india street posse. it's like whoa.

me and a couple of shorties from my 'hood, suzy and claire went for a ride today. the sky was blue and it was sunny and warm. oh december in southern california! we rode about 10 miles, up the river path and across into griffith park, past the zoo and the golf course. it was so fun!


i was so proud of suzy because she just started riding her new bike and she is kicking ass. as for me, i really have to start going on longer rides so i can ramp up my training. when i go on AIDSlifecycle, there will be days when i have to ride 100 miles in a day! (it's 545 miles total, over the course of a week) stay tuned as i work up to more mileage before june 3rd 2007, when i ride out of san francisco with a bunch of other people who are probably even crazier than i am.


after we rode, we were sitting in front of the house and writing appeared in the sky. the wind came up and made it hard to read. who? whou? whoa.

my new bike buddy

my new bike buddy is my awesome pal, suzy.
she got a new bike for xmas from her brother. i introduced her to the LA river bike path today (not the hobo bike path). she almost took me out, bike-derby style, because some bugs flew in her face and made her swerve right into me. that was my excitement for the morning. i never understood all the bike kids with their bandito bandanas til i started riding. now i want a bandana too. the only problem is i can't figure out what message to send. isn't there one that says something like : "straight girl who wants a bandana to keep the bugs out of her face or her ears warm, in a color such as black that goes with all my outfits" ?
i think i was annoying suzy as i stood at the top of the bridge cheerleading as she climbed up the hill. sorry suz, won't happen again. i am just excited to have someone else to ride with. i'll try not to be so "bossy". photos are coming soon. i got myself a new camera for xmas, but it's coming in the mail. i think it'll be here on tuesday. yay.

windy wednesday

i'm visiting my parents for xmas. thought i'd get one last ride in before i go home. it was so windy down by the beach that i almost got blown off the road, but wow, what a view.

i figured it'd be good for my training that riding against the wind on flat ground felt like climbing a really steep hill. i turned up the road and it looked like i was suddenly in the middle of lord of the rings.

but really, it's just a golf course.

today is the first day...

... of the rest of your life.

but that's incidental. i'm here to talk about my bike, and me riding it specifically. last summer i was flipping through the channels and saw this documentary on AIDSlifecycle and it got me all excited. since i have shifted from being an angry hater to being nostalgically angst-y and faux-negative, i've been trying things i'd never have done in the past, just to see if i can.

riding a bike is something i hadn't done since elementary school, and i'd always been a little ashamed of the fact that i couldn't really ride one anymore. people would ask me to go places with them on bikes, and i'd pull out my standard "um, but i don't have a bike". this would inevitably be followed by a generous offer to loan me one or help me borrow one from someone, and then i'd just have to be like, "umm... no... that's cool.. i don't really want to.." lame.

soooo.... i see this thing on tv and i'm like "cool. i want to do that. it's a good cause and it looks like fun... and it also looks like the kind of thing that would terrify me. meeting tons of new people, sleeping in tents, physical exertion, wearing unflattering and dorky clothing, no chance of escape... i'll sign up!"

so i bought a bike at the awesome hollywood pro bicycles. my bike-y friend steven picked it out for me. hollywood pro is a totally unexpected place. it's teeny tiny and crammed with rad stuff right on hollywood blvd. near highland on the walk of fame. the guys who work there were so nice and helpful. i think i even convinced them to go on the ride in june! also, they were very patient with my extreme ignorance of all things bike-related. so go buy some bike stuff from them.

the first time i tried to ride the bike i got about halfway down my block and was wobbling all over the place back and forth and i almost fell. it looked so bad that another bicyclist riding by actually stopped to see if i was o.k., thinking something was wrong with the bike. i was like "i'm fine! it's cool!". after that, i put the bike in the back of my car and took it to the parking lot of an abandoned k-mart by my house. it was perfect. no cars and lots of wide open space. i practiced shifting my gears and seeing how close i could ride to the concrete pilings holding up the lamp posts. yes, that's right, like a five-year-old.

i did that a few more times, even trying out other parking lots in the area, until it was time to ride the bike on real streets with real cars.