What do meringues, horses and bike pedals have in common?

....They can smell fear. It's true...my cousin Nan, who used to be a professional baker, told Eric one time, as he was baking a cake, that meringues are like horses, you must be fearless in handling them or you're done for. Add clipless pedals to that apt analogy. My mom was kind enough to buy me some nice bike shoes to go with my new road bike for Christmas last year. They stayed in their box in the garage until yesterday, because you need special pedals to go with them, and pedals, like all bike components (they're just little pieces of metal for heaven's sake!!) are ridiculously expensive. I finally got some low-end pedals this week, and Eric put them on my bike yesterday morning. For those who don't know, you clip your shoe into the pedal, so that you're effectively stuck to your bike, until you clip out (so why are they called clipless pedals? I don't know). Anyway, Eric warned me before I tried them out that I'd probably fall a few times. I bit it a few feet out of the driveway, skinning my knee (the boys were thrilled when I took them to school with blood running down my leg), somehow cutting my ankle and scraping the pedals, which means I can't return them which means I have to use them. AND USE THEM I WILL!!!! I fell two more times yesterday, but as I live, those pedals will not get the best of me! I will not let them smell my fear. I will conquer them, and they will make me faster. Or at least make me look a little less like a novice:). Why am I doing this triathlon again?