The Sky Is The Limit

So. Last year, about mid February, we were at my mom's friends house for a late thanksgiving. And they wanted us to meet their friends from Maryland (originally California). So, apparently they have a four year old daughter, and they're looking for a babysitter. My mom is a psych major, so she knows all about behaviorism, and she's taught me a few things, and refers me to all her friends. So people ask me to babysit for them all the time.

So, anyway. I was at the house, and I was talking to the mom (Lhianna). She's an awesome lady, and I gave her my phone number. A week later I babysat Xia- the then four year old- extremely articulate, knows what she wants, overall pretty strong kid. I got to their house, which is an old catering hall in Kensington that they turned into living space. And this girl is running around in circles on the hard wood floors in her underwear. She was so excited. So Lhianna showed me around the huge house and the huge dog Diego (Clarence, the dad, got him in Spain). Lhianna put Xia to bed, they gave me the emergency rules and what not.

This was the beginning of a very long relationship.

A couple months later, and watching Xia four more times, I walked in the house from school and my mom says to me "Do you want to go to Spain this summer with Clarence and Lhianna?"

I'm say in my über sarcastic tone, "No. I don't want to go on an airplane for the first time ever. I don't want to leave the country. I don't want to hang out with Xia for three weeks. YES OF COURSE I WANT TO GO!!!!"

A few weeks later, May seventeenth, my mom told my brothers, sister, and I that she had cancer. I'm not going to talk about what happened because it's personal family stuff. I'll say that we all cried and talked. My mom told us that she wouldn't be here forever. That all we have is today. And that every day is a blessing.

I love her sooooooo much.

Flash forward to June 27.

Clarence and I are walking to the scooter rental place. About a three minute walk from the house. I am jumping out of my skin. Oh my god. I'm going to ride a scooter all by myself. Oh my god. This is gonna be awesome. I can't wait. Yes. The most exhilarating thing since Flying a Lockheed CL-475. Just kidding. Since my first airplane ride about two weeks before. So we get there, and the lady is saying "Does he have a license?...Can he drive one?...Give him the smaller one...You're responsible if he messes up my scooter..." I'm like Yes. O.K. All right. Helmets. Yea. On. O.K. Gas. Break. On. Off. Yea. Lets go.

So I turn it took me a minute to turn it around so I could merge with traffic. I've seen a hundred guys riding. And their legs are up. So it must fine. So. I put my legs up on the rest. And I give it way too much gas. I ride like four feet and fall and slide about ten. Thank God I had a helmet on. There weren't any cars at the time. And Clarence turns around to pick me up. "Are you O.K..." Meanwhile, The rental lady saw the ENTIRE thing.

She comes out, and says "I watched you fall. You scratched my bike. You are going to have to pay for that. I thought you knew how to ride a scooter. You have to pay me for this." Not even caring about whether I'm alive or not. My Right elbow and knee are totally scratched up. Sort of bleeding.

So we park the scooter, I hop on the back of Clarence's scooter and we ride to a parking lot. I rode around the parking lot for a while. Lhianna and Xia came over and met us. Clarence went to get the scooter, and I rode that one around for a minute. We then rode back to the house where I cleaned up. Still shaking from pure adrenaline pumping through my veins.

For the next few days we rode all over Almuñecar (the town we were in). Each time I got on the scooter, I went a little faster than the time before. We rode to a beach, and on the last day we had the scooters, I wound up reaching about 65 km/h which felt really fast. It's about 40 mph, but when you're only wearing a bathing suit and a t-shirt (and yes, a helmet) it felt really really really really fast. My leg and arm healed up nicely.

Hopefully, we go back again this summer- they own their house in Almuñecar- and hopefully I don't wipe out again. I don't think I would. Oh lovely lovely lovely.