Women Drivers

As people start to read this I can already envision some women rolling their eyes, and thinking sexist pig. Ha, haha. I am female. Therefore I can complain about women drivers all that I want. I am one!

Not that I don’t complain about driving habits of the other sex, too, but I seem to notice them paying attention to the road at least a majority of the time.

On that note, I believe that’s where I’ll start. Attentiveness. Women allow themselves to be distracted waaay too easily. Make-up, cell phone, kids, where is there room to focus on the road with all of those distractions. I’m sorry ladies, but the road should be the focus of your attention. If the other distractions start to take more of your attention than the road: GET OFF THE ROAD! Pull over and deal with it, don’t endanger your life of the lives of others.

Now on to the competitive edge of driving. Men are competitive drivers, but women are just as bad. Most women don’t like to think so, mostly because we usually don’t street race, or pull similar stunts. But women are competitive drivers. I have encountered more women blocking somebody changing lanes by speeding up and staying there, even though they are not comfortable at the higher speeds, or just speeding up because they cannot be behind somebody.

<>Women are also just too emotional for some situations, I have seen women go into road rage under very petty circumstances. One of the worst that I encountered was when I was riding with somebody at night. Another car came up too close behind and blinded the driver, when the other car passed the person I was riding with decided that she had to tailgate and try to blind the other driver for revenge. Somebody please tell me, what this reaction does except to create a very bad situation.

Now, since you’ve sifted through the complaints I will give some good things about women drivers. Most importantly, they don’t seem to have the need to show off to the other sex like men do. I have ridden with men who feel that they must prove their driving abilities in order to impress the girl. By the way to any men who read this: Stop it, most women don’t need to be impressed by your driving ability. Drive sane.

So on the good side, women don’t feel the need to impress as badly (at least in driving). This really does reduce some of the danger of their driving. Also there are always exceptions. There are some really good women drivers, those who are safe and considerate on the road. We all need to try and be better drivers, we need to try to stay focused and be understanding of any situations that arise on the road.

Now with the driver rant complete for today, let's get onto what you really came for:

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9

Maureen fell onto the couch. She knew that she would be sore in the morning, but for now she felt great.

“You are doing well, Kyra, but you still have a long way to go.”

“You’re just trying to rain on my parade, aren’t you?”

“What does that mean?”

Maureen sighed; she did forget how much Julius didn’t know.

“It means that you’re trying to ruin my good spirits.”

“Sorry,” Julius said as he turned away. “I didn’t mean to… to rain on your parade, I just didn’t want you to get over-confident.”

“You don’t need to worry about that. Remember, I have no idea what I am really up against. I don’t think I’ll even be confident until I meet this person face-to-face. So you don’t need to worry about me being overconfident.”

Silence fell between the two for a moment.

“Are you too tired to do anything else tonight?”

“Changing the subject are we?” Maureen asked with a hint of a smile in her voice.

Julius merely smiled back, his fangs just visible.

“I’m still okay mentally, Julius. But I better give my body a rest if I plan to anything physical tomorrow.”

“Good. Close your eyes.”

“More visualization techniques?”

“Sort of.”

She felt Julius sit beside her.

“Physical is only one of the forms that this battle may take. Another could be magical, so I’m going to start to train you for magic use.”

Maureen opened her eyes again.

“Is this a joke, Julius? Most people gave up on magic here over a century ago.”

“That seems to be because people here are lazy. I see so much that is done for you, so much so that I doubt most people have the self-discipline to practice magic.”

“Then that probably includes me.”

“Kyra, look inside yourself. I think that you will find the discipline for magic.”

“Okay… Where do we begin?”

“Well, first close your eyes.”

Skeptical, Maureen did.

“Now, you’ve started to become aware of the energies of your opponent. It allows you to anticipate their next move so that you can counter effectively. For magic you need to be aware of your own energies.”

“So why didn’t you start me on that? Wouldn’t being aware of my own energies be easier, than being aware of somebody else’s?”

“It might seem so, but that thinking is deceptive. We all lie to ourselves, and we see what we want to see. Because of this, reading yourself can be very tricky. You first have to face your own demons, then accept them. Only after that is done can you even start to become truly aware of your own energies.”

Maureen contemplated this. Exhaling softly she said, “Well, let’s get started.”

“Okay, first we’ll start with a simple relaxation technique.”

“I’m already relaxed.”

