Thanks, guys. Biggest compliment I got from the DPE was "I think you're gonna be a safe pilot"
He also really liked my XC planning ("very thorough, complete and well thought out"), and asked if he could keep a copy of all my materials. Pretty proud of that too.
Already started studying the Instrument stuff, and can't wait to get started. I'm not going to officially start on it until I crank up a few more hours and XC hours under my belt, but going to start learning the material now. I've even been working on nailing my altitudes and headings to the Commercial standards, versus just the PP standards. The blade was forged, but you have to hone it to be sharp!
I absolutely, positively treat this as the proverbial "license to learn" and I feel like I learn something every single time I go up, even when I'm not PIC. I hope to never stop learning and improving. In fact, I will probably keep regular lessons with my CFI just to hone skills or work on the little things.
Thanks again, everyone. This board has been a tremendous aid to me, both learning about this stuff and as a positive support network. I'll keep working at it, like the wet-ink ticket I am, expecting to learn every time and gain confidence while pushing away overconfidence. I'm still smiling like a dork, and getting really, really distracted at work, thinking about heading skywards!
Do share - send me copies of how you planned your flight. I could learn something!
Benjamin
PS - Congratulations! That's awesome. Knowing how long it's taking me and the effort put into learning, training, scheduling and swiping the credit card, this is no small feat.