Hit the Ground Revving

I experienced my first motorcycle ride this past weekend. Or, I guess I should say, my first motorcycle trip.

We started with a practice run, about a 10-minute ride to a local diner for breakfast on Saturday. Then left straight from there for a 2 + hour journey to the North shore, countered by a longer, wetter, journey back on Sunday morning.

Some Background
Growing up my grandfather had three motorcycles (all BMWs) but I never saw him ride any of them. When I was about 5-years-old we came home from yard-sale-ing one day to find fire trucks outside of our house because one of the bikes had caught fire while my grandfather was working on it. The only thing I know about the other two bikes is that one of them would start to shake if it got over a certain speed. Knowing first hand this happening with my first car I can imagine this makes riding said motorcycle pretty impossible, as in a car it's pretty noticeable, but with the extra two tires, not necessarily debilitating.

I remember my grandfather telling my brother (the only boy) that he would get to have one of the bikes when he was old enough, which always made me jealous, as I wanted one, too. By the time any of us were old enough to even drive (I am the oldest) the tune had changed to 'motorcycles are dangerous, no riding them!' but at least this was applied to all three of us, and not just the girls.

My dad had one when my parents were first together, but, growing up, would deny any connection to ever having ridden one. He finally blew his cover when we were playing a video game at the arcade. After kicking my brother's butt in some game that involved motorcycling he pulled out his wallet to show off the "M" stamp he had on his license. Needless to say he had totally forgotten his previous denial. Busted.

Present Day
Fast forward. I am 24 and I still had never ridden a motorcycle, not even as a passenger. I had had a few offers, some years ago, from a friend who's father owned one, but, being the parent-shy person I was at the time, I declined.

Now, my boy had bought a bike about 4 or 5 years ago (it's only been about 9-10 months for us now, keep in mind) but he had never had a passenger. My initial excitement at dating someone with a motorcycle was put on hold. He had abstained from having passengers for safety reasons, not wanting it to throw off his balance, etc, which is understandable. His old bike also did not have a sissy-bar/back-rest, so, while a few months ago we had discussed the possibility, I wasn't that motivated. We also had the worst luck with the weather and the few opportunities that came up were rained out, anyway.

About a week ago he went and traded in his old bike for his first Harley-Davidson, which is a bigger bike, length-wise as well as having a bigger engine. Also, it has a back-rest. :)

There was rain in the forecast for this past Sunday, so I was afraid it would nix yet another chance for my first ride, but, seeing as the bike was so new, he wasn't going to give up the shot for a nice long ride, and the opportunity to show it off to our friends.

What I Knew Before
Don't let your legs touch the tail-pipes when you hop off, they are wicked hot. *
... the end.

What I Know Now, About...

Balance & Stability
Though I had done some research, prior to Saturday, there were mixed messages. Some things claimed that passengers should stay as straight as possible, while others suggested leaning into the turns with the driver. Really, it depends on what the driver wants. I also think it depends on if the passenger knows how to ride a motorcycle on their own or not. Obviously, I don't.

It worked out well that I would just hold onto the sissy-bar when we came around a significant turn and do my best to become one with the bike. (i.e. not leaning into turns with him)

Holding onto the sissy-bar was also my chosen tactic for the first 10 or 15 miles because I felt wrapping my arms around his chest would be too distracting/throw him off balance, and also my helmet would get in the way of doing this comfortably. I also wasn't sure how secure I would feel just having my hands placed on his waist, since it wasn't really holding onto him as much as just a place to put my hands.
Once we hit the highway, though, that is where my hands went because the sissy-bar was on it's way to erasing my fingerprints.

I have to say the back-rest was a life-saver. I don't think holding him around the chest would have just been an option as much as a necessity if there had been no backrest. After I got over the initial anxiety I felt pretty comfortable.

In particular, I had some issues with my left knee cramping up after awhile. I finally decided it had to do with the fact I drive a standard car and use my left leg a lot more, for pushing in the clutch. I don't know why or how this would make bending my knee for an extended period of time painful, but that's my running theory at the moment...
...I digress.

Due to this comfort issue I spent decent amount of time trying to readjust my legs to alleviate the strain on my knee. When I first got on the bike I had placed just the toes of my boots on the foot-pegs so I was basically on my tip-toes. Initially my knee felt better when I shifted so that the foot-peg was under the arch of my boot and my foot was resting flat. I felt, though, that my feet being in this position was getting in the way when we were coming to a stop and he had to touch the ground, as every other time his leg would bump my foot.

