When I start a new venture, I want to learn all that I can about it.

I am a nerd.

And so even though I’m certainly on the fringes of the motorcycle subculture with a 50cc scooter (!!), I enrolled in the California Motorcyclist Safety Program (CMSP), a three-day motorcycle safety and training program. On Friday night, I attended the first part of the course, which covered motorcycle safety in an intensive five hours of videos and “group work.” We were assigned to small groups and had to come up with a team name that had something to do with motorcycles. The Sarge (aka the teacher) firmly denied our request to be called the Jerry Springers, but we were allowed to call ourselves “The Springers.” Then all of the teams flipped diligently through their workbooks to collectively answer nearly 200 questions having to do with everything from the parts of a motorcycle to the particulars of motorcycle safety. Our course description had warned us “the class was not designed to be fun” and people behaved accordingly. They all looked as scared straight as me, except for the poor soul who announced three hours in that he hadn’t turned his paperwork in because “he didn’t have a pen.” NOT a smooth move. The Springers lifted their scribbling pens and looked on in horror as the kid received a swift and stern dressing-down.

The ratio was definitely 3 to 1 (in favor of males) and very diverse. Most of the guys were NOT there to learn how to drive 50cc scooters, but I didn’t feel ashamed to announce that I was. Maybe I didn’t let on that my cute little dragon-red scooter answered to “Vincenzo.”

The session culminated in a 50-question multiple-choice test that was NOT a team effort. Before The Sarge passed out the tests, he said, “Now we see who was listening!” I think I saw him give a pointed look at the No-Pen Kid. I suffered a little bit of mounting dread when we stood in line to have our answer sheets scored one by one. When the Sarge corrected our papers, the students in line looked on to see which students had passed and which had flunked. Miss any more than 10 questions and your failing $@#$ would be returning the following week to take the test again. Oh yeah. 49 out of 50! I beamed when The Sarge said, “Good job, kiddo.” Yup, I’m a nerd.