I met an old friend for lunch on the other side of Dallas today, and since it was so nice out I decided to take the motorcycle. For once, it was warm but not hot, and cool enough to not be humid, which would have been really uncomfortable in motorcycle leathers. On the ride over there, I had to continuously shake my head at the amount of motorcyclists riding around without helmets on. In fact, I must have seen 10 bikers on the way there and back, and I was the only one wearing a helmet. It's so weird to see them out there, t-shirts flapping in the wind, a pair of sunglasses the only thing between them and a rock in the eye. I shudder to think of what would happen in a collision with no helmet. A friend I worked with who grew up in Texas refers to the lack of helmet law as "social Darwinism." I think they only recently enacted an open container law here, as well, and someone else told me the state only recently lowered their legal level for DWI's to .08 because they couldn't get federal funding for their roads if they didn't comply.

If you've never ridden a motorcycle (or any two wheeled motorized vehicle, for that matter), you may be unfamiliar with the "club" you enter into when you're on two wheels. Anyone else on a bike will wave at you, a subtle move with their hand to let you know they see you. I always feel like an ass when this happens because I'm such a novice rider. I feel like I should be wearing a shirt that says, "Hi! Thanks for waving! I'd wave back, but I'm terrified to take my hand off the handle bar!"

I have a hockey game later this evening. The regular season isn't quite over here yet, so the person at the rink put me on a team for the remainder of their games...we have three left. The designations for the skill level in the divisions is different here than in southern California. I didn't want to get into a league where I wasn't strong enough to play competitively, but conversely, didn't want to end up on a team where everyone sucked. I ended up in the latter division. There seems to be a lot of hockey here. There is a surprising amount of ice rinks, and I'm told Dallas considers itself to be a "hockey town." However, the quality of the leagues is pretty low. Most of the rinks don't have adult levels higher than what I was already playing at in California, which means there are a lot of novice players across the city. It's better than no hockey at all, and the guys all seem really nice (pretty much everyone I've met in Dallas has been very nice). I will say it's weird to be sitting on a hockey bench hearing guys talking with really strong Texan drawls, and I've already been called "honey" on the ice a few times. I've also heard guys talk about the Stanley Cup playoffs AND NASCAR in the same conversation, which just seems wrong.