Scootah

I recently purchased a vespa-style scooter.  It's awesome.  Honestly, everyone is jealous.  It saves tons of money, time, and it's really really fun.  There are some drawbacks - it can be kind of a theft magnet, you have to be a much more defensive driver.  Also, if you have the occasional habit of yelling things at people from the safety of your car while driving--as I do-- you should really try to remember that on a scooter the whole block can hear you shout "Seriously buddy, this is not a parking lot!" in your exasperated voice.  But my favorite things are people's reactions (or least favorite, depending on the instance).

They literally stop me at traffic lights.  I'll be on the sidewalk, and they stop driving--blocking traffic-- and come over to ask about this thing.  It's kind of ridiculous.  There have been some funny, some annoying & some startling ones.

A very consistent repeat is: "Whoa! Is that a scooter?" as if they've seen a ghost. Their brow is furrowed, their eyes intense & jaw dropped.

I don't know how to answer that question. Sometimes I'm reduced to "Hey yeah. Yes. It is. Ok, green light. See ya."

They've got stories about scooters.  Stories they'd like to tell me the full version of as I'm mid-way through fishing my lock out of my tire, or holding the elevator open so they can finish, before they've introduced themselves.  They find it about as likable and novel as you might find this guy. They just want to hang out.  As a person who's not real talkative with people I don't know this is a unique new phenomenon to me.  I have somewhere close to five of these kinds of conversations every day & feel bad for cutting them off cause I'm actually going somewhere (hence, the scooter).  Is this normal?  Are people just really that distracted by shiny things?  Should I be validated or confused?