Second Skin

You get to be my age and you realize that there isn't
much you haven't seen, heard or read about in one form
or the other.
There just isn't much going on that isn't a version of
something I haven't already experienced personally, or
vicariously, through friends and family.
So when I see something completely new, something I have
never seen before from any angle, it can be stunning in
it's freshness.
First in it's very revelation, and second that it even
happened.

A while ago I wrote a post about what it felt like to me,
a mother of a seventeen year old son, to be mistaken for a
cute "guy" on a motorcycle by three High School aged girls.
An innocent misconception on their part, it was an alien
incident for me.
For until recently, I had no idea what it's like to be male,
even for a second, in any situation.
Totally inhabiting my female gender, I know no other way of
relating, or being related to, than that of a female.
So I've been surprised to have humans of my gender, play off
the sight of me on a motorcycle as if I were what they thought
and perceived me to be, a man.
Is this what actors feel like when they dress in period
costumes and play a character?

Well, it happened again.
As soon as I got home yesterday after our Beginner Speed
Clinic, I changed into my cold weather gear, opened the
garage door and let my yellow pony out.
My goal was to try to catch up with some Ninja riders that
were getting together for a ride a bit south of me.
Never did find them, but I got 50 miles of road under my
tires.
Nice :)
Coming home, less than half mile from my house, I get the
red light in the center of town and am first in line in the
right lane.
Next to me, in the left turn lane, is a mini van. Out of the
corner of my left eye, I can see that there is some sort of
writing on the windows, like " Go Girls SV Soccer Team!!!",
so I turn my head to read what it says and doing so notice
the young girl in the back seat. I guess she might have been
8-10 yr.s old.
And I do what I do when I come across kids strapped into carts
at the grocery store who are looking around in boredom while
their parent shops, I wave.
Her facial expression is priceless.
Lightening quick, it goes from wide eyed surprise and an "O"
mouth expression, to a look of blushing disbelief, and a bright
smile.
A guy on a yellow sport bike has turned "his" head and waved
at her.
Oh my....I've done in again..and turn my head to face forward.
I don't feel like a liar, or a pervert, those girls don't know
I'm a Mom underneath the bike gear, but it does feel like I'm
gender bending or playing a role I'm not meaning to.

Maybe I should have bought a pink jacket instead of the yellow
one to match my bike...