Why I don't bike as often as I should

As you might know if you creeped on my profile, I like to bike for exercise. Keep in mind that I bike around my neighborhood. Now, when I go for a ride, there are good things, such as exploring the neighborhood and being outside, and there are bad things, such as gravel and stop signs. But there are 3 things I dislike especially.

1. Cars
Now, one might think to themselves that unless you ride on main roads, cars should be going slow enough and infrequent enough to not cause much trouble. Well one would think wrong. Whenever one attempts to go for a ride, all of a sudden, everyone is coming or going, as if they were waiting for you to start before they went anywhere! In addition, Cars think they own the road, and drive so as to let you know that you are in their way and you need to move your slow-pokey self off the road so they can start speeding again.

2. Hills
I realize that the point of biking is to get exercise, which requires work and sweat and possibly a little pain, all of which a hill will induce. Now, if I go for a ride sans any major hills, I can get good exercise and go for quite some time before I feel like I must head home for fear of collapsing and dehydration. But when I go for a ride and decide to ride up a hill of much consequence, that feeling sets in about halfway up. And by the time I reach the top, I sort of feel like dying a little.

3. Dogs
I am not an animal hater. In fact, I rather enjoy dogs and cats and almost anything else you keep as a pet. But not rabbits, they make me sneeze. However, I do not appreciate riding past a house and getting chased by a loud, furry, angry ball of terror that seems to think it owns the street and can therefore bite your feet off for daring to ride by!

Now, I realize that there are also wonderful things about bike rides, such as sprinklers. There is nothing better than riding through a big spray of water on a hot, dry day. And people watching; I love trying to figure out what they think of that strange, pale-skinned, fluffy-haired girl on the bike two sizes two small for her. Actually, I got a 'new' bike that fits me, so that doesn't really play a role in what they think of me anymore.

I also realize that all of these problems could be fixed if I would bike at a park or on a bike path, but that takes at least an extra 30-40 min to load everything up and drive there and back, and who has time for that?! Not to mention that there is a severe lack of sprinklers on bike paths.

Everyone Fails Every Now and Then (or All the Time)

Well, yesterday was an adventure! Besides my usual 2 girls, I had an additional 2 girls for most of the day. They usually do a good job of entertaining themselves without any help from me, but this time the younger two wanted to play with clay, which was a giant [fun] mess with a lot of cleaning to do afterwards. They used a whole jar of plastic flatback gems which ended up completely covered with clay-water, so they all had to be washed. Next, all four wanted to do blindfolded makeovers, which, while wildly entertaining for me to watch, is also rather messy and potentially stressful when you don't like your makeup or get perfume sprayed in your eyes. After completing the makeup, crazy hairstyles was of course the natural follow-up, and after they finished each other, they decided I was next up for a, special, hairstyle. I'm not sure how they managed to get so many pipecleaners in my hair all at once, I think they used half the package!

During the afternoon, we ended up locked in the study because the cleaners were there and needed us out of the way. The girls convinced me it was a good idea for me to play a Mario game with them, but I basically failed at that, so I think I'll stick to playing video games when no one is around to watch me :P

After work I made my weekly trip to the jewelry store to practice my jewelry making skills, and started the wire-making process to make some earrings to match the necklace I just finished. This time I started from scratch and got to melt the silver down and pour it into the mold with Rafael's help. Then he assigned his step-son (who's about my age and has been learning for about a year) to help me if I needed while I rolled and pulled the wire. I've pretty much given up hope at ever being good at pulling wire. I can roll it square just fine, but once I start pulling it round, I just can't physically get it. Last night I spent at least 3 min trying to get it through one hole, which is embarrassing when there's someone your own age watching you fail miserably :/ At least I didn't lose my grip and fall on my behind like I did last time! Eventually he just pulled it for me, which was prolly best since I ripped the skin off the inside of one of my fingers and blistered a few others. I'm gonna have to figure out how to get better at this!

Today, I only had the oldest girl, the younger one is at camp. She slept in till 11, so I had all morning to myself! The rest of the day we made cookies (which I burnt) and played Scategories. So far this week, I think Scategories is the only thing I have consistently not messed up in some way or other. I'm hoping I'll have better general success for the remainder of the week!

Eh..

