Today was day 2 (of 2) of our motorcycle class.

I quickly made S and I each a cinnamon raisin bagel with nutella – eating half at home and taking the other half as I walked out the door.

Mid-morning I had a clif bar.

Day 2 of the class was harder.  The instructors were different, which I was a little nervous about, because I had liked the instructors we had the first day and they were also familiar with my “riding style” (or maybe “dropping style”… or “attempting-to-ride style”) so they were able to keep an eye out for me and give me good help and assistance.  But the new instructors were pretty good, too.

My first drop of the day (and yes, I have to say first… because there was more than one…….) occurred in the first hour of the class.  I swear, I have no idea how it happened.  I was in line to take my turn doing one of the skills, and was watching the people ahead of me go on the course.  I was trying so hard to watch everyone and to learn from them.  I let my attention go for a split second and BAM! The bike was on the ground.  With me underneath it.

Kind of like this.  Except I wasn’t wearing racing gear, my drop wasn’t nearly as graceful, I was STANDING STILL rather than racing down the road…

And did I mention that I was underneath the bike?  Each time that I dropped it, of course.

And it’s totally embarrassing.  My first instinct is to try to get up and pick it back up really quickly before anyone notices – yeah, right.  The bike is really heavy so I can’t pick it up myself.  The instructors hear a crash and see me lying on the ground, so they come running over and everybody has to stop what they are doing while the instructors help me up and check out the bike.  Lovely.

The second drop came a few hours later.  I was getting off the bike and didn’t fully put the kickstand down.  So… you guessed it – both the bike and I went down again.

Besides my droppage, the skills were harder today, too.  U-turns and S-turns, all kinds of curves.  Quick stops, swerves, etc.

At the end of the morning we had our tests for our license.  There were four parts.  The first was a double U-turn inside a blue box – couldn’t go outside the lines, put our foot down, etc.  The second part was a speed-up and swerve.  Third was a quick stop, and fourth was navigating a curve.

And… I PASSED!  Now they will be sending me a little card in the mail that I can take to the DMV to get my license.  I won’t be riding on public streets any time soon, mind you, but I want to keep practicing and get better until I can.  I am going to have to get my own bike, though… S’s bike is way too big and heavy for me.  So I have started my search   S passed too, of course, with flying colors.

Overall, I really recommend this course – particularly if you are a complete beginner like me.  Even S, an experienced rider, thought it was worthwhile.  I am still surprised that I was the only person in the class who had never, ever ridden before, though.

We got home a little earlier than yesterday, just in time to watch the Olympic gold medal hockey game.

I just love sports in general, so will pretty much watch any game that was on TV.  But I’ve never been the biggest hockey fan – it’s just not my favorite.  This was a GOOD game, though.  I really enjoyed watching it.  That last goal by the US with just a few seconds left in the regular game… Incredible.

While watching the game, I ate lunch.  A big salad:

Major action going on, with romaine, carrots, celery, roasted chicken breast, mozzarella cheese, egg, and almonds.  With olive oil and vinegar, course.

Mid-afternoon we did our weekly grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s and got many goodies.  When we got home, I sliced up two kiwis for a snack.

In the evening, I started cleaning up the house.  My sister and her boyfriend are coming to visit on Thursday (so excited!!!) while S worked on changing the oil in his car and bike.  I heated up strombolis for dinner.

Not bad – quick,easy and tasty.  Although not exactly health food.

For dessert, I had a big bowl of banana soft serve with some maple syrup on top.  This was a delicious combo!

I also had some swiss chocolate.

Now I’m off to bed, big day tomorrow.  I can’t believe I am a licensed motorcycle driver!

Today was Day 1 (of 2) of my motorcycle basic rider’s course.  It began at 6:30am this morning, and lasted until noon.  I was pretty nervous about the class – especially after the bike-dropping incident last weekend. 

Breakfast was a peanut butter and nutella sandwich on the bread butt.  I don’t really remember eating this, since it was about 5:45am.  But I’m sure it was tasty.

Amazingly enough, we made it to the class on time.  They teach it in a big college parking lot, and there were about 10 of us total.  We were assigned a bike.  I got a Yamaha 200 dual-sport bike which was pretty cool.  It looked like this:

It was much lighter than S’s bike, which I was happy about.  But I had a TOUGH time at first. 

