Okay....I've put off writing this all day, but I feel I owe it to all the people who sent me encouragement to send an update. I went for ride #4 today. I left with high spirits and felt built up by all the stories I read, and I KNEW that today was going to be the day that I was going to break my streak! Alas...about halfway through my ride, I cut across a large, empty, church parking lot, in order to avoid a busy stretch of road. While I was riding through the lot, I thought to myself "Hm...people recommended practicing things like taking my water bottle in and out. Now would be the perfect opportunity to do so." So I took it out, took a swig, and attempted to place it back into it's holder without looking. After all...I was in a parking lot...I was safe, right? Well...I proceeded to DROP the water bottle onto the ground where it started rolling backwards. It turns out that maybe the first thing I should have practiced was not the water bottle, but those figure eights...because while turning around to get the bottle, I turned too sharp, slowed down too much and (of course) didn't unclip in time to get a leg down to stop the fall. (By the way, I totally did this in front of the church's gardener) But WAIT...there's more! As I started to leave the church parking lot, a large SUV came barrelling down the road and I realized I would have to come to a complete stop to let it by. So, I unclipped and leaned over to put a leg down....ON THE WRONG SIDE. That's right! I fell over TWICE in about three minutes (again..in front of the gardener!)! If it wasn't so gosh darn ridiculous that it's funny, I would probably be feeling much more humiliated right now. But despite it all, I had a blast today on my first solo ride and can't wait to go out again this weekend with my husband. Thanks for all your stories and encouragement! I'll get there one day....