My social challenges of working in the motorcycle world.

It's been a rough couple weeks for me at the motorcycle store so I'm going to rant now.

I'm not a fan of being snubbed or ignored while trying to provide customer service on a sales floor. Despite my background in long-distance riding and my knowledge of many a model of motorcycle, it is usually the tendency for quite a number people who walk in to automatically gravitate toward the first male employee they see, regardless if I am the closet person in proximity to them. In ironic fashion, I find myself snubbed in subjects involving parts/accessories for sale, which is my main department. Of course, my co-workers will usually direct those questions back to me, but I wish I didn't have to depend on them to get the attention.

On average, it will usually take me about 1-2 minutes in a conversation (if I can keep their attention long enough) to convince a person that I actually know what I'm talking about. When the store's busy, that's time I really don't want to waste on establishing my credibility. There are times where I just don't even bother - if the boobs have a voice then there's a problem, right?

Life, love, and the privilege to play hockey.

Since I'm at the hockey rink several times a week, I often see younger hockey players practice while their parents watch. Some of them are quite enthusiastic and even cheer for their kids during mundane scrimmages or drills.

Sometimes I'd even hear a positive comment or two directed at their kid, something like "You did a great job out there." or "I like how you fought for that puck and didn't give up on the play."

When I think about my own childhood experiences in hockey (or anything else for that matter), I find that interaction between parent and child to be quite strange and awkward. All I remember was the lack of compliments despite my successes, the non-existence of affection that was usually replaced with a surplus of insults and discouragement. This pattern continued throughout my younger years and it has only been by my move across the country a couple years ago that their nagging and complaining has finally diminished to just very deep and painful memories.

Now, besides the motorcycles that are obviously one of the loves of my life, I've enjoyed watching and reading about hockey for as long as I could remember, which was pretty strange for a young Asian girl growing up in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Perhaps it was the equipment, the cool uniforms, or the finesse of the players as they would glide across the ice with ease. Or maybe it was that damn Disney movie. Regardless, it was a sport that hooked me once I scraped up the $15 to buy myself a street hockey stick and ball and strapped on those rollerblades nearly a decade and a half ago.

A strange time to be super busy...!

January was quite...busy? What happened here?

Unlike last year where I had way too much time at home to think about things (thanks to my former employer's desire to be more economical with my paycheck), this year I'm finding myself happily knee-deep in motorcycle industry-related work. As a result, I'm not churning away at my blog like I traditionally have been during this time of the year.

To add to the bonus, we've had a freakishly mild (and relatively snow-less) winter out here in central Ohio. Thanks to that and a surprise influx of customers anticipating good riding days, I've found myself working quite a bit more at the motorcycle store and planning/scheduling bike events for what seems to be a warp speed course to the spring "riding season." Ice-less days and temps over 30°F have reduced car usage this season to next to nothing so daily commuting on the motorcycle has remained relatively normal. If only every winter in Ohio was like this EVERY year...I might actually like living here.

This was definitely NOT what winter looks like in Ohio right now. It was raining right after this short snow dump. Seriously.

So yeah, I'm not completely gone from the radar!!! Mind you, there's quite a few motorcycle journeys slated for 2012 so stay tuned for that. Eleanor's aiming for 150,000 miles on the odometer for this year and she's well on her way to that goal. She and I have pulled off more than 3000 miles since November alone, which is far from my traditional California numbers but a lot more than what most "riders" in this area will achieve in the warmth of summer. I'll be throwing in more out-of-region food reviews and other random rants as well. I'll be able to, eventually, free up more time in the schedule to contribute to the online fodder of this blog.

Don't forget, you can always follow some of my misadventures on my "alternate channel," my Twitter feed @2wheeledtourist. That's updated anytime during the day or if I find something strange to share. You can also see my tweets to the right of this blog entry in the Twitter window.

I'm still here, just running around with a smile on my face. And my head on fire.