Birthdays are the Best Days

Every time I ride bikes with the boy I heart I think of this - the time in the Muppet Movie when Kermit and Miss Piggy ride bikes and the other Muppets join them and the reprise of "The Rainbow Connection" swells and general Muppet joy abounds...That's what riding bikes is for me - a chance for freedom, a chance to go wherever in the city my heart and legs decide to take me, a way to spend time with people I heart in a fun way... Well, that's what riding bikes is like for me most of the time: like the time Dave and I saw steel being made ONLY because we were riding bikes back to Wicker Park OR the time a UPS driver shouted at me "Are you turning left" and I said "No" and he replied "Then I'll let you go ahead Miss" and I joked "I don't want to mess with you and your truck" and we shared a laugh..

But sometimes riding bikes can hurt. Like, say it's your birthday and you are riding up Clark near Wrigley Field and it's a beautiful day full of yummy mexican food and drinks with a friend who is one of the best in the world to me, and going shoe shopping together and laughing that the DSW has a whole section (a SECTION people!) of metallic shoes, which is too much shiny even for me! And you maybe buy a cute pair of shoes (black mary janes the color and style that are like crack and this is the THIRD pair of black mary janes I currently have, which is redonkulous!) So, say your two blocks south of Wrigley Field and the wind is gusting and you foolishly hung the bag with the shoebox on your handlebars and in an instant the shoebox is jammed between your knee and the handlebar and a gust of wind comes and your are slow motion falling - until you look up and you are lying, actually LYING on Clark looking up at a car that thankfully stopped to witness your tumble from the bike you love, the bike that brings you Muppet-like joy...That's when bikes are not the best...

The rest of my birthday weekend was full of good stuff; good food, good friends, more good food, good time with the boy I heart and good time pottering around the apartment by myself. The silence of autumn has come to Chicago and it's nice, to just sit still for a bit and read a book....I guess it's just a sign of how old I've become.