So here I was standing in my kitchen, frumpy, tummy full, coffee in hand, ad-design project crammed in backpack... prepared, you might say. And I had a choice to make: Do I ride my bike to school? or do I drive? I had been in limbo all morning (so for 15 minutes) over whether or not I'd exercise. I decided I'd run little tests like, "well if my project fits in my backpack I'll ride" and then it fit... but no that wasn't a good enough reason. Next test: the energy one. I blinked a few times and waved my head around to see how my equilibrium was. It was ho-hum but I figured the coffee would help. These positive tests still weren't good enough reasons though because deep down I wanted to drive to school, I want to listen to dave matthews band and roll the windows down and sip on coffee for my 14 minute commute. The down-side to driving is that I never purchased a parking pass in order to encourage my biking habits. Piss. I have to park at the church and then hike to the art building and that takes another 10 minutes. So really, riding my bike is faster, just a tad strenuous. For the final test I choose the "Does my travel mug fit in my water bottle holder on my bike?" test. Into my garage, over to my bike, coffee in the holder, dangit. it's snug as a bug. (it just took me 5 times to type bug correctly. I kept typing gub.) So this sucks, I have to ride my bike to school. I'm all outta tests. The problem: my outfit is almost comical. I usually wear athletic clothing when I ride. Huh. "oh well, this will be funny," I decide and I ride down my drive-way laughing at myself.
Fortunately, the eskimo outfit was appropriate because it was probably 58 degrees outside. At this point I knew I looked pretty eclectic, a stigma I try to avoid, but I embraced it this morning. I rode past car after car and after seeing no pedestrians I decided it was safe to cut through campus. I guess everyone was skipping class because no one was walking around, really. One student there, two here, and whoa there's a guy dressed up in an army outfit in front of the HPE. He really took me by surprise, this black man. He seamed so politicly correct, so patriotic. He was facing me, just standing there. Why was he there? My reaction: I waved at him. I waved. WHY DID I WAVE?! This is what I was thinking as I discovered I missed my turn onto the sidewalk. I quickly jerked my handlebars to the right but my pedal hit the curb and I spilled to the left. As I was mid-air several things came to my mind. First and foremost: that army man. I knew he saw me, was watching me as I fell for half and hour, he was thinking he should save me because that's what is in his blood: justice, saving people, war. Secondly: my coffee. My freaking coffee. God I cannot afford for it to spill. I need that energy. Thirdly, or really this was all occurring to me at the same time but this is in order of importance, my falling technique. Where should I put my left hand? My head? Am I going to land in that grass or right there? Right there was the answer, and there I landed, and there he came, running (because he probably has to jog a million miles a day and that's all he knows to do), and a nice oriental lady walked over too. They both referred to me as "ma'am" which I thought was a little weird seeing as how I was not in my ma'am outfit. My glasses had hit the cement and I felt like that scooby-doo character girl who's always saying "jinkies" and losing her glasses. I put my glasses back on, got up with the help of the man's nice muscular arm, and wiped off the dust of the collision. When they asked me, "are you o.k. ma'am?" I answered, "yeah yeah, I'm fine actually, I've got on a lot of padding today" and we all laughed together. Then we hugged and someone took a picture for the local paper because there we were, the all-american portrait: the oriental lady with her books, me, the slightly-trendy-yet-clear-skinned white person, coffee in hand, and the army man, no smile, full of pride, an american flag reflecting in his eyes... we're cooking each other dinner every thursday from now on and the army guy and I are getting married next June.
welcome to my life.
