Adventures in Scootering
I got my scooter at the beginning of march. I got this one...
I was going to get the pink one but when the guy showed me both of them in the sunlight, the cream one just sparkled. It's BEAUTIFUL! Anyway, I took it for a little test drive in the alley next to the shop and I immediately wiped out. Other than some scrapes and a bruised ego, I was fine. The scooter had some cosmetic damage but was otherwise fine. The guys at the scooter shop didn't want to send me home with a banged up scooter so they fixed it up as good as new and only charged me for parts (scooter parts are super cheap so it didn't add much to the cost of the scooter.)
This is when my scooter got her name. I was going to name her Kaylee after the mechanic on the show Firefly cuz she's all cute and sweet, yet she's a mechanic. But since she kicked my ass right out of the gate, I've named her Zoe, after the hot but totally badass first officer on Firefly.
Anyway, after I got her home and my wounds healed up, Sean and I took her out to a parking lot to practice. I did really well the first day but the second day, I was making a slow turn and felt like I was tipping over so I put my foot down and actually tipped over. Zoe was fine. After sitting for a few minutes, I was feeling okay so I rode around some more and then I rode home. A few hours later the pain kicked in. I sprained my ankle...badly. I had to go to urgent care and I got to spend a few days on crutches and a couple of weeks in an ankle brace. I ended up having to postpone the motorcycle class I had signed up for. A week later, my ankle was healing up just like it was supposed to but I had discovered a painful lump on my other leg and it was getting bigger and more and more painful (even more painful than the sprained ankle) so I went to the doctor and it turned out it was an abscess and it was infected. The cut a hole in it to drain, gave me an IV full of antibiotics and then gave me a shopping bag of medicine (pain killers and more antibiotics.) And the doctor COMMANDED me to stay home from work for the week and to stay in bed and come in for another IV full of antibiotics every day until the infection starts clearing up. I suck at following doctors orders so I kept going to work. A few days later when it wasn't healing, the doctor told me that if I'd like to stay out of the hospital, I was to stay in bed and not get up until I was told otherwise. *sigh* So I got to spend a fun-filled weekend laying down in front of the TV. So more weeks go by and I still can't ride my scooter.
Finally, I got to take the motorcycle class last weekend. They let me ride my scooter for the class since I have no intention of ever riding a "real" motorcycle so I didn't need to know how to shift. Most scooters (including mine) have automatic transmission. I'm pretty sure I have a learning disability of some kind that prevents me from shifting. I can't drive a manual transmission car either. Anyway, the class was awesome! My little scooter rocks the swerves and weaves! Three people in my class fell off their bikes and I can proudly say that I wasn't one of them. Also, one person didn't pass the class and I was not that person. I did really well on the test. I went WAY out of the lines on the figure 8 box but I didn't put my foot down. I felt a lot better about it when they told me that in any given class, about 2/3 of the people still can't do it by the end of the class. So they knocked off a few points for going out of the lines and it wasn't a big deal. Since I passed the class, they sent me a little paper from the DMV so that I didn't have to take the motorcycle test at the DMV to get my license. I got it in the mail on Friday so I went down to the DMV yesterday and I turned in the paper and my learner's permit and now I'm officially a licensed motorcyclist (well, I've got a paper temporary license. I have to wait a few weeks to get the real one in the mail.) According to the state of California, I can ride on the freeway or at night or with someone on the back if I want to. Heck I could even hop on a big old Harley and cruise around on that if I wanted to. Not that I know how or anything.
Since I was all licensed and everything, I was itching to come up with some kind of errand to run to give me an excuse to ride. I had to go to the grocery store but I haven't figured out how to carry a week's worth of groceries for four people on my scoot. Then Nick needed some food money for the Boy Scout campout he has this weekend so I rode my scooter two blocks to the drug store atm machine. It was awesome! I also rode to work today and cruised around for a bit at lunch time. I'm all the way up to 60 miles on my scooter now (I had 30-something at the end of the class).
Anyway, that's my scooter story. I'm looking forward to bopping all over Rancho Bernardo on it. It can't legally go on the freeway so I haven't quite figured out how to ride it to Escondido. Technically, I think I can go on that little stretch of the 15 that goes over Lake Hodges but the freeway still scares me. Maybe when I'm comfortable going 60 mph or so on it I'll give it a try but I'm not ready for that. I'm doing fine going 35-40 but 60's still a little fast for me.
On the diet and exercise front, Sean's on a big-time diet so that's making healthy eating pretty easy for me. There's no snacks in the house other than fruits and veggies and we're not eating out. We've just joined a gym so we can work out together. He'll work out if I go with him. I just have to drive the train. The gym is pretty fun. I took a kickboxing class and that was pretty cool. The girl teaching the class was evil but in a good way.
