The Scooter Saga

Last week I was up at my parents house in Layton and I needed to get back to work in Salt Lake; being that I don't have car and both of my parents were working, it was up to me to find a way to work. I am a connoisseur when it comes to using Utah's public transportation system, so I wasn't worried about riding the bus to work; however I wasn't looking forward to the 3 mile walk from my house to the bus stop. I decided to check out my transportation options: bikes--none my size; unicylce--basically a death threat . Long board--heck no! Skateboard--I foresee broken bones in the near future. And then my I saw the red Razor scooter, and new that was the answer to my dilemma. I would scooter to the bus stop! I slung my laptop bag across my chest, put my overnight bag on my shoulder and off I went. I felt really cool scootering along a very busy road in Layton, thinking "yes, I'm 21, a college graduate, and I'm riding a scooter to work." Pondering deep thoughts like this, I failed to see a large clump of pine trees hanging over the sidewalk. I was very suddenly engulfed in pine branches and literally seeing green. Luckily, no harm was done and I scootered on down Antelope Dr. All was going well until I decided that I was proficient enough on the scooter to go over a rather large bump. I thought "Ill just bend my knees to absorb the impact, like when I water-ski." Unfortunately, scootering and water-skiing are not similar enough. My front wheel took the bump fine, but the back wheel did not. I tumbled off my scooter, my laptop bag fell around my waist, and my overnight bag slid off my arm and across the sidewalk, with various items rolling with it. Luckily, I was only on a busy 4-lane road, so I'm sure no one saw me! The was the last of the mishaps for day 1 of scooter riding. So on we go to day 2 (about a week later). I needed to go from work to my cousin's house, where I was going to hang out and play. Usually I take 2 buses to get there, but this day I thought "Hey! It's only 10 blocks to the transfer point--I should scooter there!" So off I went on my scooter, wearing flip-flops and a skirt; this outfit proved to be ominous. Again, I'm going down a busy 4-lane road when I come to stretch of uneven sidewalk covered in gravel and other small pebbles. My wheels go skiwompous and before I know it, I am once again tumbling off my scooter. Only this time, there was also a cement wall next to me, which I (not so) gracefully slid down. My flip-flops caught on the scooter, making it nearly impossible for me to catch myself. I landed in the fetal position, where I stayed for a few moments pondering the intense amounts of pain I was in. I could instantly see bruises forming on both of my ankles and right knee. I also had a large scrape and cut on my knee. I limped to the closest bus stop, forsaking the brilliant idea to scooter to the connection point. To top off the lovely incident, the bus driver didn't see me at the stop and I had to hail him and then run to where he stopped. That was the second most painful run of my life. (The first being when I fell off of a curb, face-planted it in the middle of the road, knocked the wind out of myself, and then had to run back home.) All in all, I'm wondering if scootering is really a good idea for me. I think I'll give it one more try--they say the third time is the charm. But if I crash again, I'll be done. Or maybe I should just invest in some knee, elbow, and wrist pads.