Leader of the Pack? (Vroom-vroom)

I slept on and off until 2:00 yesterday, as I had stayed up late the night before watching Ratatouille after roaming late at night with Karim, Caitlin, Andreina, Cao Chi, and Kathleen. When I woke up, I was hungry, so I quickly got dressed and headed outside into the nice weather to hit up Snack Street for some Korean tofu (yum!) When I walked out of the dorm, though, I met up with Robert, Matthew, Geena, Allu, and Rajesh on their way back from lunch after church. Allu was letting Robert and Geena have a try on his friend’s e-bike. When they urged me to try it, too, I excitedly yet timidly accepted, because I had only ever even been on a scooter once or twice, let alone having driven it.

Allu sat behind me and told me what handles and levers controlled what, and we were off! I got the hang of going straight pretty quickly - in fact, I saw Caitlin and Karim on their way back to the dorms after I had only been driving for a few seconds, and Karim said that I looked like I knew what I was doing in that I wasn’t veering to one side or the other. I took a few left turns around the block, never going too quickly for fear of all of the other pedestrians and bikers, and ended up back where I’d begun.

This may not sound like a very exciting trip, but I definitely enjoyed it. I was also proud of myself - I hadn’t believed that I was capable of maneuvering the omnipresent e-bike - and I half-expected Allu to have to take the wheel (okay, so there was no wheel) halfway through - but I did it!

NOTE: I like the song that I reference in this blog title, but a true electronic bike does not make the vroom-vroom noise. Sad day.

A little MORE conversation

I feel as if I have been driving back and forth between college and home a lot lately. Unfortunately, it was only on this most recent return trip that I discovered talk radio.

Sure, I had known of its existence before, but my only recollections of talk radio up to Sunday were of annoying morning shows and boring subject matter. However, Sunday, my cell phone was dead, and my music supply from my iPod and CDs was, believe it or not, all but exhausted. Thus, I turned to my XM - never a bad choice, but after switching between the same five or ten stations for a few hours, you tend to hear the same songs. Finally, I began to spin the dial and scan all the way up into the 100s. Aha: talk radio.

From Cosmo to Oprah to medical shows to NPR to news to sports (probably in that order), I think that XM and its shows were my savior this weekend. I was tired, I was in a funny mood, and I had been driving for hours with absolutely no contact with the outside world. However, when I began to listen to a talk radio segment, the minutes suddenly seemed to fly by and turn into hours that brought me closer to my second home.

No longer do I see talk radio as annoying or boring. Sure, I have my preferences, and some shows are definitely better than others, but I actually found myself wishing that I had a car charger or at least some semblance of battery life in my new cell phone so that I could call in and chat. I disagreed, I laughed, I learned, and I actually look somewhat forward to my next long car ride.