There was a stretch of time we were in traffic and it was a lot of stop and go. I figured this was a better time to try and shift to find a more comfortable angle for my legs. It wasn't until we made a pit-stop that he told me it has been throwing off his balance a little because when I would readjust one foot I was pushing down on the foot-peg on the other side. He suggested that if I wanted to adjust my legs maybe I could focus my weight on my butt and use that as my center of gravity. I also would hold onto the sissy-bar and push my self up with my arms and back. It was later confirmed that both of these tactics worked much better and didn't affect the balance.

Communication
Before leaving we decided that if I needed him to stop for anything to tap on his right shoulder. I think vaguely we also decided that if I tapped him on the left shoulder it meant to turn his head so he could hear me.
Depending on where we were, and how fast we were going, talking on the bike was pretty tricky, if not impossible. #1 I was behind him, so his words often got lost in the wind. #2 my helmet was a full-head so my ears were covered, and I had the face-shield down most of the time, so I was in a bubble. This also blocked a lot of what I was saying to him.
We also never discussed what he should do to communicate things to me. For the most part we only spoke if we were at a stop, and only if it was important.

Attire
I do own two leather jackets, but I ended up wearing a denim one. This being the case because one of the leather jackets is old and falling apart and too big, and I've been trying to get rid of it for awhile. The other one is my mom's old biker jacket, but it's very 80's, with large shoulders (due to shoulder pads). I'm afraid it might look too ridiculous, though I haven't tried it on in a while. It was also buried in a box somewhere.

The jean jacket worked out pretty well. On the way up, which was a nice ride, dry, with the sun out, it protected from the wind and I was comfortable. The only time I got a bit warm was when we would slow down or came to a stop. That's when the sun would lay on the heat, and I mostly felt it on the tops of my legs.

I wore a pair of skinny-jeans, figuring they would fit in my boots better, which they did. I think next time I would opt for jeans that are a bit looser. I'm curious about whether or not the tightness of the jeans may have added to the strain on my left knee, and may have been pressing the cuff of my (knee-high) socks into my knee cap. (At the moment, sitting at my desk, my knee feels fine and it is bent at a similar angle, but these are looser-fitting jeans, and there is a giant hole in the left knee as well...)

We both brought an extra layer for the ride back, preparing for the rain. This was a supah-smaht move (his idea, cause he's a pro) because oh, did it rain. Of course it only rained up until we were almost an half hour from home, then everything was dry and the sun was out. I was soaked to the skin and debating whether or not I was loving the slight warmth from the sun, or hating it for reminding me I was soaked.
I wasn't miserable though, I mean, I prefer to be dry, but whatcha gonna do? Though, I am pretty low maintenance so, to each their own.

Also, I have to say, being soaked while on the bike was easier to deal with than when we stopped and had to be soaked off the bike, then each movement was uncomfortable.

Baggage
Since we were going for a long trip, and it was for a birthday celebration, we had stuff we needed to bring. His old bike had saddle-bags and a plastic trunk on the back. The new bike doesn't have anything for carry-on, so a back-pack is the only option, and, as I was the passenger, the back-pack was my deal.

I'm glad for two things on the way up, for starters, it wasn't raining, and also, we didn't take the highway the whole way, we took a lot of back-roads and slower routes.
The bag wasn't terribly heavy on the way up, but it was a lot more comfortable on the way back since it was almost empty, most of the stuff I brought being for the birthday girl. Also, an almost empty back-pack is much easier to deal with when it's been soaked through, or at least, I assume.

Unfortunately, this means that I always had the bag on. I am eager to see what it's like to ride without the extra weight. Carrying the bag meant I had to sit a certain way so it was either just resting on top of the back-rest or that it hung over the back-rest. Though, having it hang over the back-rest made me a bit nervous. I was afraid it could lead to balance problems if I leaned forward and forgot it was over the back-rest, and then it might get caught and lead me to jerk forward or pull-up short.


Miscellaneous
We only had one snafu during the trip and it was on the way back. About 25 minutes into it we pulled off randomly in the break-down lane.
Turns out he had started to get electrical shocks in his hands through the handle-bars, that were shocking in the rhythm of the engine.
He turned it off and we took a breather, got back on and it had stopped. We pulled off to get food anyway, but while we were looking for a place to stop I got a couple of shocks from the sissy-bar. Pretty sure it is fixed, for now. There was a cable for the battery that was exposed so he figured it might be what was sending shocks through the metal of the bike. He wrapped it in plastic and after that we had no more issues.

Reflection
Would I do it again?
Totally.

What would I do differently?
Wear looser jeans and lower socks, maybe in a real leather riding jacket.
Not have a back-pack, or any type of bag if I can help it.
Maybe do some leg-stretches before hand.

*This is true.

I have a blogging problem, and I suck at decision making....

