Mr. Happy is a "Good Good Driver"

So, a few weeks ago my brother, Mr. Happy, came to town to take the road test for his driver's licence on my car. It didn't go very well, but not because of anything he did.

See, Mr. Happy used to have a driver's licence, but that was a long, long time ago (13 years) in a galaxy far, far away (known as Pennsylvania). He's had to jump through some administrative and financial hoops to get the permission necessary to get a licence out here, but he cleared the last hurdle in December. He couldn't take his test in San Fran because all of his friends up there have standard/stick-shifts so he made plans to come here. He came down on a Saturday and we had a lovely weekend (Saturday: BBQ at our friends' house and then a sushi dinner; Sunday: lunch at Mozza, the Giant's big win and then the best Mexican in the Valley). On Monday morning we woke up, went to the DMV, and as it turns out, low and behold, someone (possibly me) had been driving around without proof of insurance or registration. It seems I had thrown them out. Mr. Happy was not allowed to take his test.

This was not a pretty scene nor one of my prouder moments. I consider myself dependable and would certainly have never sped all the way to SF and back last month if I knew I were driving without a registration card!

Mr. Happy had to go back to SF without a licence and I had to wallow in shame and self-pity for the next few days.

But Mr. Happy came back this weekend and I managed to have all of my paperwork in order. We had another nice visit (dinner at Vitello's, a visit with his college roommate, yummy gelato at the Gelato Bar) and though the rain was coming down in sheets, and he bit it in the parking lot outside of Starbucks on the morning of his test and he had to go to the DMV in Simi Valley (good suggestion K!) with a wet a$$, he passed with flying colors! Apparently he and the examiner talked about soccer the whole time (both are Zidane fans!) and Mr. Happy was a "good good driver" (see below).

Mr. Happy wasn't able to get out of town Friday night because of the rain (so he treated us to another sushi dinner!), but he did make it out Saturday morning. Upon his arrival in SF he promptly bought a car and shortly thereafter he headed up to Tahoe for some snowboarding. So today Mr. Happy is truly happy and I'm happy for him.

Although the events of a few weeks ago are not actually funny yet (Humor = Tragedy + Time) he did send a friend of ours an email that said: "Turns out I don't have to kill Jamie, I passed."