Although I wasn’t the first to drop a bike.  There was one other girl in my class, and it was the very beginning of the class.  We were mounted on the bikes but they weren’t turned on, and the instructors were walking us through the basics.  All of a sudden (I was in the middle row of bikes) we heard a loud shriek.  I turned around and saw the girl just falling over on the bike – crashing to the ground.  I have no idea what happened or how she lost her balance but… it was hilarious!  And I immediately felt camaraderie with this girl, since I knew how crappy it felt to drop a bike. 

Mid-morning snack was a protein bar, eaten at the class while on a break.

Let’s just say I had a drop of my own, as well as plenty of stalling and cone-hitting.  But overall, I’m proud of how well I did.  By the end of the class I was able to navigate many different courses with cones and turns, and accelerate and decelerate from 1st gear to 3rd.

Of course, S was pretty much a class celebrity since he already knew anything and is an experienced rider (he rode for 5 years in Switzerland.)  Blah, blah, blah  

It made for a LONG morning.  I was really glad that we signed up for the morning class, though.  When we were done, it was a beautiful day.  The sun was shining and the sky was blue, and the afternoon class was just arriving.  They had to use the whole day attending from 12:30-6pm!  I was glad we still had the rest of the day to do stuff. 

I was starving when I got home.  I made myself a salad,

And had some of these Pop tart popsters I picked up at Tarjay on clearance last week. 

They were ok – they tasted good, but left me hungry and wanting more. 

Mid-afternoon I made some of April’s Low Carb Sweet Bread.  Honey… this stuff is good!  And I’m tickled pink to have another recipe to use my wheat bran in.  Love that stuff.  I had two slices… the first one plan while the loaf was still warm, and the second one about 15 min later with some sunflower seed butter and boysenberry jam:

I am very happy that the sweet bread has come into my life.

By the time dinner came around, I was exhausted.  I made a hodgepodge for S and I.  It was stuffing, vegetables, and sausages.

I don’t really like stuffing that much, so to me this was just ok.  But it was filling, and S liked it.  So he will get the leftovers for lunch

Dessert was Oreo Cakesters,

And now I am snacking on some popchips (sour cream and onion) and a fudgsicle.

Now it’s bedtime for bozos.  I have a bright and early wakeup call for motorcycle class #2!  I’m a ryda!!!

I think that in the past two weeks, I have cried every single day.  It kills me to even type that…

Right now I just want to do this.

I just want to run away and hide from everything.  Or do this.

Which, I want to point out, is significantly different than this.

Which is what I feel a lot of people are like in my life right now.  Which is a major part of the reason why I want to hide.  Which I can’t really do.  So I cry. 

And I eat.

Breakfast:  toast with nutella and PB.

Mid-morning I had some Total Blueberry and Pomegranate cereal.  I also had two clementines that went unphotographed.

Lunch was a big salad with nuts, cheese, and a Morningstar Farms Griller Chik’n veggie patty.

Twas the first time I had one of these veggie patties.  I thought they might be boring, but they are delicious!  I will definitely be purchasing more of these. 

Mid-afternoon I had a bag of Pop Alongs I picked up at Whole Foods.  Not bad.

For dinner, I felt like pasta.  I had whole wheat penne with some olive oil, a little bit of goat cheese, seafood (mussels and squid) and some steamed broccoli.

For dessert, I had some cottage cheese cheesecake pudding with a CranBran vitaTop.

There was also some Swiss chocolate in my life this evening.  Along with some Olympics.  Along with some furry love.  Along with some more crying.

Even the kitties were getting in on the hiding option.  I brought down this old egg-crate bed padding that I used to have on top of my mattress but no longer use.  I wanted to cut some of it off to use as padding for shipping my old laptop back to the company.  I cut off the piece and went upstairs to pack the box.  When I came downstairs, this is what I found:

Don’t ask me how exactly she got in there like that.  Like the how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie roll pop question…

the world will never know.

But of course, JB had to try to figure out what was going on.

He, too, was unable to solve the mystery.  So he settled for laying next to his lady love rolled up like a burrito.

Why can’t I just be like a cat?

Happy Tuesday, friends.

Breakfast was a goat cheese puff pastry and some pigs in a blanket.  Appetizers for breakfast, anyone?

