it has been a brave week! first, there was motorcycle safety school, an intense, two-day course that teaches the basics of how to operate a bike and ride as safely as possible (#67). day one was class time from 8am-12pm, then bike time from 12:30pm-5:30pm. day two was bike time from 8am-3pm (including the final skills test), then class time from 3:30pm-6:30pm (including the written test). the class was surprisingly diverse: forty percent female, thirty percent non-white, and lots of age groups represented, from eighteen years old up to mid-fifties. and the instructor was just great, an older guy who's been riding for forty years and who still beams when he talks about it.
this is what i learned to ride, a suzuki gz250. it felt pretty challenging at first, and looking back on it it's hard to believe that i went from learning how to turn the thing on and walking it in a straight line to swerving around obstacles and cornering sharp turns in just two days. and they do make the final skills test challenging enough that not everyone passes it, so if you drive too slowly or too quickly, you're out. so yes, i am so excited and proud that i passed! now all i can do is look at bikes and dream about the summer. that said, i'm not ready to hit the road just yet. well, not the roads surrounding my apartment. when i'm ready to buy a bike, i plan on getting out of the city and practicing on some quiet, suburban cul de sacs. the evergreen safety school also offers a course designed to teach you how to drive out on the streets in the real world, and i think i'll try to save up for that as well.
so, full admission, i dropped the bike on day one. we were doing weaves and instead of focusing on the next cone ahead of me i spent too much time looking down at the one i was trying to get around. and, as i quickly learned, where you look is where the bike goes. it fell to my side and i was trapped by my ankle until the instructors came and lifted it off of me. my leg didn't hurt nearly as much as my ego. i had to fill out an accident report and everything. turns out it is way harder to steer when you're moving at super slow speeds, since you have to figure out how to use counter-weight when you're leaning to one side or the other. but i'm glad i learned that lesson when i did. on day two during the skills test we had to do these slow-speed figure eight's, a challenge that costs most students a passing grade. i was incredibly nervous for that part, and i had to put a foot down a couple times (deduction!) but ultimately i passed the whole thing with a pretty great grade!
since the class is all business, i didn't have the chance to take any pictures. but i did snap this beauty upon arriving back home - all that's left is to take this bad boy to the DMV in the next six months and get my new driver's license, which will include my motorcycle endorsement. awwwww yeah.
proof!
also, i played paintball (#20). a while back, groupon offered a pretty good deal for the paintball sports park in puyallup, so kyle and i each bought one and finally redeemed them yesterday. he'd been before, but it was my first time. i was pretty amped up the whole car ride down, but when we made that final turn into the parking lot, all that excitement turned to nausea-accompanied fear. these dudes... they were in full camo gear. they had belts full of paint for quick-and-easy reload. they were loud. they were running full-speed. they were scary. and i almost didn't get out of the car. the website for this place showed fun birthday parties, some of them for teenaged girls and other fun-loving first-timer adults. where the hell were these people? all i saw were about twenty young men who i suspected had serious anger issues, and if it weren't for paintball... i'm just sayin. they were scary.
but, with kyle's help, i sucked it up and got out of the car. at the check-in table where we got our gear and instructions, they assured us that we'd be on a different field with other beginners, plus i'd get a little target practice beforehand, so i was pretty easily put at ease. when it came to game time we were divided into two teams and were given a task - to assign a "president" (who didn't get a gun!) and to get him to the other side of the field without getting shot... ok, this was way more militant than i expected. still, i was more daring than some of the guys on my team. i got out there. i shot some people. i also got shot, just once, by... kyle. it hurt more than i expected initially, but the pain also faded more quickly than i thought it would. maybe it was all the adrenaline. but after getting hit in the leg all i could think about was "oh my god what if i get hit in the neck," and then i lost some of my steam. we didn't stay very long, mostly because we ran out of ammo pretty quickly and didn't feel like paying for more. and even though i didn't really love the experience, i did like it, and i think if we went with a big group of friends it would be an absolute blast. i mean, it was a tough thing, being on a team of total strangers and being the only woman for miles. but i did my best.