I have come to the realization that I don't post much for one main reason (and I'm not counting being lazy/forgetting, that's a given)
The reason being I don't know how to approach a blog. Unless I have some sort of art work, or activity to talk about/show off, I am not sure what to do. I have ideas that I roll around in my head, topics of interest, my opinions, etc. But I feel as if it's already been done, that whatever I have to say it just the same as someone else who hold my opinion about discussion topics like money, parenting, politics, religion, etc. And I just don't want to be another ranter who has half the world on my side and the other half against me, that's a given, that's life.
But then, I don't want to treat the blog as a journal and bore people with my everyday life, cause, I have a journal for that, a real one. And, let's be honest, people wouldn't be bored, cause they just wouldn't read my entries to begin with...

That being said, I have recently thought of starting yet ANOTHER blog, only one focused solely on my move to Montreal. Yet, I already have my craft blog(YelowPins) and then this blog, which was just for...general stuff I guess, now my dilemma is, start a new blog, or just use this one for my adventures...decisions, decisions....

Oh, life...

I'm not very good at this whole "blog" thing, not entirely sure why, though I have my theories. One of them being that certain things I cook up to blog about I then decide not to because I worry those who read this will find the topic boring, or think I am griping/whining.

I also feel that I tend to have a different tone about me when I post here, not really sure how to explain it.

Probably has something to do with the fact that the words that I put down here come straight from my head and are aimed at no one in particular...

In any case, I finally got my first tattoo. If you feel like it you can check out the first entry in my Yellow Pin Projects journal and see the original design I made back in 2006. Which I then posted in Yellow Pin in 2009...thinking I was going to get it soon after that...and here are! Only took me about five or six years to finally grow some balls.

photo taken by the lovely Miss Millie

The Art of Conversation is, like, kinda dead and stuff...

So,
I was at the gym the other day, again, and I was watching the TV there, again (though for some reason the last few weeks the audio for the TV hasn't been working, it's just all static, so I have to rely on my iPod to drown out the rap music on the stereo and focus really hard on the subtitles...)
Anywho,
saw another commercial that made me angry. Had nothing to do with food this time, but it still fell in the same vein of our society today, crunching many things into a little bit of time and also just the disconnection of everyone. It was for some sort of cell phone, the Samsung 4G or something, I think. Part of their shpeel was that you could be face to face with someone, without actually being there, face to face, the scene showed a guy and girl sitting at a table talking, then transition into the guy holding his phone with the girl's face on the phone during a video chat, etc.
Now, this commercial reminded me of an article I read in the Boston Globe the other day, about how these days we are all super connected by technology and that the newest type of pining is longing for you cell phone to receive a text message. The article then launched into long distance relationships and how they work much differently these days, but also how technology can hinder them as well as help, e.g. you send a text message and it is not replied to right away, what is the other person doing?!
So, back to this TV commercial, you can now be face to face with someone without actually being there, blah blah blah.
Well, the first thing that popped into my head was that scene from Wall-E when there are two guys on their little hover-chairs talking to each other via video, but they're floating right next to each other as well. Also, the scene where Mary's video screen goes away and she's actually seeing where they live for the first time, since her whole life has been lived through that screen.
Is this where we are headed?

That in mind, a friend of mine recently posted a FB status saying something along the lines of "Does anyone ever have real conversations anymore?" since our daily lives are all wrapped up in texts and comments and "likes" (if you have a facebook that is, I do know quite a few people without them)
In any case, I responded to said FB comment with this link
It seemed fitting.

the things you own end up owning you

I had my first day of my internship yesterday. Well, technically it was my 2nd...ish. I went in last week for faculty meetings, and yesterday I went in, went to a meeting, then my supervisor showed me and the other intern around the building.
Public school buildings are like a college dormitory, they have no ventilation. And August & Early September are a tease, their names invoke the feelings and thoughts of autumn, but then they hit you with a heat wave, just as you're pulling all those comfy sweaters out of storage...

Anyway, I haven't had a chance to work with any students yet. I am also terrified about having to do so. There are 2 other interns with me (one is completely new, like me, the other has worked in the school for awhile in a different department) but we have our own room to be our "office" with a phone that we can set up an intern voicemail for, and a scheduling board, to schedule sessions with kids...I AM AN INTERN! gah!

