Poisonous Thorns & Ambulances

So this story requires a little background. Sorry if it's a little long.
For the last 3 months, I've now been riding my bike to work pretty consistently. Not everyday, but about two out of three days, and it's generally gone very well. I think all the time of you, my readers, and I think of all the interesting things I could point out to you. And then I think that perhaps they are just interesting because I'm on my bike and looking for interesting things. For example, the Church of the White Birds. This is what I called in my head the group of utterly silent white birds gazing upon one solitary white bird on the shore of the lake. Doing nothing. Meditating, perhaps? Who knows. Or I could tell you about the trees I pass with green leaves and green trunks. Or the fact that I passed 13 bikers one day before one finally waved or said hi, and she was a cute Asian about my age and she always says hi. And I love it. Or even the cool egret I saw swallow a huge fish right before I took this picture. But my favorite thing so far would have to be the, "Feels Good, Don't It?!" guy. He's probably in his 50's and I've passed him twice in the mornings playing Ultimate Frisbee. (Or Spinning...not exactly sure on this point...) Anyways, I passed him the first time in a super-awesome mood on a gorgeous morning and he looked at me and shouted, "Feels Good, Don't It!" Caught up in the bliss of it all I yelled, in a much higher pitch than expected, "It feels awesome!!" Yep. Queen of Coolness. And the next week when the same thing happened, I just giggled and said Good Morning. But I love the Feels Good, Don't It Guy. 

On to the Gypsy. This is Bridget's bike.

She blogged about it last week, and her friend from Argentina bought it for her. As in, Bridget, hey, I called around and bought your bike over the phone. Go pick it up. Holy crap. Beautiful bike. Beautiful Bike that only fits in the Bel Air. So I was called in for back-up. This was on Saturday. A day that was supposed to be filled with errands and was instead filled with riding beach cruisers (I borrowed Bridget's roommate's red one) along the sidewalks, ignoring traffic rules and wearing and eating ring pops and drinking out of the water bottles in our baskets. It involved biking 4 miles to John's house and talking him into joining us. It involved him spending 6 hours with us instead of taking the nap he deserved. It may have involved me biking directly into a tree with a branch full of poisonous thorns hanging off of it and scratching my forehead all up. Maybe just up. But still, it gave me a headache. So I think they must have been poisonous. I talked to an old lady 2 days ago who said they might have been. What that story comes down to is 1) I am a klutz on a bike and 2) That was an awesome awesome day. 

Moving on... to Wednesday night. Biking to work. Looking for a little detour to avoid some more cars. Because I'm always scared of the cars. Attempting to stroll onto an itty bitty 2.5 inch curb. Faced with the reality that road bike tires never ever stroll onto curbs. What they do is crash people on their faces onto the asphalt when they try to stroll onto curbs. Leaving them quite a bit embarrassed and scratched up in the parking lot of Enterprise Rent-a-Car. And washing up in their bathroom. 

But with this awesome irony. A guy who watched me crash literally offered to call an ambulance for me. I just laughed. "Well, I'm actually a nurse on my way to work at the hospital, so I'll be there anyway. Don't worry about it." He just sat there in stunned silence and I got on my bike and rode away. 

And by the way, my arm burned like mad in the wind all the way to work. And I got a tiny hole in my super awesome yoga pants. 

But wow, what a way to start the work week. 1/4 mile from my house. 

(Do you love the pathetic, traumatized, somewhat-in-shock look on my face in this picture?) 

Now I'm off to bed! Why do you people keep me up so late?!