Biker Babe in the Making

Okay, so the "babe" part is open to interpretation. But still.


I had my second lesson on the motorcycle today. This time I was on Darling Husband's Honda 919. I was really nervous to try to ride on this thing since it's a sport touring bike and can REALLY go super fast in a hurray. I could see myself trying to ease onto the throttle and still managing to shoot down the road like a rocket. Thankfully when I tested the throttle sensitivity while in neutral I saw that it would be possible to still be very gentle with it. I did really well! Well, considering it was ME on it. I got up to 20 miles an hour this time. Woohoo! That's double the speed I was willing to go when I first tried out my mom's bike. I even shifted into 2nd gear a couple times! Pretty soon I might be able to pass those little mopeds that are always blocking traffic.

Technically you're not supposed to ride with a passenger until you are very well trained on a bike and can do so without endangering yourself or the other person. Bikes handle a lot differently when you have a passenger! But I'm still too scared to ride without him behind me telling me what to do and when, in case I panic and forget what to do! It's only further proof of how fearless he is that he was willing to ride with me at the helm.

But the part that I'm most proud of? I TURNED! FOUR TIMES! And I did it well each time. It was so thrilling to be able to do it. I was giggling like a schoolgirl and laughing out loud with glee. I was so proud of myself. :) And no freaking out this time - no tears or panic. I wonder if I'm the only one who is so scared of trying to turn on a motorcycle. I don't even think about it when I'm on a bicycle, but for some reason it really intimidates me to try doing the same thing on a motorcycle.

I made sure to stop while I was ahead this time instead of pushing it until I got overwhelmed. Every little step is really helping to build my confidence. I never thought I'd be able to handle DH's bike since it is so sporty and fast. But it's nice and light and narrower than my mom's bike, so that actually made it pretty easy to handle. I'm starting to understand why he loves it so much on twisty, winding roads!

Motorcycle Mayhem, Part II

I just got my motorcycle permit!  Woohoo!  Look at me, I'm a wild woman. :)  Now I just have to put it to good use and try another bout on the bike. I'm going to be so excited if I can actually learn how to ride a motorcycle.  Of course having to shell out the money to eventually buy a bike and for the insurance won't be as fun, but it will be a necessary evil eventually. There is a motorcycle riding class I'm looking into that a friend took a few years ago and really enjoyed. He took the intermediate course, but I'd need to start from the very bottom!  They stress safety a lot, which I really like.  He said it even makes him drive his car more defensively. 

I'm on a roll with this "taking on the world" thing I started recently.  I've got my eye mapping and eye exam scheduled for this Thursday for my LASIK.  I've been out of my contacts for nearly 2 weeks in preparation for it.  And I should be able to have the surgery done at the end of February.  Hooray, no more contacts or glasses!  That's going to be especially appealing after being stuck in my glasses for so many weeks.  I was also finally able to decide on a design for a tattoo, and I have a friend who knows a tattoo artist from a local shop who is going to give us a great deal on tattoos.  So now I'm even going to get a tattoo!  Two, actually.  I've thought about getting one for several years now, but never seriously considered it because I just couldn't decide on what to get and where to get it.  I don't want to have something I'm going to regret in a few years, or something that won't be relevant to me in 30 to 50 years.

So here I am, tackling tattoos, LASIK, and motorcycles all in a short span of time.  If they weren't things I'd thought about and wanted for several years I'd be worried I might be having a mid-life crisis. I told my friend that if I come home with a red convertible sports car she needs to plan an intervention. :)

Cozy Comfort

Because sometimes sleeping on the pillows just isn't good enough.

(That's one of my Chihuahuas, Gypsy, snuggling between two pillows.)

