BE the Bicycle

My biggest obstacle I face is wanting to tell every story all at one moment. Please bare with me kind readers. I need to ration my entries =)

When the warmer weather of 2010 rolled around I started to accustom myself to the idea of my new bike. I knew that I wanted to spend more time with my boy, get in shape, and see new sights in a different way. We walked our roommates dog, Rascal, around the neighborhood, and in doing so discovered a nice little park nearby with a bike path. The path was pretty tame, except one part where you had the option of fording a river. Clearly this was awesome. I got out to ride a couple times, fell in the river twice, but felt sad without Rascal. My outdoor ventures remained walking the dog, and barely riding my new bike.

 This is Rascal, upset that I was attempting to ride my bike,

instead of taking him for walks.

I faced riding my new bike with optimism. While I faced many obstacles - my bike was too big for me, I didn't have a helmet yet, the seat hurts my hoohah, the area I lived in was also bicycle-challenged  - I was determined to overcome them. I coped with this as I tend to do with all things, by making it mine. Personalization is something I do as a roundabout way to possession. By declaring something mine I can take ownership of the situation.

I think back to acting classes in high school. "BE the bicycle Megan, BE THE BICYCLE."

an example... When I was a teenager I had a guitar. Decorated to say, "this is my guitar." Could I play guitar? NO. 

Complete with butterfly transfer decals and glow in the dark frets. 

All I could play was the Meow Mix theme song and the 007 song. 

And how might this guitar relate to my new bike? Well.... I did the same thing to it. Thought dressing it up nice would make it more for me.

Green was a lovely accent color, so I got some pretty star handle grips, a mint green light(for night riding) and a green bottle holder.

Conveniently the water bottles at FreezeThaw (my friends' shop) are also green.

Luckily I had some sweet gloves lying around, from when I was a cage fighter. 

I also found my name license plate from when I was a kid, and crashed my sweet red huffy.

I delayed buying a helmet. I attempted to get one when I bought all this other awesome stuff but couldn't afford the ones at the shop. I knew the world of biking was going to be expensive. I didn't even know what I was looking for in a helmet. If we have to get personal here, and we will, I think I didn't buy a helmet because I was scared.

I figured that as long as I didn't have a helmet yet, I couldn't do anything of a higher risk level. Probably the same reason why I won't go snowboarding without health insurance. It became my excuse for everything. I stuck to riding on the road, which was equally scary (grr traffic). As much as I wanted to venture into the woods, I told myself I wasn't allowed to without protection. Finally, when I thought I was ready for bigger and better things, I bought a helmet.

I think I've worn it once.