Birthday Socks, Birthday Socks

At 32, are you too old to go to gokarts on your birthday?

Is this something that teenagers do?  I don't know, because when I was a teenager, I did things like go out to Chinese with my friends for my birthday or stay at home and my dad bake me a cake and make my favorite meal.

I am trying to do something new and interesting each birthday these last few years.  A new restaurant, a new activity, etc.

I was going to try to go to a shooting range for this birthday but there seem to be pesky rules about needing to know how to use a firearm to use a shooting range.  Apparently, you can't just waltz in there and ask for a gun.  oh well!  Maybe I can go skeet shooting next year.  Although, I have to admit, when I told people what I wanted to do, most of the responses I got were more than a little tinged with horror or some extreme worry for my safety around guns...What does this say? hm.  But, of course, I was envisioning me accidentally shooting myself in the foot or receiving a black eye from the kickback.

So! Gokarting it was.  I have never been gokarting.  Or, at least, I think I went once, but I don't remember it being as intense as this place was.  We had to put on special jumpsuits, and head socks and real driving helmets.  I was waiting for the gloves, but we never received any.  I kind of wish we had, I feel like everything from the flu to ebola could have been crawling on the steering wheel.  Wow.  Gokarting is definitely not an activity for the risk averse!  I thought it would be fun to drive little race cars around a track with my friends.  It was rather terrifying! I was last in line and they waved us out and the straps were tight and choking me and I couldn't turn my head and the wheel was heavy to turn (no power steering on suped up lawnmowers) and my breath was fogging the visor of the helmet.  agh!  So I decide to go easy and it was mostly ok, except that people kept passing me and I kept getting flagged to pull to the side and let others pass.  I suppose I was going really slow.  But my favorite time was when the whole group of other people had zipped by and I had clear, empty track in front of me to drive my little car.  When we got back to the results area, I suddenly realized that we had been running a race.  I looked up at my time and saw I was dead last.  I hadn't known it was a race.  No one said that's what you do at gokarts.  I felt dumb.  Still, I probably wouldn't have changed anything.  I took my turns slowly and looked both ways (as much as I could), I didn't go too fast, so as not to spin out going on the curves and I politely let everyone pass me.  I could have been a granny out there. 

Well, at least I know I am a conscientious driver, even in a minicar on a track with bumpers and wearing two seat belts and a helmet.  I think what convinced me to drive safely the first (and second times, I came in second to last and was a lot more worried about dying as I spun around the curves) time around was when I picked up my helmet from the shelves; it had scratches on the visor.  Actually, they ALL had scratches on the visor, which means they were all involved in collisions of some sort.  It's probably why I strapped my first helmet on too tight and choked myself...didn't want it flying off and those scratches instead occurring on my head.

So, really though...is this something that 32 year olds do for a birthday?  Because, obviously, I didn't even know it was about racing...maybe it is just something 21 year-olds do.  Maybe I should go back to that pasta and mushrooms potlach I did for my 30th.  Although, then it wouldn't be something new and pushing my own boundaries.  Hmmm, I suppose I've got some thinking to do on that one.  33 better be good though, all's I'm saying.