Dear Friends,
The delicate daughter has been raised in the art of promptness. Last week, on the way to her Kmart job, we were stopped dead in our tracks. Motorcycles – three abreast – cruised down our country lane. It was an amazing spectacle. Many woman riders were cruising by solo. Almost fifteen minutes elapsed before the last motorcycle flying a, ‘Wounded Warrior Project,’ banner cruised by. They must’ve raised quite a bit for our veterans.
I too, once owned a motorcycle. It was really cute, an all black Kawasaki 250 (if memory serves). I imagined cruising down the highway as an uber-cool, independent babe astride her slick motor-horse-
I have always been captivated my Marlon Brando and his suave biker image. If Marlon and James Dean’s genetics had ever mixed their offspring would have been into motocross-
Back to the little Kawasaki. I kept it at a good friend’s car shop. He let me practice in the shop parking lot after hours. I could make left turns with no effort. Righthand turns were a problem. I couldn’t turn right without dropping the bike. I felt off-balance and blamed it on my left-handedness. One day I said a little prayer, “Dear God, I don’t know if I should keep the bike. I can’t seem to do the ‘right’ thing. Please send me a sign. I’ll keep practicing until I hear back from you,” AnnMarie.
The very afternoon I uttered this prayer, I was driving my sporty, charcoal-grey metallic, Nissan 240SX to my friend’s shop to practice riding my motorcycle. A man in a Ferrari-owned pickup truck was making an illegal u-turn. I was coming around a blind corner doing 65 in my little sports car. We smashed. My car slid across the opposite lane of traffic. Since God sent the sign, he pushed my car fast enough so it avoided oncoming traffic. Though I was spared, the right side of my car was not. The gentleman in the truck was fine too, with only a small cut on his forehead. Well, I learned from that day to be careful of what I prayed for. I sold the motorcycle and had my car redone.
For these past 2 weeks, I’ve been driving by a sleek black motorcycle with a For Sale sign on it. I have that old feeling. I’d like to give motorcycles another try. Tonight when the giant husband opened his mail, this was in it –
I’ll take it as a sign…
Thank you and goodnight. May you ride side-by-side with Marlon and James toward a gorgeous sunset and wakeup to the glorious sun…
(motorcycle silo with funky front wheel rendered in marker, biker chick done in watercolor and pencil, Marlon/James combo created with colored pencil and marker)
anntogether 
Gotta love the signs! Probably best you paid attention to the universe’s message. 🙂 Love the artwork (and writing) once again, AnnMarie. Do you do the sketches just for this particular blog posting? If so, wow! It’d take me, like two weeks — and then mine would be stick figures! LOL
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Sometimes the signs hit you on the head, other times they hit you in the car 😉 Thank you Debra, for the kind comments. The art is a mix. I allow serendipity to rule my life, ergo my blog…sometimes it’s new art, sometimes it’s old and sometimes it’s a combo. The images in this particular post were older (sometimes I only have photos of my art and I take a pic of a pic, because the art was given away or sold)
Hey, don’t sell stick figures short 😉 there are loads of folks making money selling stick images. I’m thinking of those car window stickers people seem to love 🙂 Living within you could be the next ‘Stickangelo.’ 😉
AnnMarie 🙂
Here’s to a safe day for the animals of the world 🙂
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Love the pictures and the story:)
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Thank you very much. My car was never the same – the paint on the right side was 2 shades darker 😉
AnnMarie 🙂
I really still would like a motorcycle 🙂
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Glad u are well! Nice illustrations!
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I remember the cars coming toward me – it’s amazing in those moments you can feel the stop-action… Though I jest at my car’s expense, I as well as the gentleman in the truck were extremely fortunate to both walk away…
Thank you for visiting. I always appreciate company…
AnnMarie 🙂
Have a great day!
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AnnMarie, we rode for years without an accident (I prayed a lot as we cruised down the highway). We continued riding seven more years after my husband’s lousy heart made itself known…and I rode scared, knowing if his heart went south there wouldn’t be anything I could do from the passenger spot to save us. I miss riding, especially in beautiful spring or fall weather. But I don’t miss being afraid. I’m glad you paid attention. – Fawn
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I wanted to have the wind and scenery all around me on the open road – a feeling only a motorcycle can grant – but, it was not meant to be. You know, I’d love a horse someday – that would do it too!
I had a feeling you’d have been a cycle rider (sorry about your husband’s health). Onward and upward using whatever means gets us there 😉
AnnMarie 🙂
Have a wonderful Wednesday, Fawn 🙂
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Reblogged this on Just another girl on a motorbike and commented:
This raised a giggle, if that was the response I got I would’ve sold it too!
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Can’t do the ‘right’ thing.. Ha..ha.. Might as well just forget it.
Do it right instead. The left-way. 😀
Oh, I like the first pic very much, by the way. Cheers!
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Many thanks…maybe I can still figure a left way out 😉
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Ann- you do crazy serious art! I salivate over your stuff! Plus you write so well. I hate you.
No… no wait! I don’t hate you! Never!!!
I love you. I want to be you. Can I come live with you? No wait… wait… that came out all creepy and stuff. Really… I’m not stalking you. Really.
Now that that’s over… right hand turns on the motorcycle are hard for most everyone. Riding a motorcycle is a skill and like any skill, takes practice, persistence and patience to learn. However, if you mentally are afraid or are getting such clear cut signs from God- then perhaps riding isn’t for you. When it is for you, you’ll know. And it will take several years before you are an expert at it. That’s just the way the wheel rolls.
But I suspect you know this already!
Great post, my friend! Most excellent.
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You are way too kind, so many lovely things you’ve written here and I’m positively glowing (well, I was sweating at first as I’ve never had a stalker 😉 ) then I was glowing 🙂 I do truly appreciate the kindness. I’m trying to constantly improve my art and writing. I look around the blogosphere and there are so many freakishly talented people, in fact, they’re all over the planet and more seem to be appearing everyday! Oh, if everyone could concern themselves with art and humor the world would be such fun 🙂
Someday, when my son isn’t watching, I’m going to sneak out and take some riding lessons… I want to wear a shiny helmet with a purple fire-breathing dragon/horsey thing on it 🙂
AnnMarie 🙂
ps Your art and humor is way uber-cool too!!!
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