May 22, 2000

it really *was* a huge inch-long thorn. that's my story and i'm sticking to it.
So, like I mentioned in my last entry, I wanted to have Peter move my bike to his place. I brought it up with him on Friday night, and he thought it was a great idea, so on Saturday afternoon, we drove to my apartment and he drove the bike back to his place. There was a moment of apprehension when I realized that I had already removed the plates from the bike (I'm going to the DMV in about an hour to pick up my personalized plates, and I need to turn in the old plates), but luck was on our side, and he wasn't pulled over on the freeway ("yeah, officer, this is my girlfriend's bike. That's why I look ridiculously tall riding it. And, uh, the plates are at her workplace. That's why they're not on the bike. Really.")

Once we got back to his place, I braved the 95-degree heat and put on my leather jacket and gloves, and my helmet, and my sunglasses, and then instantly got a Big Pointy Owie stuck in my eye. So the next 20 minutes was spent frantically ripping off said leathers/helmet/sunglasses so that I could run inside and sexily stick my head under the bathroom faucet and flush out my eye. Now, let me just interject that I *hate* getting things in my eye, not because it hurts, but because if something is going to hurt, it better damn well *look* impressive. When something hurts my eye, I want to flush it out and have like a inch-long thorn come out or something. But no. *sigh* Anyways. After sufficient cursing and eye-flushing and lack-of-huge-thing-coming-out-of-eye lamenting, I put the gear back on and finally got on the bike.

peter and i take on the neighborhood.
So, I get on my bike, and Peter gets on his bike, and we pull up to the stop sign right in front of his house, and we discuss our plan of attack. I went in front, so that he could prevent cars from tailgating me, and in case I fell or something, he'd notice right away and could help. It was really scary at first, but Peter was really wonderful, and he'd block intersections for me so that I could take my time going through them.

We drove all over his neighborhood, for about an hour or so. I don't think we ever went above 20 mph, but I practiced stopping at stop signs a lot, and shifting up into second, and turning corners after stopping at stop signs, and all sorts of things. I even got some U-turn practice in a couple of times when we accidentally wandered onto dead-end streets.

It was so amazingly exciting! I wasn't panicking at all like I was the last time I tried to practice near my apartment, and I really felt confident by the end of our practice. We only stopped because the heat was starting to get to us and to the bikes (Peter's bike is water-cooled, but mine is air-cooled, and I guess my tearing around at 15mph wasn't really doing much cooling); I couldn't believe how fun it was. :) Yay!

And then we went in and went swimming in his pool. *happysigh*

future excitement
So, as I mentioned, I'm going to the DMV to get my personalized plates this afternoon. Yay! Figures that as soon as I finally remembered to put the new registration sticker on the old plates, the new plates came in. Oh well. :)

I'm also going to go over to Peter's after work and practice on the bike some more. Peter might come home and ride with me; otherwise, I'll be on my own. I hope I'll still think it's as easy without knowing that there's someone right behind me paying attention and looking out for me! Eek!

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