Things I'd rather be tested on than NJ driving regulations

-Important and not-so-important dates in French-Jewish history.
-Which foods are and are not poisonous to dogs.
-The most frequently cited reasons not to get a PhD in the humanities.
-How to make pizza from scratch.
-How to get from Point A to Point B via MTA.
-What Dan Savage or Emily "Prudie" Yoffe would advise re: a given situation.
-Anything. Anything at all.

Yet after much studying (including memorizing rules specific to the under-17, under-18, and under-21, which can indeed appear on the test even if you're ancient), I am now permitted to drive supervised in NJ with the appropriate real driver next to me. (Longtime readers may recall that I failed to make the most of this permission when I had it in NY.)

It still seems odd to me that there are fewer restrictions on my driving at 28 than on the early driving of a teen, someone who probably spent lots of time in cars, growing up where they're needed, and hasn't yet settled into slow-learning old age. No one at the place could believe I wasn't being sneaky and already in possession of a license from some other locale. Meanwhile, if they'd taken me to the road test area, I could have shown them. Oh yes. It's find-a-huge-lot-to-practice-in time for me, the key element that was missing when I brilliantly opted to take lesson's in Manhattan's Chinatown.

The only things that will possibly save me on the road test is the ample recent experience biking on the road and, also biking-related, the thought of the two huge hills I need to go up in order to do anything whatsoever. I picture that agony - and if it got easier after the first few times, it never got easy - and all of a sudden I feel something akin to what the 16-year-old does: must. drive. now. As opposed to in NY, where it was kind of like, yeah, driving would be a good skill to have, and licenses are neato. I'm now something akin to qualifying-exam-level motivated to get this done.

The more complicated procedure was undoubtedly my husband's switch from fern driver to ferner with 'merican driving creds. And he, unlike me, can drive, eliminating what one would imagine would be the major obstacle. Whatever the case, we're now both well on our way to getting the most out of country living. Or driving to Philadelphia or something. That works too.