"NO SWEEPING THE LANES!"

I was slow to pick up learning to drive when I was a teenager. 

There were reasons... Both of my parents drove stick shifts. And while they were insistent that I learn to drive, a practice drive on my 16th birthday (with my dad) with my mum's sporty red car ended with us in a ditch when I was attempting to make a left turn and accidentally slammed down on the gas while letting up on the clutch.

After that, I had no interest in learning to drive. Especially on a stick.  So they bought me a used truck with no power steering, but had automatic transmission.

It still took me about six months after they bought it to get around to getting my license. (I really just had no interest.) But I got it. And I went through two used vehicles over the span of five and a half years, till I moved to NYC and no longer needed to drive.

So regular driving, until this week, hasn't been a part of my life for over 14 years. And when my parents picked me up at the airport in Tucson in my new car, I drove us home. And I realized... I hadn't driven my both of parents in a car ever.  And I hadn't driven a car with my mother in it 20 years.

I felt relaxed about it. I didn't even think twice. They were good sports about my driving. I'm very safe. I don't speed. I always use my blinker. But my mother did find one thing to point out that I was doing that could get me a ticket...

Sweeping lanes on left turns.

I had completely forgotten that was frowned upon! I didn't even know what she meant at first...

It's when you are turning left, and you don't turn into the designated lane you are supposed to... But instead shift to the other lane.

Now, about two weeks later, I still here her voice reminding me, "No sweeping the lanes!"

She swears she knows of police officers who have given tickets for it. But that could just be something she made up to make me think about health and safety. Like that time when she told me there are people who actually like to eat broccoli.