Saturday, October 18, 2008

Of course...

Today was the first day I was really able to ride my scooter around instead of my car. I know that doesn't make much sense since I have had the thing for 2.5 weeks now but it's true. Pretty much I have only ridden it to my dad's house just to get used to driving it and then I have ridden it to work twice to commute. But the whole reason I bought the thing was to help me do all my around town driving. I live in an area with a lot of stop signs, pedestrians and traffic lights all of which are killer on my Jeep gas mileage. So I bought my pretty scooter to drive around and help me with errands and visiting friends.

Anyway, like I was saying, today was the first day I really got to experience the scooter for what I bought it for. Happy little errands around town. As I was scooting I was thinking about how I was going to get home and write this blog that I am currently writing right now, which is pathetic but I don't care. I wanted to write it because I wanted to share my joy. The joy of my bright orange scarf whipping in the wind behind me. The joy of people stopping to talk to me at stoplights and ask me about my scooter. The joy of the nods I get from motorcyclists who don't realize I am actually only driving a 150cc scooter. The joy of just being on a bright orange thing that is brand new and completely bought by me with no help from any other parties. It's the first thing I have ever really owned and gotten for myself completely with no help. It makes me smile just to ride around in traffic!

Anyway, as I was driving around town and thinking about taking pictures of me with the scooter and what kind of quippy descriptions I was going to put on my photos... it happened. I'm parked at a stop sign and some BIG ass truck makes a three point turn. They don't see me. I freeze. Since I've only had the thing for 2 weeks my hand can't find the horn. Big ass truck hits me and plows me and my scooter over. The scooter dumps to the ground, I go rolling a few times and then hit a guardrail. As I am falling all I can think of is, "NOOO! Not the brand new scooter!" I get up and imediately start crying because that's who I am: a big fat crier. I just was so terrified and so instantly aware of the fact that my new shiny, less than 100 miles toy that I was so happy with all day was not going to escape this incident unscathed. Luckily I wasn't hurt, only a minor knee scrape. The scooter fared well too. Basically a few big scratches along the side that dumped, which the other driver will pay for.

In the end it's all going to work out. I wasn't hurt, the scooter will be taken care of. But damn if I didn't cry big fatty tears all the way home knowing my scooter joy bubble had been so violently popped. :*-(