they were really dumb oversights. (Not like that time I ran into a mailbox -- that was fun...)

I am especially proud of myself because I was driving a rental that I was only in possession of for 24hrs (actually, 24.5 hours, since I was late bringing it back.) Parrallel parking, therefore, was a challenge, but not an impossibility, as I so valiantly proved this morning at the ungodly hour of 9am. Actually, the test-time wasn't particularly early, but the getting-up early to practice in the freezing cold and darkness felt decidedly shitty, and I am very tired as a result. I also have a kink in my neck from checking my blindspots excessively. Seriously -- I got the cramp mid-way through the test and it has yet to go away.

But the reason I am not altogether sure I should have a license is the little adventure that I had at the gas station this afternoon, just before I brought the car back. I drive to the gas-station, already late because I got distracted by pretty things in the mall, pull in (thankfully on the right side) and have to wait forever for the people in front of me to fill up their apparently gigantic and completely empty gas tanks. Then, I pull up and get out of the car, swipe the card, pick up the gas nozzle thing, and go to open up the er...uh... the... door-that-covers-the-hole-where-the-gas -goes-into-the-tank(?) -- In the end, I'm pretty sure that is not the technical term, but whatever. Anyway, the point is -- I can't get it open. The thing wont pry open (I have 3 broken fingernails to prove it,) I tried pushing it in the vain hope that it would pop-open, no dice, and then I ('cause really, im not that much of an idiot) go into the car and search for a teeny button somewhere that will pop the thing. Can't find one. Do the pulling and the pushing again, knowing that some idiot is watching me in the cameras, is pissing his pants laughing, and will most likely put the thing up on Youtube. By this time the machine has started beeping at me, and has cancelled my order since it has been left alone so long, and I begin to problem-solve. Someone pulls up at the station behind me, and I am on the verge of asking the driver for help -- when I realize this guy is approximately 90 years old and is going to know less about a relatively-new Hyundai Accent than I do. So I go and get the owner's manual in the glove-box, and start flipping through it frantically -- they have advice on what kind of gas to use, but damned if I could find anything about how to open the door! I finally find the button, it was inside the car, in a very weird place, start filling the gas up, and get in and finally, thankfully get to drive away.

...Hah -- you think this is done, huh? Not enough humiliation for me yet, though.

I get halfway to the rental place before I look at the gas meter and see that actually the dial is not quite at full --shit-- they will charge me if I don't fill it to full! And so I drive BY the rental place and go to the next gas station, which is this totally ghetto one from the 1940's I swear to god, and is not even full-serve. I stoically start pushing random buttons, and get it to work after another 5 minutes of fumbling around. then I fill it up -- 2 whole dollars worth -- AND manage to get gasoline on my shoes! (I always thought it would be brown, for some reason, but it is definately clear.)

THAT is the end. Minus the part about the cashier laughing at me for a 2 dollar gas bill.

But that is just adding insult to injury.