i posted several weeks ago about how my bike, my love - my LIFE - was stolen from outside of my place of employment from a guarded, gated courtyard. i am a bike commuter. it's who i am. i am not happy unless i am physically responsible for my means of transportation. i am like a slug during the day if i don't get that adrenaline burst every morning on my way into work.
so of course, when my bike was stolen i cried. a lot. i don't have another bike. i am working on getting another bike just in case something like this happens, but since i hadn't been gainfully employed since i bought the last one in the spring of 2002 until october of 2004, it wasn't happening.
the morning of friday february 4th, i came into work on my roommate sarah's bike, which is sort of a miserable ride. it is, however, better than nothing. i signed onto aim and checked my work and personal emails, and at around 10 i received an im from my friend jeff that said I HAVE YOUR BIKE. he imed me a number to call and i spoke with a woman named amanda who works as a dispatcher at (to remain unnamed - even in the responses!) courier company. one of her messengers brought the bike into her office and asked her to watch it until his friend came to pick it up. she looked the bike over, and being an avid cyclist herself noticed some things about it that were...fishy.
she noticed that the seat was a selle italia LDY [for lady] and that the ulock was still fastened around the head tube. she noted that the cranks are shimano dura ace and nicer than anything said messenger would put on a bike. knowing that this messenger has a pretty serious criminal history and that he has been rumored to steal bikes often, she started calling around to bike shops in dc to see if anyone had reported this bike stolen.
one of the people she called was a guy named kevin whom i do not know. however my friend jeff had sent out a mass email about my bike, in attempt to help me recover it a few weeks prior that kevin remember receiving. he passed the info along to amanda that jeff knew whose bike it is and amanda got in touch with jeff. jeff immediately got his behind out of bed and rode down to this courier company to check and see if the bike was mine. upon arrival he recognized it as my bike and tried calling me.
except i'd changed my cell phone number about 6 weeks ago and he didn't know it. he did know that i am usually on im at work so he signed on from this woman amanda's computer at work to send me the message that they'd found my bike.
i took a cab down there and was reunited with pretty much the only physical object in the world that i truly love. i'll admit that in a certain regard, i was mildly relieved that i'd lost this bike because it was the last really strong emotional and physical tie i had to my exboyfriend. the first time we ever hung out we worked on building this bike. we rode everywhere together while we dated and for a good while it was on bikes that were fraternal twins. upon having the bike back, i realize that bike is so much more than a reminder of something that was lost but rather of something that was gained. because i wouldn't trade any of those memories or this bike for anything in the world. it's not something i will ever sell. it was the first thing that i ever felt was truly MINE.
i plan on keeping it that way.
(more about the guy who actually stole the bike in the responses)
I would like to finish the rest of the question heads, but I don't feel like tracking down images for everyone. I drew one for Woody the other day. and I have an OK Noah. The rest of you should post images in the responses of this post (or someone should do it for you).
wow... i didn't think you guys would be so sensitie to a couple of stuffed cats.
but they are
real
and stuffed.
for the record, i find that sort of thing horrifying... but like a good accident, i can't seem to look away...
wanna see another one? this one is sitting in front of a ramen restaurant.
it appears to be one of the inoshishi, wild boars who like to terrorize permisson farmers. thay can swim and they are mean and it looks like this one succomed to the law that says you can kill them on sight.
then they stuffed it.
...and let it decmcose outside in the elements.. for the second time.
now, i ask you... does this make you want to eat ramen?
Apparently, he is in desperate need of some moldy cheese, because he's flailing from side to side, staring blankly into space, and screaming "REALLY MOLDY CHEESE....YEAH, YOU WANT SOME?? SO DO I...SO DOES THE WHOLE WORLD!"
It's kind of sad to see someone who's obviously mentally deranged, but I can't help but laugh as he prevents the tourists from taking pictures of the Bob Marley mural on the side of the store downstairs.
I am now a quarter time telecommutOR: tele from the greek meaning far, commu, from the pinko meaning commie, and TOR from barbarian spoken in many subgrade fantasy novels.
I have taken Bibbly's advice from months ago, and now, I'm not just working one job, I'm working many jobs that tessarificate into a perfect storm of my having no free time. I feel like I'm in that In Living Color skit.
This began today.
Two things rock about this. 1) I only have to shower every other day 2) I'm dling billions of bits of data in unheard of quantities. 3) One of my jobs will have me traveling a good deal in the coming months. 4) none of my jobs requires me to count. 5) I can start paying bills. 6) I can get the brakes fixed on my car 7) I can purchase this kick ass GPS dohickey with a pullout screen for the car 8) working. naked.
Spanish Town was the snizzle I saw, Bradley, Boudet, Zack, Carly, Chris, some drunk 16 year old who exposed her snatch probably just to me and a couple of church moms, . ST was INCREDIBLY tame this year. For example, the lawnmower brigade, which famously paraded as the anatomically correct dick-heads many years ago were this year in inoculous chicken suits.
The most politically charged float was "Kip Holden's Security Detail" (Baton Rouge's new mayor - the first black mayor of Baton Rouge evar - has come under criticism for requesting round-the-clock security of the police department.)
I caught crabs from one float. This has not yet ceased being funny. And a friend of a friend is friends with a relatively well-known Poli-Sci Prof. and sometime talking head, who invited us to a pre-parade private party where oysters were shucked and beer was suckled.
Later, after the parade, I joined a bunch of lawyers on some scaffolding. Talked to this guy about my burgeoning interest in B&W photography, watched a fight, saw LuTHOR, saw Julie and made it to Drew's party where I knew everyone there.
The rest of the weekend is lost in the sands of time.