That puff pastry is sooo good.

Mid-morning there was some VitaBrownie action.

I like the brownies, but think they need more chocolate chips.  I like the chocolate VitaTops better because of their chips.

Lunch was tuna salad on a sub roll.  I put too much mayo in my tuna salad, so it was just ok.  What actually happened was I made it for S, but ended up eating it myself.  He loves mayo, so I put a lot in… but I’m not really a fan.  I don’t think my arteries are, either.  Oh well.

Mid-afternoon I had some cottage cheese cheesecake pudding with Cinnamon Toast Cunch and some trail mix.  I’m telling you, if you haven’t made this yet, go make it.  Sooo good.  Like cheesecake in a bowl!

I walked on the treadmill for a half hour today, but just had no energy.  I have been really tired and lethargic lately.  I think that I need to revamp my eating habits… they have been on a slippery slope with too much sugar and just plain old junk.  Expect an update on this in the near future.

For dinner this evening, I was excited to try something new.  I received a box of goodies from Wanchai Ferry through MyBlogSpark which included a coupon for my dinner option:

It was so easy, took less than 15 minutes to make, and S and I both loved it.  Perfect size too – portion for 2.  The package also had fortune cookies, chopsticks, the works!  Love it.

Finished product:

It was delicious!  There was a garlic chicken variety that I also saw, that will be what I will try next.  I usually don’t go for “sweet” entrees like this, but the flavor was delicious and the sweetness of the pineapple and the sauce was just right – not overpowering.  It was a great break from the dinners I ordinarily make.  And so easy.

I got the dinner at Target, and was told that the Wanchai Ferry Entrees can be found at your local Target too.  So go hit that, folks!!   Thank you to to MyBlogSpark and Wanchai Ferry!

While at Target, I also picked up tonight’s dessert.  Chocolate overload ice cream!

Dark chocolate, milk chocolate, white chocolate, fudge???  Hurts so good.

Just another case of the Mondays.  Although today was a little bit different and nerve-wrecking, because I had an interview.

I tried to psych myself up all morning.  My stomach was full of butterflies as I ate my breakfast – a nutella sammie.

I was so nervous that I just felt like I had to be munching on something every second.  Some mid-morning trail mix hit the spot, as it had both crunchy and chewy elements.

I kept eating Oreos throughout the morning, too.  I definitely ate at least five.  I have GOT to get these out of the house.  They are a HUGE trigger food for me and always spell trouble.  I never learn!

At least I countered my unhealthy snacking with a healthy lunch.  A big salad, and Cran Bran Vitatop.

This was my first time trying this flavor of VitaTop, and I liked it!  The cranberries were really good – soft, rather than dried.

I left for my interview mid-afternoon.  Before I left, I grabbed two bars for my snacks.

Overall, I think the interview went pretty well.  I guess we will see what happens, but for now I’m just glad that it is over.  I have a really hard time getting psyched up to “sell myself” to people – whether it be trying to get a job or anything else like that.  I really hate cocky people, and have always tried hard to make sure that I am able to come across as self-confident but NOT cocky.  That’s a tough line to walk… especially at an interview where you really are nervous and a little insecure!  Oh well.  No matter what happens, I just keep reminding myself that each interview is a good experience and I should keep that in mind!

When I got home, I was exhausted and didn’t feel like cooking.  I reheated some leftovers from S’s dinner last night – a tupperware of rigatoni with pesto.  It was a huge portion and I meant to only eat half but… ended up eating the whole container.

Dessert was three Oreos.

Curse you, Oreos.  Oreos are my kryptonite.  Especially when they are double stuffed.

And looky, looky here!  I finally finished my Jelly Bellys tonight!!!

Can you believe that I made this Costco jar last for almost seven months!!!

Do you get really nervous for interviews?  Better question… does anybody not get nervous for interviews??

Yesterday, S and I went outside for my first motorcycle lesson.  I got on the bike and he taught me all the controls, how to start it up, etc.  You know, all the basics.

What I didn’t anticipate was how heavy the bike was.  Especially this one – it is a CBR 1000.  The basic concept of riding seemed simple enough – it’s like a bicycle, only bigger.  Right?  I mean, I get that you have to balance, that you have to move the handlebars and lean to make turns.  I learned where the brakes are.  The added complication was the gear shifting, but I wasn’t worried about that yet.

