Scoots and Skirts

As many of my avid readers know, I ride a scooter during the summer. My boss Craig tells me almost everyday that I need to be really careful because my scooter could kill me. There are precautions that I take in order to be more safe, such as wearing my pirate princess helmet, keeping a good distance from the car in front of me, and avoiding really busy roads like University Avenue and Geneva Road.
As mentioned, I have a really cool helmet with a sticker on the back that says pirate princess. I actually like my helmet, and I almost always wear it. The only times I don't wear it is if I am going somewhere pretty close to home, it is really hot outside and wearing a helmet would be unbearable, or if I really don't want my hair to be all squished down.
A couple of days ago, I was riding down to return a dvd that I had rented. It was a very hot day, and I was only going down to Blockbuster, which can't be more than a couple of miles from my house. Taking those things into account, I didn't wear my helmet. No big deal until my friend Collin spotted me. He is probably more concerned about my scooter safety than anyone else, and he sent me a text telling me to put my helmet on. His text made him sound very serious, and even though he couldn't hear me, I thought Collin is right, I should be wearing my helmet.
There were a couple of things that Collin didn't mention in his text. The first is I was wearing a skirt. I think this may be more treacherous than not wearing my helmet. When I ride my scooter in a skirt, which I don't do very often, I tend to pay more attention to how far my skirt is pulled over my knees, or if for some reason, my skirt is coming over my knees, I concentrate more on pulling my knees as close together as possible than I do on traffic around me. Stopping in a skirt is also a problem. Normally, I slow down, and then put my feet down when I am almost stopped. In a skirt, I try to only put one foot down instead of both. You could kind of think of it as the same idea of riding side saddle on a horse. I don't want to straddle the scooter in a skirt just in case there are a lot of cars close by or possible a pedestrian or maybe other scooter or motorcycle riders. Anyway, this kind of throws my balance of when I stop and go, and if I ever rear end a car while on the scooter, I am sure I will be able to blame it on a skirt.
The second scooter transgression I was committing was my choice of footwear. I was wearing my 2nd favorite pair of shoes. They are super cute kitten heel slides. The toe cover is cream fabric with green flowers embroidered on them, and there are a few little sparkles sewn on. The heel is probably only an inch or an inch and a half, so that isn't as much of a problem as when I wear four inch heels, but there isn't a back on this pair of particular shoes. A couple of times that day, I lost my shoe when I picked my foot up to start going. I would have to put my brakes on very quickly to collect my shoe, but I made it all day without losing my shoe.
Don't worry about my safety. I still know what is important. My brain, sure. My shoes, definitely!