Thursday, February 5, 2009

Baby You Can Drive My Car

My little driver's training course went pretty well yesterday. It lasted a little longer than they said it would, but it wasn't terribly boring like I imagined it might be.

However, after attending the course I'm more scared to drive than I was before! You would not believe the fines here in Italy. For talking on your cell phone while driving the fine is 600 Euro, the DUI fines and suspensions are unbelievable (obviously I don't have to worry about that). One guy asked our teacher if DUI's and other traffic offenses had gone down since they had implemented the steep fines. He told us they had not. Either with Italian or U.S. citizens.

Also, these crafty Italians hide cameras to catch you in things that look like trash cans! How nuts is that?

I need to study quite a bit before I attempt to take the test for this license. I have a lot to learn.

So, I was supposed to go this morning to switch the gas over to our name. On Monday I had to take a packet to our tax relief office so they could ready it before I went to turn the gas on. Unfortunately, due to the stupid Army rules I couldn't get it done at that moment, because Sean had to sign it. I do have power of attorney, but the sheet saying I do is somewhere in my Household goods. Yeah...not a good place for it. I told Sean on Monday he could go in after his class and sign it if he got done early enough or even over lunch, but he HAD to sign it before I went on Thursday. I left notes for him, I kept reminding him, did he do it?

Nope.

He told me last night he's just go in this morning and do it. My appointment was at 9:15, you know what time the tax office opens? 11.

I'm a bit peeved about it. For starters he had three days to go sign it. He had ample time even with classes to go sign it. So, obviously I didn't get to go turn the gas on today. Now I have to go over to housing and explain why I missed my appointment and see if I can be rescheduled sometime soon. I told Sean if we had to take cold showers at our apartment this weekend because he didn't get that done in time that I was really going to be pissed. I HATE missing appointments and then having to scramble around to get what should have been something easy to complete done.

It's times like these that I'd seriously like to strangle my husband.

Tomorrow we are moving in to our apartment, so if you don't hear from me for several days that's why. Since we are without our car we are having to rely on people for transportation and I don't feel comfortable calling someone to take me to post so I can blog. Hopefully we will get our phone and Internet set up in our apartment soon so I'll be able to blog to my heart's content from home.

Have a great Thursday!

15 comments:

Mrs. S said...

Wow, I can't get over how high a fine that is!! Ouch!

And men. Seriously. You ask them to do one freakin thing....

Shea said...

It's 500 euro over here for giving someone the figure while driving...or so we've been threatened.

Hope you get everything worked out, cold showers are no fun!

Jon and Steph said...

Aren't the fines ridiculous! Seriously I studied uber hard for that darn test and I beat Jon's score, heck ya!! You'll do fine!

Lindsay Gray said...

I've been asking *R* to call the chaplain about marrying us for a month. Has he even pretended to make an effort? no.

Grrr...

I'll miss you! Don't stay gone too long!

Unknown said...

Those fines are crazy!!

LyndsAU said...

Those fines are outrageous. I hope everythinggets worked out for ya girl!!

The Rest is Still Unwritten said...

Wow! You sound busy! Well, you'll be missed! Good luck with everything!

Anonymous said...

You are my hero. Learning to drive in Italy..good luck:) Girl your Fab self has been tagged. Check out my blog!!!

Casey (@ Chaos and Cardboard) said...

Oh, the stupid cameras. In the states they went crazy over red light cams. Here, they only have cams. I have NEVER seen a policeman pulling anyone over off base. You just drive by a "tree" or a "broken down car" a little too fast and your ticket (featuring a beautiful picture of yourself) comes in the mail. Ugh! Get a GPS that detects them, and you will be happy. :)

Kebi Cedawna said...

You're just so dang sweet!!!
I love you too and miss ya like crazy!

Cold showers do not sound like fun, however, maybe if Sean has to endure a few he'll quit the habit of blowing stuff off.
Then again, he's a man, and every man I know has a mysterious syndrome that causes selective hearing. ;)

Mary Teresa said...

Kick your husband in the shin. It works well for me. Just hard enough to remind him that you are actually in charge. =D

As for the test, the one in Italy may be different, but in Germany the signs are really important. Study those from top to bottom.

Megan said...

Good luck getting everything set up!

Sarah said...

I can see why you'd be scared to drive! Sounds like you make one mistake and you're done for! I'm sure though that once you get all the information and have studied you'll be fine. Everything seems scary when its new and once you get used to it it won't seem like any trouble at all. Good luck with the gas turned on. Men are so useless sometimes...

Anonymous said...

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Tania said...

Heh...men! Nuff said!

Wow I'd be scared to drive too with all those fines! I find it hard not to break the rules every once in a while (although no DUIs for this girl)!