License conversion, take 5

I have so fucking had it with that license center.

Last time, I talked about how I received extra feedback through my foreign personnel advisor about "security verification." As it turns out, security and safety share the same word in Japanese (安全, anzen). They meant "safety verification." Which means check during your maneuvers more.

Excuse me?

You couldn't tell me that shit to my face, in the car with you, while you were giving me feedback about my driving test, after my fourth time? Look, I may not be the best at Japanese, but if you sit there in your seat and try to act out how I should be checking my mirrors and blind spots, I'm going to get the hint. No need to make me feel like a toddler, too, assholes.

I'm running out of shit to photograph.

Today was the absolute worst day for me to go. It's the day before the school festival, and the wind ensemble is playing sets on both days. Every night over the past week, we've been meeting from 1830-2200 hrs. Then, there's another musical group that I'm part of that meets from 2200-0000 hrs. (Last night I actually didn't get out until 0100 hrs.) The ensemble leaders had also booked practice for all day today. This was after I had already booked my test. Between work and school, I had very little time to even rest. I was always moving. Even during meals, I had to shovel so that I could finish up and be at my next activity on time.

I got the same proctor as the first three times. Guess how that turned out for me? Honestly, I should've cancelled, because it was a waste of time.

As usual, he had his three points™ to address:

• He had little confidence in my overall control of the car. His main concern was when I was trying to upshift. This is despite the fact that I was now using higher gears during my test and going faster overall. Why the fuck do you think I was driving in the lower gears?
• There were two turns in which I did the proper safety verification checks prior to making the turn, but did not move over closer to the curb shortly before doing the turn. These were both in areas where there is little room in between turns.
• I don't know what the fuck he was going on about for his third point, and he wouldn't elaborate.

I even had the balls to ask the proctor a question about the course before we started, when he was open to taking questions. I asked him how fast should I be taking this one particular curve that isn't like the other curves? Should be a straightforward answer, no? He responded with the biggest non-answer that I had ever heard in my life. I don't know what it was, but he said "safety" a few times in it, so I just said fuck it and did a significant brake pump in that curve. No complaints from him regarding that. (probably didn't fit in his three)

I got my documents back at around 1430 hrs, and they let me book my next appointment there this time instead of having to call it in. (It will be towards the end of the month.) I then got in Tackawanna and floored it for the university, arriving at about 1600 hrs, just in time for us to transition over to soundcheck. The Dramamine pill that I took before my test was probably a dud, as I was starting to feel a little carsick by the time I pulled up to campus. Of course, flat out sprinting between buildings to get all of my things together probably did not help this sickness.

The fatigue definitely showed during rehearsal. I missed more cues and played more wrong notes than usual. I feel terrible because not only did I have to skip that much practice for absolutely no gains, but now I was suddenly finding myself falling behind on a musicianship level while fighting to stay awake and vertical. In addition, I made a very serious scheduling error. As part of the deal for receiving my scholarship, I had to help out at the stand run by the organization that gave me the money. I made my schedule with them, but at the same time forgot to clarify the schedule with the wind ensemble in advance. This made it very awkward when tomorrow's schedule, which now consumes a significant portion of my afternoon, was announced. Thankfully, as I was typing this post, I got the error sorted out. I'll be able to do both things.

I blame myself for making this error, as the scheduling organization probably got lost in translation and I never sought to clear it up. I really like playing with the ensemble, and I don't mind the practice times nor argue why they were held at those times. Still, it really puts a thorn in my side, because this week has been overall stressful, non-stop, and unrewarding. I can only blame myself (well, that stupid proctor certainly has a significant stake in this) for what I've gotten myself into. I should be looking forward to the school festival, which will have its own post, tomorrow. But to be honest, I'm not feeling that great about it now. At least when it's over things will [kind of] go back to normal.

In the meantime, I've booked a lesson with a local driving school for later this month. I need to start figuring out where I could be making critical errors. Maybe once I start getting some solid explanations, I can avoid making the same esoteric mistakes that I've been making this whole time.

Dinner's over. Back to practice.

-wp