Wednesday, May 17, 2006

freaky friday

for me and bianchi. start off biking to los feliz hills to pick up a small piece of art. alls well so far. then as i'm biking down vermont, giddy with the slope, i try and stop at a light. but unbeknownst to me, the shirt that was tied around my waist is now completely sucked in to my brake (situation), so instead of stopping gradually i stop all at once completely and i fly off my bike onto my knuckles, elbow, and inner calf. gross. so i get up, make a fuss, get myself back together, and go to my meeting and then on to work with these gnarly wounds.

it's not bianchi's fault, it's mine, so i go on the midnight ride. everything's going great until we end the ride at the echo, when i discover my wheel is flat. bummer! first flat! i have no idea how to fix it, though i am prepared with a patch kit. i manage to catch a bus immediately but it only takes me about a fourth of the way, so i walk from circus of books home, carrying bianchi. all i can say is it's a good thing bianchi's not a horse, or i don't know what i would have done.

happily people did offer to help both times, but there wasn't any real way they could.

so bianchi is on a break until i fix the flat. sorry bike week!

Thursday, May 11, 2006

p.s. to route 217

monday i could smell the lipstick of the woman sitting next to me on the bus bench, as i ate my cold veggie hot dog. that i could smell it meant it was SO old that it was rotten. gross.

p.p.s. the 217 is actually much much more than just enabling my undergarments for w-day. it also links me without driving to the region to which i still drive-fairfax. whole foods (both!), swingers, genghis cohen, chao krung, etc. maybe not manis, but the rest of the glory.

though that lipstick-uncool.

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

new route and catch-up

sorry it's been awhile. i've had some interesting comments lately, and also some really pleasant interactions. weird: one guy who asked me if i was a white girl, a man who told me "to tell the nig**r to take care of the kids" (what? what?), and a creepily male dominated late night bus ride. on the nice side, a really lovely conversation with a random and very cute young black fellow who edits films, and another really lovely conversation with a very cute young black fellow at the immigrant rights march, where i got so much chain grease on my calves from walking my bike around it was too crazy.

i've been getting a lot of chain grease on my calves lately. i pretend it's rugged. but really it's just messy.

i saw a girl from bitchen at soccer yesterday; she was nice and conversational and had a cap of curls, like in stories. i devote my heart to the nice encouraging people at soccer who do not reveal their exasperation with my crapness.

next week is bike to work week on the mta!! woot!! public space avenger would be out in full excited force, except that it is also the week of our fundraiser. i will try to still bike to work every day, but will not be able to hoot around photographing and biking and subwaying as i would want to do. as i am wont to do.

cool site: bikemetro.com, which, when it works, is like mapquest for bike routes. and it tells you how many calories you're burning and how much pollution you're preventing by biking!

so my newly attempted bus route is to go from here to the grove on the 217, which, while i hate the grove, seems better ecologically than driving to glendale, beverly center (which i hate more than the grove, actually, though i'm not sure why), santa monica (the most pc consumer orgy, because it's public space), or pasadena to buy an underwear system for w-day. i must try and resist the false charms of the faked up grove. resist!

my new bike route is not really new, but rather stolen from alex and stacy, my inspiration of health. take sunset to park, then get on glendale to 1st, take flower or some such south to SAJE. woot again!

signing out. more pics soon-i have a bundle of irritatingly pretentious artsy bus shots.