My First Commute!

It was my usual Friday morning routine...alarm...snooze...whine for a bit...get ready for work.  I get in my car and it won't start.  Awww crap!  I have a meeting in 30 minutes!  I call my mechanic and he says it might be my battery.  So I guess using my car is a no-go.  At this point I have two choices:  1.  Take the day off and kick myself for being a wuss.  2.  Take the bike to work.  Feeling a bit brave this morning, I decided to take the bike.  Luckily, I did a test drive of the route earlier in the week to see what I would have to look forward to if I took the motorcycle.  The butterflies are flapping their wings in my belly.  Ahhh am I really doing this??  I get on my bike, and off I go to ride in the middle of morning traffic 12 miles away.

So far so good.  I take an "expressway" to get there.  I see actual traffic for the first time on my bike.  Why are all these cars here???  It's almost 10am!  Shouldn't they be at work already??  I tensely drive in the right lane hoping that no one is going to bother me.  And no one did!  Well okay except for this one a-hole that decided to share a lane with me at a stop light.  I got there first, jerk!  The entire time I could feel my muscles all tight and my arms begin to ache.  20 intense minutes later I made it to my office!  I get off my bike and my hands are quivering!  Adrenaline maybe?  No.  My nerves.  I walk up to the building and approach the front desk.  The usual front desk lady asks me, "Liezl, you look like you're going in the snow!"  Hahaha I think my gear confused her.  I got to my meeting and my heart is still beating super fast and my extremities still shaking.  After a few deep breaths I calm down and celebrate my new adventure with my co-workers.  They were proud of me!  During the meeting all I could think about was, "Aww man.  I gotta ride back at some point!"  I wanted to avoid the It's-Friday-I'm-bouncing-out-of-work-early rush so I left extra early.  I have to fix my car after all!  The ride back was uneventful but at least I was a lot more relaxed.

My stupid car not working was a blessing in disguise.  If that didn't happen, I wouldn't have forced myself to ride my bike to work.  After that ride, it gave me even more confidence to take my training further.  It even gave me confidence to take a moto day trip!  Details on that day soon-to-come!

Thanks for reading y'all!

Happened on 8/19/11