“No, you’re not. You are physically comfortable, but you are not relaxed. Your muscles would respond instantly when called upon. This relaxation technique relaxes the muscles, and when you are truly relaxed you will know the difference. If you try to move immediately after doing this you will feel extremely sluggish.”

“So what do I do?”

“First you will pick two colors. The first represents stress and physical readiness. The second represents calm and relaxation.”

“Okay.”

“Now, visualize yourself, a rough outline will do. Fill in the outline with the appropriate colors.”

Maureen was skeptical, until the colors filled in almost automatically. She was then surprised to see exactly how physically alert she really was.

“Whatever color your calm is, that is the color of the air around you. The air is calm. As you breathe in you pull the calm into you, as you exhale the stress is forced from your body.”

Maureen felt herself getting sleepy.

“You will probably feel as if you are falling asleep, resist the urge to fall asleep. The one area that you do not want to change color is your head, because you want your mind alert. It is the body you want relaxed, for when the mind doesn’t have to concern itself with the body it can be put to better use.”

Maureen felt as though she couldn’t move even if she had to.

She felt Julius lift one of her arms. It fell immediately; the muscles didn’t have enough strength to hold it up.

“Good. That’s a start.”

Julius stood up from the couch. He needed to figure out her magical strengths and weaknesses, but wasn’t sure how to go about it.

“I’m cold.”

Julius turned at the remark. The room was plenty warm; he had made sure of it before starting the relaxation process.

He walked back to the couch and took one of Maureen’s hands in his. It was like ice. He realized that she might have just given him the biggest clue as to her magical inclinations.

“Kyra, I want you to start moving again. Don’t let any more stress come into your body than absolutely necessary though.”

Julius walked across the room to where he had seen some candles. He picked a couple up along with the fire sticks that Kyra called “matches” and took them back to the coffee table.

He lit one of the candles.

“Kyra, move your hands toward the fire.”

Maureen did as he asked. The warmth felt good on her cold hands.

“Why didn’t you open your eyes to see where the fire was?”

Startled at the question Maureen did open her eyes. “What do you mean?”

“When I asked you to move your hands toward the fire you did, but you did not open your eyes to do so and you also did not burn yourself. How did you know where the fire was without opening your eyes?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Okay, let’s see if we can explain it then. I think that I already know the answer, but you also need to find it out for yourself.”

Julius saw a scarf hanging on the coat rack. Grabbing it he then tied it around Maureen’s head, covering her eyes.

He held the candle within inches of her face. “Can you detect any light from the candle with your eyes right now?”

Maureen focused on trying to for a moment, then gave up. “No.”

“Okay. What I am going to do, Kyra, is move this candle about on the coffee table. When I tell you, I want you to tell me where it is. Understood?”

“Yes, but if I can’t see it, not even the light how am I supposed to tell you where it is.”

“Just try.”

Julius moved the candle, careful not to make a sound that would alert Kyra to where the candle might be. Yet she still pointed out exactly the location of the candle. He repeated the exercise, and again she knew where the candle was.

After several minutes of the exercise Julius could see that she was tiring of the repetition. “Uncover your eyes.”

Maureen pulled the scarf from her face.

“Put out the fire.”

Maureen leaned forward to blow out the candle, but was stopped.

“No, not like that. Use your mind to do it.”

Maureen looked skeptically at Julius. “Use my mind? Are you kidding Julius? How does one put out a fire with one’s mind?”

“By knowing the fire.”

Maureen had learned that when Julius was vague like this it was just easier to try what he suggested. So she concentrated upon the flame.

‘What would make a flame go out?’ she asked herself. ‘Wind? No, that couldn’t be the answer, Julius had already specified otherwise.

What could be the answer? What does a fire do? It burns, creates light and consumes all available fuel.

Consumes fuel, could that be the answer?’ Maureen decided to try it.

She focused on the fire. She tried to convince herself that it had no fuel left, and with nothing else to consume it would burn itself out. She allowed nothing else to enter her mind except the though that the fire was out of fuel.

She was so focused on the flame that she was surprised when it actually went out.

Julius clapped a hand upon her back. “Wonderful! I thought so, and you just proved it.”

“Proved what?”

“Fire, fire is your element. Only somebody with a fire strength can put out a flame so quickly.”

“So what does it mean?”

“It means that by this time tomorrow you will have a new weapon in your arsenal.”