I'm so dirty

It's been a lot lately. All kinds of dirt. Downieville dirt, Northstar dirt, UCSC dirt. And today I got water in my ear, too.

The Stumpy's been hitting it hard. Ride three was up and over loose rock, loose dirt, and next to scary ass drops in Downieville. She climbed a little, descended a lot, and went over crazy rocks.

Ride five she went up chair lifts and descended down super loose dirt, swooped up into the air a little, and crashed me on my face. No blood, just a scrape. New love for Northstar, oh yeah.

I'm getting a full-face helmet.

Ride six was actually near my house. A group, learning to do jumps. I flailed, but I know what I need to do, now. Start small to get the body English wired. Combining an uncomfortable speed with unfamiliar technique is too hard for me. Besides, I don't like learning in front of an audience, no matter how cool they are about my learning curve. I learned to snowboard like that. Lessons didn't help, poor ex-boyfriends suffered frustrated rants until I figured out I needed to teach myself on almost flat terrain how the board moves before I let gravity take over. I've never been a physical prodigy. New things that can hurt you are hard for me to learn.

Thanks to you all who have been so cool lately: Devil-D who let us stay at his home last weekend, Alex for encouraging me, even though I was scared, Dave for the b-day cake, Nic for the bell, Chris for suggesting Northstar, Caroline for my birthday oatmeal, Thomas for taking me helmet shopping. Cool people make the ride more fun.

July Fourth. Too many parties. Parties are usually good, but my homework is killing me. Tomorrow will be hell, because I know I am going to be bad tonight.