i promise there's a lot more paint on my leg, particularly where i got shot. but it is great evidence of how much braver (or slower?) kyle was.
this is what i learned to ride, a suzuki gz250. it felt pretty challenging at first, and looking back on it it's hard to believe that i went from learning how to turn the thing on and walking it in a straight line to swerving around obstacles and cornering sharp turns in just two days. and they do make the final skills test challenging enough that not everyone passes it, so if you drive too slowly or too quickly, you're out. so yes, i am so excited and proud that i passed! now all i can do is look at bikes and dream about the summer. that said, i'm not ready to hit the road just yet. well, not the roads surrounding my apartment. when i'm ready to buy a bike, i plan on getting out of the city and practicing on some quiet, suburban cul de sacs. the evergreen safety school also offers a course designed to teach you how to drive out on the streets in the real world, and i think i'll try to save up for that as well.
so, full admission, i dropped the bike on day one. we were doing weaves and instead of focusing on the next cone ahead of me i spent too much time looking down at the one i was trying to get around. and, as i quickly learned, where you look is where the bike goes. it fell to my side and i was trapped by my ankle until the instructors came and lifted it off of me. my leg didn't hurt nearly as much as my ego. i had to fill out an accident report and everything. turns out it is way harder to steer when you're moving at super slow speeds, since you have to figure out how to use counter-weight when you're leaning to one side or the other. but i'm glad i learned that lesson when i did. on day two during the skills test we had to do these slow-speed figure eight's, a challenge that costs most students a passing grade. i was incredibly nervous for that part, and i had to put a foot down a couple times (deduction!) but ultimately i passed the whole thing with a pretty great grade!
since the class is all business, i didn't have the chance to take any pictures. but i did snap this beauty upon arriving back home - all that's left is to take this bad boy to the DMV in the next six months and get my new driver's license, which will include my motorcycle endorsement. awwwww yeah.
proof!__________
also, i played paintball (#20). a while back, groupon offered a pretty good deal for the paintball sports park in puyallup, so kyle and i each bought one and finally redeemed them yesterday. he'd been before, but it was my first time. i was pretty amped up the whole car ride down, but when we made that final turn into the parking lot, all that excitement turned to nausea-accompanied fear. these dudes... they were in full camo gear. they had belts full of paint for quick-and-easy reload. they were loud. they were running full-speed. they were scary. and i almost didn't get out of the car. the website for this place showed fun birthday parties, some of them for teenaged girls and other fun-loving first-timer adults. where the hell were these people? all i saw were about twenty young men who i suspected had serious anger issues, and if it weren't for paintball... i'm just sayin. they were scary.
but, with kyle's help, i sucked it up and got out of the car. at the check-in table where we got our gear and instructions, they assured us that we'd be on a different field with other beginners, plus i'd get a little target practice beforehand, so i was pretty easily put at ease. when it came to game time we were divided into two teams and were given a task - to assign a "president" (who didn't get a gun!) and to get him to the other side of the field without getting shot... ok, this was way more militant than i expected. still, i was more daring than some of the guys on my team. i got out there. i shot some people. i also got shot, just once, by... kyle. it hurt more than i expected initially, but the pain also faded more quickly than i thought it would. maybe it was all the adrenaline. but after getting hit in the leg all i could think about was "oh my god what if i get hit in the neck," and then i lost some of my steam. we didn't stay very long, mostly because we ran out of ammo pretty quickly and didn't feel like paying for more. and even though i didn't really love the experience, i did like it, and i think if we went with a big group of friends it would be an absolute blast. i mean, it was a tough thing, being on a team of total strangers and being the only woman for miles. but i did my best.
i promise there's a lot more paint on my leg, particularly where i got shot. but it is great evidence of how much braver (or slower?) kyle was.__________