I'm Ready to Take on the World

Do you ever have those times when you tackle something awesome and then feel like you can do anything after that? Even if it's just something minor? I'm in that mood now.  Some of it is also from a feeling that life is short (and passing me by) and I don't want to keep wasting time - putting off things I've wanted but never got around to letting myself have (or do), shying away from things because they are "scary" or because I'm afraid I won't be good at them. But if I never try something, I've already failed, right? So what's the point of not trying?  I'm hoping that I can keep this motivated mood going and accomplish some things that I've been too scared to try or things that I used to enjoy but never do anymore.  I've already given driving a motorcycle a try, and I really want to keep learning.  It may seem like a small thing to many people, but for me being able to drive a motorcycle (and not just ride on the back) would be a huge deal.


First on my list is seeing a doctor for a consultation on LASIK. I've been wanting to get my eyes lasered for YEARS but kept putting it off.  First it was because it was too expensive, then because I was worried that something freaky would happen and I'd end up blind or with worse vision than before, then it was because I didn't want to have to go two whole weeks without being able to wear my contacts before they do the measurements for the surgery.  For the past fews years I've mentioned it to my eye doctor at every annual checkup and he's assured me that I'm a perfect candidate and he recommended a local eye surgeon.  And still I kept putting it off.  But now I'm ready! I've schedule my consultation and hopefully things will go well and soon I'll have an appointment for the actual surgery.  I can't imagine how awesome it will feel to not have to rely on contacts and glasses anymore, especially since they seem to bother me more and more lately. Whee!


Another thing on my list is backpacking.  I used to go backpacking with my family every year when I was a kid.  It was always pretty grueling and I complained a lot at the time.  But it was still kind of fun.  And now that they have all this fancy technical equipment that weighs next to nothing I'm sure it's a much more fun activity.  Unfortunately I have back problems and just the thought of carrying all that weight makes it hurt. My husband goes on a short backpacking trip (one or two nights only) every Spring Break with a coworker friend of his and my dad.  And this year I want to go too!  I just got back from a vacation in Maui where we did some light hiking and I realize how much I enjoy it and miss being able to do it. My husband prefers backpacking instead of camping and doing day hikes, so I never get the chance to just hike.  But if my choices are backpacking or not hiking at all, I'm going to at least give backpacking another try.  His trips are much shorter than the ones I went on as a kid, and since I've been seeing a chiropractor regularly for my back it may not even be as big a deal as I've been letting myself imagine.  Who knows, maybe it will be the most fun I've had in a while and I'll look forward to doing it more and more. And if I have a great time and my husband enjoys having me there, maybe we'll even go more often.

So what else should I put on my list of things to accomplish? Should I give surfing another try? Maybe see if I can tackle SCUBA? That one would be a long shot, but it feels less scary now than it used to when I thought about it before. Maybe that means I'm ready to try it!

Snow in Myrtle Beach? AGAIN?!

I can't believe this weather we're having.  This snowed a bit last night as I noticed when getting up to let the girls out.  It didn't really stick except in a few thin areas, and by the time I woke up it was all gone and was no longer snowing.  Then earlier this afternoon I decided to go for a walk.  I got all bundled up and then as I was putting the last touches on my please-don't-let-me-freeze outfit, I looked outside and saw it was snowing again!  Quite a bit actually.  I went for my walk and it snowed the entire hour I was outside.  It is in fact still snowing.  It's still not sticking anywhere.  It's kind of weird to see all this snow just pouring down and having it disappear as soon as it hits the ground. The puddles aren't even iced over.

Another bit of strange is that this is the SECOND time this year that it has snowed!  It snowed already this February.  Except that time it actually stuck. 

PROOF:














I can't remember it ever snowing two years in a row, much less twice in the same year.  I hope this isn't going to be the new normal.  I'm ready to go back to the milder winters.  I hate being cold.  Give me spring and early summer weather all year round, please.  This is all especially hard to take since I just got back from a vacation to Maui, where it was beautifully warm and perfect. *sigh* 

A Little Jar of Heaven

My brother and sister-in-law have a huge plot of land out in the country.  They grow all kinds of things in their garden, and also have fruit trees and bushes.  Needless to say, they get to do a lot of canning every year.  I was visiting them recently and was able to snag a few jars of their homemade jelly.  I got Wild Cherry and Elderberry Apple.  So far I've only tasted the Wild Cherry, but it is so incredibly yummy.  I've eaten half a jar in less than a week.  !!  I can't help it, it's just so tasty!

