Post the Second

So much for my busy day. It has become a lazy day. Had a good time going out for coffee with the scooter folk this morning...

If you don't know, I started a scooter club a couple years back. It now has 310 members. I figured I wanted scooter types to go on expeditions with, longer rides and the like. My best buddy, GayBoy [aka Tits.Pervert], owned a scooter long before me and he just has never cared about taking it out of the city, whereas I like to challenge my beast's range from time to time. I began planning epic rides, etc, and the membership went through the roof before long. Then I took a spill, nearly died, and lost my enthusiasm for the club.

But I started the thing, and that gives me a bit of notoreity in this town. More notoreity than I'd thought.

Went from coffee with some of the old crowd to checking out a nearby yard sale that was being held by the Vespa club here in town. Well, I was getting introduced a little and was surprised at the supposedly enigmatic quality I've apparently achieved. I had started this club that thrives, an all-inclusive scooter club that was about the lifestyle choice and the desire to ride, not what you fuckin' ride, right? And I guess people knew me and have more respect for me than I'd realized. It's been nearly two years since I've hung with the crowd, and the thing is, people who ride scooters are a really eclectic and odd bunch. There's a different mindset in riding a scooter than a motorbike... you really have to not give a shit what people think, because, for years, scooters were mocked and ridiculed for being merely a suggestion of transportation, you know. Nowadays, there's a trend factor to them. Matt Lauer drives one, for fuck's sake. The "cool" people (ie: yuppies / mods / Eurotrash) don't want to be seen with other scooter owners, though, it seems, because it detracts from their star quality. Most others, though. are seeking people who have made the same lifestyle choices, and there we all be.

So, anyhow. Strange, this whole introduction of me as "the founding member" and all that. "Oh, that's you?" "Wow, nice to meetcha." Nice to be liked. Stranger still to know that people have wondered about me for some time now. What I like about this crowd, though, is the lack of bullshit that seems to exist. They wear sloppy clothes, drive shitty bikes, and just love to hang and putter and fix shit and talk and do movies and all that. Nice. My kinda group.

I'm thrilled I stopped by the yard sale, as it turns out they're doing a "drive-in movie" tonight. They're showing Anthony Hopkins' "the World's Fastest Indian" on the back wall of their house and doing a fundraiser for their club, selling hotdogs with beer for $3, and then later there's a zombie flick. I'll likely get home at 4am. Then it's off to watch the World Cup in a movie theatre on the big fuckin' screen. Wicked cool. 'specially since it's by donation!

Shaping up to be a really fun weekend, methinks. It's so fucking nice to be meeting new people. I can't believe how stupid I've been, staying uninvolved. I mean, really... I started a club that has THREE HUNDRED MEMBERS, and I know maybe 15 of them, and see none of them. Life's too short to be as anti-social as I've been this past year.

I write a lot about self-esteem, and I guess I had to kind of find my self-worth my own damned how, you know? I couldn't find it through others, I couldn't attain some false sense of self. And I sort of began doing that when I got into my relationship. I'm sort of glad to be stepping back and saying, "Yo, hey, what about me?" We lose ourselves in others far too easily. It's just too simple to forget that we ultimately need to satisfy ourselves before we can satisfy others. So, I'm back on that journey again, but something tells me the destination's gonna be far more easily reached this time around.

This could well be a night in which I have the most fun I've had in months. Good for me, goddamn it. And it's a great first weekend of employment. I don't have to worry about spending five bucks here or there. Not going hog-wild, mind you, but I'll sure as hell have a beer tonight!