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!