Yeah… except it’s not like a bike at all.  With a bike, when you stop and put your feet down it is easy to balance and stay upright because it is so light.  With the motorbike… not so much.  I have heard my dad and many others talk about “dropping the bike” and have to admit that I always wondered how they managed to do that.  They must be wimps, right?  Couldn’t even hold the bike up properly?  I definitely would not have that problem.  I mean, I am a marathon runner!  I go to the gym!  I even do Jillian Michaels 30-day Shred!  (Level 1… but that’s beside the point.)

So what do I do?  I drop the bike.  S’s new (used) bike, with no previous damage.  Which now has this:

Rachel-droppage-damage.

I felt so bad after I did this.  In a way, I thought this whole thing was ridiculous.  Why was I trying to learn on a HEAVY, 1000cc bike when I am taking a course to learn how to ride on a lighter, 250cc bike in less than a week?

The answer is simply because:

1.  I am impatient and wanted to learn, and

2.  I didn’t want to be the only girl at Saturday’s class, and have no idea how to do anything at all.  I know that people would laugh at me and think it was because I was a girl.  Even if there were guys who couldn’t do the same thing, they would still attribute my lack of knowledge and experience to the fact that I am female.

Please note, I am not a feminist in any shape of the word.  But I don’t want people to think that I can’t ride a motorbike or can’t learn simply because I am a girl.  That’s fair, right?

So I learned to ride a little bit in the parking lot, and then we put the bike away and I will wait to learn the rest next weekend.  Even with just the little bit that I did, I feel more comfortable and ready for this weekend.

I am officially 1/3 of the way to being a fully licensed motorcycle driver.

Because I was out of the house a lot this weekend, I subsisted on a lot of “snacky” foods.  The good news was that I thought ahead so had healthier snack foods – containers of cereal, bars, chips (*cough*… maybe not all of them were healthy), trail mix, and fruit.  Here are a few pics.

Pumpkin and apple cinnamon oatmeal for breakfast made for a happy me.  This was breakfast on Friday and Saturday.

- 1/2 cup oats
- 2 tbsp oat bran
- 1/2 cup almond milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/3 cup pumpkin
- 1 small chopped apple
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- mucho cinnamon

Oh oatmeal, you are so steamy.  McSteamy – fogging up my camera lens.

Hunka hunka burnin love.

I didn’t only subsist on snack foods, though.  I had several salads – each of which was a slight variation of this one:

Colorful, no?

Friday night (4:30pm-10pm….. sooooo long) we had the first part of our motorcycle class.  This part was in the classroom, while the next two parts (next Saturday and Sunday) will be out on the “range” and we will be actually learning how to ride.  That should be interesting.

They told us to bring snacks to the class, as it is so long and there wouldn’t be any food or drinks provided.  I brought tons of snackage for S and I to share.  He was totally making fun of me as I stocked up the backpack.  But he was thanking me once we were halfway through the class and we were starving!  Plenty of stuff to eat.

There was trail mix and fruit bars:

Larabars:

Luna bars:

And perhaps a potato chip or two.

Don’t worry, I had a PB&J sandwich for both of us, as well as an apple and  baby carrots.  Somehow they escaped my camera lens. 

Out of the 25 people in the motorcycle class, I was one of only two girls!  I was really surprised, but S said that he had expected that.  I actually really enjoyed the class – the teacher was nice and funny and it wasn’t nearly as boring as I expected.

At the end of the class, we had to take a written test.  There were 50 questions, and we had to get 40 right to pass.  I immediately got scared.  As soon as somebody tells me there is going to be a test I get scared.  It would totally suck to sit through that six hour class and then fail the exam and have to take it again!

Turns out there was no need for me to worry.  I was the only person in the class to get every single question right!  S missed one and was mad that I beat him

So I’m 1/3 of the way to my license.  The easy part is down… now actually learning how to ride!

I’m a perfectionist.  And I tend to pick. 

I have a really good life.  But somehow I manage to find the things wrong with it (which of course, there are many, as there are for ALL lives) and pick at them.  And as much as I try not to do this, I just can’t seem to stop.

