Scoot over

I got a scooter. It is super cute. It looks a lot like this one


Except it is black and a year older (strangely enough you can't find good pictures of a 20 year old scooter on the internet, go figure). I really like riding it and I'm coming up with reasons to leave the house by myself. I figure I can ride it to work out when RF is home, to PTA, to girl's night outs, to book club, on small errands during the day, etc. It doesn't have a trunk or anything so no major shopping trips, but if I can fit it in my little back pack, I can carry it.

RF and MIL (who owns the scooter and is just letting me use it since it is an extra one that has been sitting in their garage for years) kept cautioning me about not being intimidated by other cars on the road but since I believe I am the most awesome thing on the road, I'm really not intimidated by them. It is only a 49cc, which is why I can ride it, legally, without getting a motorcycle license. But that means that it tops out at 30 miles an hour so I end up a little slower than the rest of traffic. I really enjoy riding and will likely get my motorcycle license and look for something bigger in the next few years.

My dad has had a motorcycle license as long as I can remember (I burned my leg rarther badly on his bike when I was 5 and I know he had one before that. If you want, I can still show you the scar sometime) and RF and my brother took the motorcycle training class a few years ago. My mom decided to get her's again after not having it for years (she had a bike in CA before she married my dad and had to ride his first bike home for him because he didn't have a license for it) and also took the class. I honestly don't think I will mess with it. By the time I get around to getting one, I'll have been riding the scooter for at least a couple of years and once I learn to shift and use the clutch (the scooter is automatic), it will be no big deal.

My mom is absolutely shocked by my choice NOT to take the class. Really, it is a major pain in the neck. It is 4 hours, 4 days, over the course of 2 weekends. You go over to campus, and ride a 250cc motorcycle around the parking lot, in long pants, long shirt, boots, gloves and full helmet (I wear a full helmet anyway because I like my head the shape it is in now, thanks so much) in the summer in the outrageous heat (or the rain or whatever other crappy weather is happening during the class). Besides all that, you have kick, scratch, bite and potentially kill to get in the classes because they fill super fast. It isn't worth all that to me. Riding a bike isn't rocket science, I have no need to waste 16 hours learning to something I already know how to do.

Anyway, if you see a girl on little black scooter with a big black helmet that weighs more than the bike, it is probably me. Feel free to honk and wave, although depending on how my ride is going, I might not wave back since I might have a white knuckled, death grip on the handle bars. :)