bliss

our new home has a deck that overlooks the greenway. For those who aren't savvy, it is an off road bike highway that connects the river to the lakes. I can drink coffee while watching my fellow bikers. Plus, there is an exit right at my condo. heaven. 

bike culture

I find it strange that people in cars yell at me for biking. I'm doing what all other cars do, but for some reason, they feel free to shout and curse. I suppose it's because I'm a person sitting on a metal thing....note...not IN a metal thing. So I can HEAR them billowing. 

one time i stopped at a stop sign. A driver rolleddown his window and screamed "there's a stop sign there" I guess he didn't like that I stopped quickly. well, i was only going 10 mph. you know. 

One time I was biking on the right side of a busy street and someone from a car hollered "Get on the sidewalk idiot"....um..ok...if i wanted a traffic ticket.

Couple days ago I was biking south on Bryant Ave and the driver's door opened in a parked car as I was biking passed. I almost got doored (as they like to say in the bike community) and out of surprised i yelped "hey" and he yelled back "watch it"....hum...if I was a car and smashed his door, would he say "watch it" how was I suppose to know he was in the car, it's his job to look for traffic. 

point being, I'm finding myself having a harder and harder time thinking the best of drivers and yellers.  Give us a chance, we are actually nice people. 

-beauties on bikes are nice-

a new method

New Rule: To avoid harassment while biking, listen to headphones.

Warning: You may be at risk of getting hit.

Related: This reminds me of a story

Story: I was biking my normal five mile trip from uptown to Cedar and Riverside. I always listen to my headphones (please, no motherly caution) and these headphones are special. Iphone headphones. If you get a call while listening to music, just click this convenient button on your ear bud wire and viola, headphones turn into hands free cell phone. anyway. I was biking south on Briant ave and stopped at the Bryant and lake red lights. Just as the light turned green, I get a phone call. So instead of pushing off, i choose to answer my phone while the car next to me moves into the intersection. This takes only two seconds, it's my husband on the other line. As I pull into the intersection, i witness a car to my right run it's red light and crash into the car i was next to only a few seconds before.  All this only ten feet in front of me and that's when I realize that my husband saved my life.  If he had not called, I would be between those two cars....dead...

Moral: If those cars would have been bikes instead....no one would have been hurt......ok ok...that's my moral.

-beauty still biking with headphones-

honk a what?

yeah, standing outside my shop today, just breathing some chilly air, and a sexist idiot honked at me while driving past, as I look, he nods. really? really?


that's all i got.

Beauty standing.....

Did you know that I'm cute?

Well, life on a bike has been rather boring. sorry. I even wore a tiny skirt on my bike today....nothing....or wait.

I was walking with my friend Joe past Hard Time Cafe on Riverside this evening and this dude called out to us "you two are cute"...and with wit of the quickest kind, joe responded "you're cute too."

That was different. If only all my experiences were that pleasant.

-beauty on foot-

nodescript day

I was actually jittery with excitement last night while riding home. I found myself even making eye contact with passing men...god no....I MADE EYE CONTACT, THE NERVE! anyway, nothing happened. I did notice a cop car creeping behind me for a good 6 blocks, but i guess since they are the law, they can creep all they want. Maybe they were trying to protect a defenseless young woman, hum...

if you're in a blog reading mood, check out this chick's experience here.


and by the way, I'm not kidding...I am researching a helment camera. I want to get some these idiots on tape.

-beauty on a bike-

biking can be a bitch

Well, here we start. This blog is dedicated to detailing my everyday experiences with harassment on my bike. I had been thinking about this for a few weeks, but last nights trauma set me strait.

I was bicycling home around 11:40 pm on Washington Ave about to turn onto Nicollet Ave downtown. This obscenely large crystal clean hummer limousine passes on my left with a man dangling out the window. He yells....ahem...ready?

"Nice fucking blinker bitch"

Now let's think this though. I'm wearing jeans, pink shirt, front and rear blinkers and helment. wtf? So, of course, like any respectable human being, I flip the bird. what really were my options? well, the bird brought on a chorus of whoops. Sigh.

I turn onto Nicollet angry and pass a sheriff a block down. Fine, I turned around and pulled over the cop and explained the situation "just so you know, I am probably not the only woman they are harassing." Of course, the white male cop appeared mildly disinterested. If only I had a helmet cam. Sigh again.

Is this man slightly related to last week's "red light, makes you horny?" If only there was a fraction of sense in these idiotic calls.

Thus concludes my first blog.

-beauty on a bike-