All done.

Alas, training is completed.  As long as I don't wreck the LLV into anything tomorrow, I hope to return home with a license to drive and a will to get started working extremely hard.  I laughed too loud today when yet another instructor walked into our classroom, took a deep breath and said, "Your lives are about to SUCK."  So yesterday's blog post still stands.  

They have told us some things over and over.  Safety is our number one priority.  Say that to yourself one-thousand times and that's at least how many times I've heard it over the last four days.  Other interesting facts: the average postal employee is 51 years old.  Nearly half of our class was around that age.  Can you imagine starting a new career in your fifties?  Good for them!  These were the people that I found had the most personality.  Another fact:  the average city carrier loses thirty pounds in the first two months.  Despite all of the running and walking I've been doing, I seem only to be gaining weight, so I am quite okay with this statistic.  Also today, I joined a union.  They do good things and I like good things so it just seemed fitting.  And I got a free hat, so that's cool, too.  

I realized on my drive to training this morning that the interstate has become increasingly more simple for me to navigate.  I didn't cry or scream and when I parked at the post office, I didn't have to peel my own hands from the steering wheel.  I was very proud of myself, thinking how I'd conquered a huge, lifelong fear of mine.  On the drive back to the hotel, there seemed to be double the usual traffic and I passed two accidents, thus raising my heart rate extremely high.  I screamed in my brain at least three times.  I would have screamed out of my mouth but I was too busy biting through my bottom lip.  Hindsight tells me that my drive this morning was either luck or fantasy.  I am still absolutely terrified.  

Tomorrow is my last day here and I just can't wait to get home!  I'm hoping for good weather while I learn to drive a truck that is only six years newer than me.  I also hope that I have a patient instructor and that my nerves play no role in my driving.  And mostly, I hope we go someplace good to eat at noon because I have just about had it with vending machine lunches.