high bed in the low chapel

From this morning in beautiful Mojave. Yeah, the microphone stand is coming out of my head. Toastmasters are not so hot at framing photos and my Photoshop skills aren't worth a twit. But, I did manage to resize the photo. Yeehaw!

Posted by at 9:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Tomorrow morning, I deliver a funny speech in hopes of winning a contest that will take me to another contest where, if I win that, I get a cheap wooden plaque; not that I'm not grateful. Toastmasters is fantastic, I just need a break. So, this will be my last speech for a while and I might stop going to the Wednesday meetings. AHHHH! I just paid my dues. That'd be a waste of money if I didn't go. But at least, by not attending, I'd not see David who recently gave me some odd speech advice. Something about dressing like a "schoolmarm" and at some point in the speech "ripping my clothes off." Fantastic.

Posted by at 10:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Some photos have been placed on Flickr. Check it!

Posted by at 10:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Five times in the recent past, I logged into MT with hopes of writing an entry. Once I get the junk cleaned up on the site, I suddenly lose my enthusiasm and log out. Hence, no new entries in many months. In fact, I often contemplate asking Andy to take down the site altogether. Aren't I too old, too insignificant for this? Then I think about all the kiddies on myspace and I figure my ideas are at least twice as good as theirs, hence this entry. ;)

It started like this:

David: Nicole, are you going to the race up at Willow Springs tomorrow? It's the Toyota 200.
Nicole: Why? (Then, I forgot how I'd told David I'd seen a couple motorcycle races in the past. Which wasn't true. I was just attempting to up my coolness factor in a heavily lame manner.) Um, yeah, maybe.

After church yesterday, I checked the race schedule on the web. After balking at the $30 entry price, I called David to ask him if he cared to join me. No answer. So I put on my boots and headed to Rosamond by myself.

Upon arrival, I hustled the ticket lady by asking if there was any tiered pricing. "No, it's $30 for the whole weekend, even if you only see one day's worth of races," she said. "But, I'm a newbie. I've never been to a race before. I just want to look around." "It's still $30." A man next to me asking for the key to the gas pump asked, "Hey, do you want to hang around our pit? We need girls." "What do these girls do?" I was curious what exactly was happening at their pit.

The guy replied, "Just hang out and have fun. I mean, if you haven't been to a race before, why do you want to be alone?" "I don't." "Then come on." We walked outside to his motorcycle and he said, "Hop on!" I was slightly hesitant but he seemed pretty normal so I got on. He said, "My name's Eric, what's yours?" We rode to the gas station at the track. I had to operate the clutch since he was carrying the gas can. It stalled the first time. I nailed it the second time around. I do know how to drive a manual transmission after all.

After five hours of being with Eric (the racer) and the pit crew, I had a restored faith in men. Sure, some guys were crass and totally drunk. But I was amazed at just how decent and nice the sober ones were. I mean, anytime a new person was around, Eric immediately introduced me. He was getting ready to race 80 laps and he was always making sure I was comfortable! I was wrangled to be the team photographer. Shooting a 35 mm took some guts on my part (I really hope they turned out; I had no idea what I was doing.) Because there was a fatality during the morning race (terribly sad), Eric's race was delayed over two hours. He crashed after only 3 laps. :( Before Eric took off he said, "I need to get your phone number. Will I see you again?" After the chaos of the race and crash, I managed to give my email address to the team manager. Eric sustained no injuries. He apparently was going too fast for his experience level.

I hope I see Eric again. And in addition, I'm just so grateful for a terrific day. I was totally out of my element with a segment of the population I never associate with. And it renewed my faith in just getting the hell out there. 99% of life is just showing up. And I might end up as a race girl myself. Fantastic.

In other less speedy news, I got very high marks on my Loma Linda entrance exam. It appears highly likely that I will be accepted and invited to pay $32,000 for the experience.

A picture?

Posted by at 9:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)