So, that, compounded with my house being a complete mess (due to a recent roommate move-in) my classes starting, staying up until 1am/getting up at 6...and taking on a babysitting job (it's only for 2 hours once a week, but I am selfish and like my "me" time) is just beginning to overwhelm me. It probably won't be as bad next week, since I won't also have things planned for almost every night of the week...
because I had Saturday -Tuesday off (though I didn't realize I had Tuesday off until I showed up to work and was told I wasn't scheduled, but it was ok, I don't like that far away)
so I had 4 days to clean, organize and chill, and I did, but not enough. Saturday I spent most of the day doing laundry and working on my renaissance faire costume, then went to a party that night, Sunday was all me, then Monday was less cleaning, more slacking, then my new roommate started moving things in, which halted any cleaning I was doing, and then she wanted to take me and her friends (who helped with all the heavy stuff) out to dinner, we just went to a place the next street over, but being Labor day it was very busy (take out Thai food) so we were there a lot longer than planned, and by the time we were done it was late and we were all tired
Tuesday the first half of the day was wasted, cause I thought I had work at 1pm, so I just worked on my costume some more and chilled, since I didn't think I could commit to anything, only to show up at work and be handed 4 hours of extra time I wasn't expecting, this allowed me to go to the gym, but then I didn't get to the farmers market cause I wasn't prepared, and even though it's not that far from my house, I got home and didn't want to leave and come back, especially since the new roomie and I were supposed to organize a few things,
but alas, no farmers market means less food, and I have to wait until next Tuesday to go back...when I won't have as much time, ugh, I am so foolish sometimes...
but then I did get to hang out with my mom Tuesday night, she was in the city and staying at a hotel for work, we went to "happy hour" at the concierge and proceeded to enjoy a few large glasses of wine, each, it was so fun :) talking about life, relationships, eavesdropping on the conversations of the people below us, my mom cracking up while on the phone with my step-dad as he whined at her, haha, sigh
Then yesterday was the first day of classes so I had small pockets of time between 8am and 6:30pm then came home to try and organize more at the apartment...but we started later than I expected, so things got moved around, but everything is still in chaos, and I need shelving, BADLY
moved some shelving I had in my living room to the kitchen, but now I have no place to put a bunch of my books and DVDs, though it's my own damn fault, if I had actually read more this summer and gotten rid of books, like I said I was going to then this wouldn't be that much of an issue...
wow I am ranting today...
but yeah, on a break from work right now, work 8am-10 then working again 1pm-3pm, then I am meeting up with my friend who's daughter I am babysitting so she can show me where to pick her up and everything, it's only from 6-8/8:30ish on Thursday, and I definitely have the time, just this week it's stressing me out...cause I want to go home and clean my apartment and have everything settled and in place and not a big freaking mess
not that my apartment was all settled before, but it was getting there, now, ugh, I don't even know where to begin...

it's a wonder I have so much stuff, for all the stress it causes me...tonight is probably gonna be another late night, but time I am going to really purge...

Mini Rant

So,

I don't own a TV. A few reasons being: cost, too easily sucked in...and also the news makes me depressed.

That being said I do get some TV time at the gym, which is just the right dose it seems, though lately it's been too much.

Why?

Well, as much as I loved "Grounded for Life" reruns (no lie, love that show) I really could do without the commercials. And it's not the amount of commercials, really, but what they are about.

5-hour energy commercials: get 5 hours of energy from drinking this tiny bottle of mystery crap...or you could GET MORE SLEEP.

Kellogs Fiber-Something or other bar: girl sitting on a bench "wishing" for a more fiber-ful & healthy snack...eat some fucking fruit.

Lean Cuisine (I think) commercial: you see a woman cooking a bunch of stuff, tons of pots on the stove, she's looking frazzled, wiping her brow, over-voice/text says something along the lines of "Think a good meal means a lot of work?" then shows her cooking up a pasta dish thing from a steamer-bag or something from Lean Cuisine...yes, cooking on the stove is SO much work, instead you should eat sodium & preservative laden crap from a bag you got in a grocery store freezer...

UGH.

It's such a mystery why Americans are fat, lazy and full of medical problems...

AH ah!

I may be slacking with my blog, but I have not fallen behind in my cooking adventures, and even gone so far as to upgrade to actual stove work!

In this corner we have, homemade oatmeal!

with milk and honey! mmmm

and over here we have potatoes and chives!

made this with my sister just last night, store bought potatoes and scallions, from chives from my grandmothers garden ^_^

in other news, I have rediscovered a farmers market that is close by, since during the summer I was away on Tuesdays, and it's on the same day, and they're running until at least October 26th, if not later! :D so excited

in other, other news, I have two (fairly simple) things going on at the moment, freezing some grapes, and also made some banana pops, which basically means cutting a banana in half and then putting it on a popsicle stick in the freezer, I didn't have popsicle sticks, so I used some chopsticks...they look kind of silly, I also rolled two of them in honey (I am making 4) because I want to see which kind I like better ^_^

unfortunately I didn't think to do this until now, so who knows, by the time they are frozen it might not be disgustingly hot and humid out...