I have to say, I am getting better.  I am particularly bad about picking at relationships in my life.  Nobody in this world is perfect (and DEFINITELY NOT MYSELF!!)  I have always said that I am not looking for a perfect person.  I am looking for the person who is perfect for me.

But now I’m wondering, is that really what I am looking for?  Is that even possible?  Or, is it just a play on words?  If I say that there is no perfect person, that is because I believe it.  I believe that it is a person’s imperfections that make them special, beautiful and unique.  If everybody was perfect, we would all be the same and the world would be a very boring place.

That being said, if I believe that there is no perfect person, then it makes sense to also believe that there is no perfect person for me.  Because if nobody’s perfect, how can somebody be perfect for me?  There will always be something about the person that I am with that I don’t LOVE, things that I would prefer to be different, right?  But the key is loving them nonetheless – even if they aren’t the perfect person for me.  Either that, or the perfect person for me is actually imperfect for me, which is what makes our relationship special and unique.  Right? 

I’m thinking I am over-thinking this.

S and I are perfect for each other in many, many ways.  There are things about him I’m not especially wild about, and I know he feels the exact same way about me.  But it will ALWAYS be that way.  It has to be.  That’s life.  Life is messy and imperfect and BEAUTIFUL. 

Like our relationship.  It is beautiful.  And I have to remember that and the bigger picture, and not lose focus on that by only seeing the little imperfections I pick at.

I wish it was as easily said as done.

I also think that this “overthinking” and picking is part of the reason why I am an emotional eater.  When I eat, when I pick at food, it takes my mind off of picking at my relationship and other aspects of my life.  And it’s much more enjoyable to pick at food.  Except afterwards. 

So I did a lot of food picking today – I have basically picked apart my relationship the entire week and it has made my life miserable.

Breakfast was a bagel with nutella and some dried apricots.

Mid-morning I had a bowl of pumpkin oats.  I was freezing and hungry – these really hit the spot.

For lunch?  Two ham and turkey sammies with provolone cheese.

Pick-ity Pick Pick:  Mid-afternoon protein bar

And popcorn.  Popcorn is very good for picking.

Dinner was shrimp wonton soup with goldfish crackers,

Followed by Cottage cheese cheesecake pudding with Cinnamon Toast Cunch and grapes.

Before bed, I had another protein bar.

Does anybody else have this problem with picking at things?  Things that are seemingly great and perfect… almost having a compulsion where if something is so good, you just HAVE to find something wrong with it?  How do you deal with this? 

Sorry I have been MIA.  After my Valentines day and happy surprise, I had a very tough couple of days.  I’m feeling better now, and ready to jump back on the blogger bandwagon.

I had a really early start this morning, with a 5am meeting   Sometimes I really hate the whole global workplace concept.  Breakfast #1 was a Luna bar and a clementine eaten during the meeting.  It was too early and I was too tired to remember to take a picture.

S worked from home today, because he had his driving test for his motorbike license.  He left mid-morning, and I had breakfast #2: a nutella sammy, an apple and another clementine. 

Nutella was on sale at Tarjay this week, so I bought 3 jars.  We literally go through this stuff like water.   Most people can survive 3-5 days without water?  I think we can survive less than that without nutella.

Two hours after he left, S still hadn’t come home yet.  I thought for sure that was a good sign… he must have passed with flying colors and had to get his picture taken and go through all the process work.

Wrong.  I heard him coming home way before I saw him – I could hear the motorbike engine being revved and pushed all the way down the street.  He came slamming in the front door, and he was pissed.  You guessed it… he failed.

The DMV has a course for the skills test that looks like this:

You have to go around the cones (those blue circles on the diagram) and then go around the circle in one direction a number of times without going outside of the lines or putting your foot down.  Then you have to go back through the cones, come back, and go around the circle a number of times in the other direction – again not going outside of the lines or putting your foot down.  It’s pretty tough, since it is a tight circle and you are traveling at very slow speed.  Plus, it is harder if you have a bigger bike because it is heavier and harder to maneuver at slow speeds.  S’s bike is a big one (Honda CBR 1000) and although he had practiced and could do it perfectly, something happened in the test, his nerves got the best of him, and he went outside the line.  You don’t get a second chance – just an instant fail.

