Wanna go for a ride?

Yesterday Conor passed the first hurdle toward his ultimate goal of getting his license - the practical driving test.  He's actually a good driver so it took, as he foretold, about 15 whole minutes to prove it to the instructor who then stamped his permit, gave him a thumbs up and sent him on his way to merrily hurl his breakable body along in 5,000 pounds of steel at speeds far too fast to make sense to anyone but the delighted 16-year-old boy behind the wheel.  Ain't life grand?  Tomorrow, he'll take the written test and it will be official.  He'll have a lousy picture of himself (smiling but showing no teeth as required in Indiana) on a laminated piece of cardboard that will say to the world, "I have arrived.  I have been tested and found capable."

I guess that's a little bit like it must be once you can say you are published.  You can hold up your publishing credential for the editor/agent and say, "I have been tested and found capable.  Wanna go for a ride?"