Wow, it's been a lot longer than I intended between posts! But then again, I haven't done anything overly noteworthy to write about. I did finish my first necklace that I've been working on at Rafael's though! Tonight I'm gonna start the matching earrings :)

Other than that, nothing that exciting has happened. Work, college prep, a few friends here and there. I don't have a lot of time to do anything, and at the same time I have all the time in the world! It's strange. But now I've got to leave for work, happy Wednesday!

The Texas Giant: Safety Hazard?

Well folks, I had an amazing time at Six Flags, one of the best! Which is saying a lot, because I've been to that specific Six Flags at least 12 times. I even did something I've never been able to do: I rode all the major roller coasters in one day! Plus all the smaller coasters, except for Runaway Mine Train. The New Texas Giant was amazing! We ended up waiting hour and twenty minutes for it because they had to take one of the trains off, but I'm so glad we waited!

Due to an odd number of people, I rode the Texas Giant with a stranger, which usually proves to be uneventful, but sometimes yields an interesting experience. This time, the lady I sat with seemed fine until we started getting strapped in, but quickly started to panic about the safety of the ride. The attendant came by and checked the restraints, and when he finished, she called him back over and asked if he could double check her restraints. He chuckled, and thoroughly re-checked it for her. Then, (pardon the slight rabbit trail) a lady in the front of the train tried to sneak her purse on and buckled it into the seat with her. This of course was frowned upon, and they wouldn't let her ride with it. She made a ruckus and refused to leave it behind, so they had to unlock her car and she left the ride. Then they had to re-check all the cars, and the lady next to me, looking pleased, sort of giggled and said, 'Oooh, triple check!' And then promptly had them check her seat a fourth time.

All in all, it was a great trip! So great, in fact, that I could barely pull myself out of bed for work this morning. I can't help but wonder if the girls can tell when I'm extra tired, because the younger one did all in her power to frustrate me. Every day, both girls are required to practice piano for 30min and read for 30min. Not that much, but the 8 year old fusses like there's no tomorrow! She started throwing piano books around when I asked her to practice, and then she started crying about how terrible her life was compared to her older sister's. And while reading she asked every 2min how much longer, and complained about how boring the book was. I'd finally had it when she threw a fit when I asked her to brush her hair before lunch, and was 2cm away from not giving her lunch and cancelling the movie we were going to see, but didn't because that would make the older one mad, which would mean endless fighting the rest of the day. I'm going to keep hoping that eventually the girls will realize that just doing what they're supposed to do without complaining takes less time and energy, and just do it without making me ask them 42 times every day!

More Flags, More Fun!

Well, my month of 'no work' has come to a close, and today I went back to being a nanny. It's funny how I'm busier during the time I'm off from my usual job than I am when I'm working! But tomorrow I am taking off for a much anticipated and very confusing trip to Six Flags! I say much anticipated, because it is one of my favorite places to visit, and I say confusing, because in the last 3 days we have had more changes in plans and decisions to make than I can keep track of! But I think we finally have it all figured out and we are going to have amazing fun :) Can't wait to ride the new Texas Giant!

Yesterday being the 4th of July, our family and some friends went to a parade in the morning and tailgated in the evening before fireworks, as is our usual tradition, which was quite enjoyable! The parade is becoming less and less exciting every time I see it, though. Basically, if you see it once, you've seen it a hundred times. But it is a good chance to celebrate with my community how truly blessed and great our nation is, and that is a chance that doesn't come up too often!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to paint I go!

This week has been yet another busy one! Monday and Tuesday I enrolled for next semester, which took a lot of time and brainpower. I think they tried to throw every bit of relevant information at us in as short a period of time as possible on Monday, and then make us spend the night in the dorms before we enrolled so we'd forget it all :P

Tuesday night was quite wonderful, however! In honor of the release of the Lord of the Rings extended edition on Blu Ray, they showed all three movies in select theatres on the three Tuesdays leading up to it, and I went to go see the Return of the King with my dad. It was way cool to see it on the big screen, because I was too young/hadn't read the books when they first came out.

The rest of the week has been a mixture of painting the outside of our house, throwing together yearbook pages, and a few other random tasks. In some ways, I can't wait for school to start so I can be done with all the little things that need to be worked on (like painting the house), but in other ways I wish these days would go on forever because the anticipation of college is prolly way better than all the homework and tests. Plus, I have way more flexibility right now! But I suppose I don't have a choice either way, so it doesn't matter too much what I'd prefer :P