Thanks for all the great replies! I'm glad to hear that my bike is actually probably a good one for what I'd like to do.

I do plan on riding it on a day I don't have to be at work before I try to ride it on a work day...and I really paid attention to my drive today and realized that pretty much the entire ride is hills! BIG hills Funny how you don't realize that when you are driving it. Unfortunately for me, there are only two routes that I can go, and both of them are main roads. Where I live is surrounded by lakes, and my job is on the other side of these lakes, so I have no real choice as to where I can ride if I want to get there. There is also no real shoulder, either. The way I am planning is the less busy road, it's not a state highway like the other one (which is also a main semi-truck route around here).

I will definitely get some blinkies and bright clothes/vest. I am also all about riding aggressively, I don't want to be squished. I will also check into the websites and see if there are classes offerred around here. I'm kind of in BFI, so we don't tend to see a lot of that around here, but you never know.

Thank you so much for all the advice and suggestions