Today was a really long day.

Because we're now seniors, we go driving on the roads in the morning and then we practice parking maneuvers and pre-trip inspections on the range in the afternoons.  This morning, I had my best day of driving yet.  I was catching most of the gears when I was downshifting, smooth and calm.  The instructor I had this morning was the same one I had my very first day.  It was nice to show him how much I've improved.

This afternoon, I finally got the off-set and parallel parking down solid. I feel very confident in my parking abilities now.  I might have to pull up once or twice to make sure I'm at the right angle... but I don't knock over any cones. 

We had a short break (maybe 20 minutes) around 5pm. Then we had our "night driving" session.  We were scheduled to be driving until 9:30, but again.... we were dismissed at 9pm (half hour early).  My driving tonight was horrible.  Part of the problem (and no, I'm not entirely blaming the equipment for my crappy driving) was that I couldn't get the seat to latch into place.  This meant that in addition to the usual up and down motion of the air-cushoined seat, it was also sliding forward and backward.  Any slight jerk meant that I was then bouncing all over the place and unable to control my foot on the clutch petal... so I was dumping the clutch and it all just escalated into a big mess.  By the time my turn came to an end, I was very close to tears.  I was disappointed in myself, especially after how well I'd one earlier in the day.  It sucked.

The instructor spent a good five minutes telling me that I could make all the excuses I wanted, but he hadn't had any problem with the seat and one of the other students (who later admitted that he'd managed to get the seat latched into place, so it wasn't sliding forward and backward) hadn't had an issue with the seat... so it wasn't the seat, it was me. 

Part of it was the seat. A lot of it was me getting flustered and not being able to recover from that.

When you're shifting, one of your feet is on the clutch and the other is on the accelerator.  This means that the only part touching the floor is the heel of your right foot.  That's not enough (for me at least) to counteract the bouncing sliding seat. 

Both of the other students had two turns of driving.  I only had the one. To make it worse, it was not dark yet when I had my turn... which means I have zero night driving experience.

Gah! Disappointed in myself.  Going to bed now.  I'll do better tomorrow.  Onward!