I was going to get the pink one but when the guy showed me both of them in the sunlight, the cream one just sparkled. It's BEAUTIFUL! Anyway, I took it for a little test drive in the alley next to the shop and I immediately wiped out. Other than some scrapes and a bruised ego, I was fine. The scooter had some cosmetic damage but was otherwise fine. The guys at the scooter shop didn't want to send me home with a banged up scooter so they fixed it up as good as new and only charged me for parts (scooter parts are super cheap so it didn't add much to the cost of the scooter.)
This is when my scooter got her name. I was going to name her Kaylee after the mechanic on the show Firefly cuz she's all cute and sweet, yet she's a mechanic. But since she kicked my ass right out of the gate, I've named her Zoe, after the hot but totally badass first officer on Firefly.
Anyway, after I got her home and my wounds healed up, Sean and I took her out to a parking lot to practice. I did really well the first day but the second day, I was making a slow turn and felt like I was tipping over so I put my foot down and actually tipped over. Zoe was fine. After sitting for a few minutes, I was feeling okay so I rode around some more and then I rode home. A few hours later the pain kicked in. I sprained my ankle...badly. I had to go to urgent care and I got to spend a few days on crutches and a couple of weeks in an ankle brace. I ended up having to postpone the motorcycle class I had signed up for. A week later, my ankle was healing up just like it was supposed to but I had discovered a painful lump on my other leg and it was getting bigger and more and more painful (even more painful than the sprained ankle) so I went to the doctor and it turned out it was an abscess and it was infected. The cut a hole in it to drain, gave me an IV full of antibiotics and then gave me a shopping bag of medicine (pain killers and more antibiotics.) And the doctor COMMANDED me to stay home from work for the week and to stay in bed and come in for another IV full of antibiotics every day until the infection starts clearing up. I suck at following doctors orders so I kept going to work. A few days later when it wasn't healing, the doctor told me that if I'd like to stay out of the hospital, I was to stay in bed and not get up until I was told otherwise. *sigh* So I got to spend a fun-filled weekend laying down in front of the TV. So more weeks go by and I still can't ride my scooter.
Finally, I got to take the motorcycle class last weekend. They let me ride my scooter for the class since I have no intention of ever riding a "real" motorcycle so I didn't need to know how to shift. Most scooters (including mine) have automatic transmission. I'm pretty sure I have a learning disability of some kind that prevents me from shifting. I can't drive a manual transmission car either. Anyway, the class was awesome! My little scooter rocks the swerves and weaves! Three people in my class fell off their bikes and I can proudly say that I wasn't one of them. Also, one person didn't pass the class and I was not that person. I did really well on the test. I went WAY out of the lines on the figure 8 box but I didn't put my foot down. I felt a lot better about it when they told me that in any given class, about 2/3 of the people still can't do it by the end of the class. So they knocked off a few points for going out of the lines and it wasn't a big deal. Since I passed the class, they sent me a little paper from the DMV so that I didn't have to take the motorcycle test at the DMV to get my license. I got it in the mail on Friday so I went down to the DMV yesterday and I turned in the paper and my learner's permit and now I'm officially a licensed motorcyclist (well, I've got a paper temporary license. I have to wait a few weeks to get the real one in the mail.) According to the state of California, I can ride on the freeway or at night or with someone on the back if I want to. Heck I could even hop on a big old Harley and cruise around on that if I wanted to. Not that I know how or anything.
Since I was all licensed and everything, I was itching to come up with some kind of errand to run to give me an excuse to ride. I had to go to the grocery store but I haven't figured out how to carry a week's worth of groceries for four people on my scoot. Then Nick needed some food money for the Boy Scout campout he has this weekend so I rode my scooter two blocks to the drug store atm machine. It was awesome! I also rode to work today and cruised around for a bit at lunch time. I'm all the way up to 60 miles on my scooter now (I had 30-something at the end of the class).
Anyway, that's my scooter story. I'm looking forward to bopping all over Rancho Bernardo on it. It can't legally go on the freeway so I haven't quite figured out how to ride it to Escondido. Technically, I think I can go on that little stretch of the 15 that goes over Lake Hodges but the freeway still scares me. Maybe when I'm comfortable going 60 mph or so on it I'll give it a try but I'm not ready for that. I'm doing fine going 35-40 but 60's still a little fast for me.
On the diet and exercise front, Sean's on a big-time diet so that's making healthy eating pretty easy for me. There's no snacks in the house other than fruits and veggies and we're not eating out. We've just joined a gym so we can work out together. He'll work out if I go with him. I just have to drive the train. The gym is pretty fun. I took a kickboxing class and that was pretty cool. The girl teaching the class was evil but in a good way.
posted by Kristy at 1:26 PM
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