When I was a kid, there used to be a lot of wild elderberry bushes growing on the side of the road in the neighborhood where I lived.  I remember picking large sacks of those dark purple berries to my grandma and my parents could make elderberry jelly.  We rarely had store bought jelly when I was little.  We always had so much of the homemade stuff we never needed to pay for any. 

I can't wait to dig into that Elderberry Apple jelly my brother and sister-in-law made.  I know it's going to be good.  I'm only sorry I didn't smuggle out a jar of the Raspberry Dark Chocolate jelly they had!  We had some with breakfast before I left and it was amazing.  Looks like I might have to find a reason to be in the neighborhood again real soon so I can get my hands on some.

Motorcycle Mayhem

I love motorcycles.  It's a lot of fun riding around on one, especially when the weather is particularly nice.  I have several friends that ride, my husband rides, and both my parents ride.  And I ride too.  On the back.  Deep down inside, the Wild Child in me wants to be brave and ride too, but the real me is just such a chicken.  It's not like learning to ride a motorcycle is something you can take in baby steps.  You have to learn how to balance, how to turn by leaning and not actually turning the handlebars, and then there is the whole clutch/gears thing going on too.  Oh, and of course remembering not to sear the skin off your leg by accidentally touching the pipes.

I was nervous even when learning how to drive a car.  I would barely creep along the road and was still an anxious wreck, knowing that at any minute some other car, person, animal or thing was going to jump out in front of me and I wouldn't be able to stop.  Or I'd lose control of the car while racing down the road at a blistering 10 MPH and crash into a building/ditch/tree and we'd all die in a massive, flaming ball of death.

Thankfully once I got comfortable in the car that phase didn't last long.  But even knowing that, the thought of trying to learn to ride (drive?) a motorcycle still freaks me out.  At least in the car I didn't have to worry about whether or not I'd fall over and crush my legs under the weight of the bike, or that I'd skid out when trying to make that tricky right hand turn.  I have enough trouble with balance while standing on my own two feet, or with walking around a corner and not hitting my arm or shoulder on the door frame.  (Stupid things keep moving on me, I swear it!)

But this week, the day before Thanksgiving, my husband decided I was going to learn.  Or at least try to learn.  So when we got to my parents' house we borrowed my mom's bike and my husband attempted to teach me how to ride a motorcycle.  I have to admit I did better than I thought I would, but it was still pretty terrifying despite the fact that I never went over 12 MPH and would not turn.  When we got to the end of my parents' street my husband would take over and turn the bike back around so I could try again on the straight section.  He's not nearly as timid as I am of course, so after a few runs with me not falling over or causing anything to burst into flames he decided I was ready to try a turn.

I'm sure you've already guessed by now that this didn't go well.  For one thing, I wasn't comfortable enough yet to get up to a high enough speed to turn efficiently.  And while I know you are supposed to lean to turn, I'm so scared of falling over that my body just automatically leans the opposite direction out of pure self-preservation.  So here we are creeping down the road and the closer we get to the turn, the more panicked I get.  So much so that when I decide to abort (if I could have abandoned ship entirely without killing myself or my mom's bike, I probably would have), my brain function had shut down enough that I could barely remember how to stop.  Thank goodness the clutch slows down the bike significantly - otherwise my mom's bike would probably be decorating the neighbor's living room right about now.  It slowed the bike down sufficiently that I could calm down enough to remember how to brake. At this point I was so overwhelmed by everything that I started to cry.  No one will ever accuse me of being brave or courageous.  Daredevil, I am not.

But despite the dramatics, it really was fun, and I was pretty proud of myself for the part I WAS able to do!  I'm certainly willing to keep trying.  By this time next year, I may even be the proud owner of a Motorcycle Driver's License! Anything can happen, right?