At 35 I have only been driving for about 1 year and 4 months. Before that I knew learning how to drive would be tough but believe me, not THAT tough. At the start of my driving lessons, I swear there were days I was totally convinced that I was one of those women who will never learn how to drive. Well I eventually did. It is my goal on my 2nd anniversary of driving, I will tackle my most dreaded nightmare - the expressway. But as of now I am content taking baby steps by going out of my driving comfort zone every now and then.

Well Wednesday I drove a good 13 miles to a part of a city I have never been to before. The last time I did something as bold as this was going to IKEA for the first time a year ago. However what made it more daring was that I had to drive in the middle of busy Chicago whereas in IKEA there were a lot of remote stretches. Even Peter was shocked when I told him where I was going, since I would have to pass downtown Chicago. He then wasted no time in telling me to chuck mapquest and take his driving directions instead. I ran it by over by my husband and he thought that it was ok.

I got there safe and sound, no problems. I even lucked out on parking, meaning, I didn't have to do any parallel parking. Another thing I have to work on too.

My other driving breakthroughs recently was finally able to drive wearing sandals and high heeled shoes. I drive a stick so I had to make adjustments to whatever shoes I was wearing especially with stepping on the clutch. There was a lot of jerking at first, some stops and sputtering too, but I eventually got the hang of it.

In this part of the US we have no gasoline boys. I also had to learn some tricks on pumping gas too. Just last month I finally was able to figure out what to do whenever some defective nozzles would automatically shut down even when I had just started putting some gas. What I used to do before whenever this happens was to go back inside the car and drive to another pump station nearby. But what I did the last time was to keep shifting the position of the nozzle left and right until it would work. Whew! I'm glad I got that solved.

Bon Voyage Florie

The venue of Florie's despedida (going away party). It is situated in an area of Chicago more popularly called "Little Italy".

When I took that 13 mile drive a couple of days ago it was to attend Florie's going-away-party organised by my husband. Florie is a filipina officemate of Tom. She was one of those people responsible why Tom always had good impressions on filipinos. He has nothing but praises for her. After 20 plus years of living here in the US, Florie is going back to the Philippines. She is assigned to work there for 3 years.

I am excited for her and pretty, pretty jealous too. Aside from getting the chance to be back in PI, their office in the Philippines will house them in Fort Bonifacio in a rented 2,500 sq. ft. 4 bedroom condo with a property value of, get a load of this, $800,000.00. I kidded Florie not to extend her contract so that Tom can put in his application for that job too. Florie told me, no need there are more positions available right this moment.

So that's what I am working on Tom now. I told him that he can golf all he wants because it's cheaper there, he'll have more time for his writing since he doesn't have to run errands because we can hire maids and let them wear short skirts, he'll have a great nightlife because he'll be right in the heart where all the happenings are, he'll be Mr. Big Shot... But he's not budging. I asked him why, his reason? "Because you have bugs out there that's as big as my hand."

Oh well.

Currently listening to: Freestyle
Currently reading: Good Housekeeping Aug issue
Currently watching: The Upside Of Anger