I think that they make the skills test difficult on purpose because they want riders to take the basic rider’s course that they offer.  If you take this three full-day course, you learn the basics of riding and good safety.  And at the end of the course, you automatically get your license.  So they make the test hard if you try to do it on your own to try to encourage you to enroll in the class. 

I thought for sure that S would reschedule the driving test.  He has ridden a motorcycle for years (in Switzerland) and did NOT want to take the basic rider course.  But he decided that he was not going to take the test again.  Instead, he would take the class with one caveat…. I had to take it too. 

But that caveat had some other caveats.  The first was that S wanted to take the class immediately.  I begged for a week, but then we realized that would put the two weekend days of the class during the time that my sister and her boyfriend are here visiting – so that was out.  So S wanted to do the class starting this Friday.  AKA in two days.

PS:  Did I mention that I have no idea how to drive a motorbike?  And that you need to take a written exam and get your temporary license before you can take the class?  DMV is closed on Friday.  This left a day and a half for me to read the motorbike handbook and learn it, get to the DMV, wait in line, take the exam and pass it.

PPS:  Did I mention I have a full-time job???

I interrupt this stressful story recounting with my lunch.

Lunch was a salad with turkey sausage and lots of olives.

I did some major cramming and we went to the DMV.  We arrived at 2:56pm.  Plenty of time to get through the line before the 4:30pm written test cutoff time, right?

We literally were the last test given for the day.  I got my test at 4:31.  I flippin HATE the DMV.  We had to sit and wait for soooooo long.  And I tell you what…. if you ever want to see the worst possible representative cross-section of the population, either go to the DMV or go to Walmart.  I swear, I don’t know where these people come from.

So… the guy hands me my test.  Except, he handed me TWO tests.  It turns out that even though I have been driving a car for 11 freaking years, in order to get a motorbike license I have to also re-take the written car test!

The motorcycle test?  It was easy.  I missed two and passed.  The car test?  First of all, I only had to take half of it since I already had my license.  But I missed so many!  It was so hard!!!  I missed the absolute max that you could miss and still pass.  I passed by the skin of my teeth!  Can you believe it?  I passed the motorbike one easily, even though I have no idea how to ride one, and almost failed the car test when I have been driving (without an accident or a ticket) for 11 years.  Go figure.

Anyhow, the conclusion was that I PASSED!  So I officially have my temp license and can learn how to ride!  We will start the class this Friday, and if all goes as planned I will be a licensed driver in a week and a half!

Mid-afternoon, I snacked on some pita chips from Tar-jay.  I tried them out because they were on sale and I’ve never had pita chips!

Me likey!

After snack, S and I took the bike out for a ride (me on the back.)  We drove around for a while, and then went to Starbucks where I got a coffee frappuccino.  I hadn’t had one in a while and was totally craving!  It was so good.

I had a two-part dinner.  Part 1:  Red peppers, carrots, egg white and hummus.

Part 2: 

I had some grapes:

And am now off to my last meeting of the day and then will celebrate with some Swiss chocolate.

How is it possible that I have a 5am meeting and a 9pm meeting in the same day?!?!?!

G’night, ya’ll!

So… it appears that I can’t complain about my European boyfriend and his innate hatred for all over-commercialized American holidays.  He has sold his soul to the devil, he has become one of us.

In the morning, I went to the gym to get it out of the way for the day.  When I got home, this was waiting for me:

It was accompanied by a (very sweet) card.  I was already floored – since I wasn’t expecting anything for Valentines Day, this was already above and beyond.  But then I opened the card and inside….  A clue!

That clue, of course, led me to a hiding place where there was another clue.  Which led me to another place with another clue.  There were about 20 of these, hidden all around our house, outside, and garage.  It was so much fun!

The final clue led me to a website (which S created with my own URL.)  And this website showed me my real surprise.

In March, we are going here for the weekend!  To Calistoga Resort and Spa in Napa!!!!!  I am so, so excited.  We will have a lodge (which they say is in the tree tops) with an outdoor living area with fireplace and a private outdoor shower garden!

Needless to say, pictures (and all else) went a little bit by the wayside today as I danced around my house.  I can’t believe it is a whole month away… this is going to be the longest month ever!

Happy Valentines day to all!  I leave you with another snow picture made for us by S’s family in Switzerland.