i got into my first bike accident last night. it as my fault. on my way home from courthouse, VA, i go over key bridge and then zoom down M street. i wen through the red light right before dean and deluca's because it's an alley and no cars go through there after 9 PM, (i stayed at work late, so it was around 1030). so i looked across the street just in case by some fluke a car was crossing to go into the alley and when i looked straight ahead, i suddenly saw two young women in the crosswalk in front of me. i didn't even have time to slow down. i ran into them head on. i don't know how i fell or if the soft ladies helped break my fall, but i ended up sprawled in the middle of the road in front of a line of cars in front of a red light. i got up as quickly as i could because the only things running through my mind were, "get up, get on your bike, keep moving..." but my limbs weren't working as well as they should have been and i was pretty dazed. my jaw and head hurt and the two women, both knocked onto the ground, were unsteadily getting to their feet. one of them kept asking me if i was okay and apologizing for not looking before she crossed. it was my fault, and i told her so, but i was so discombobulated that i may have just sounded irritated instead of apologetic and concerned. as i started to pedal my bike i realized my wheel was completely bent, but i was able to ride very very slowly--it felt like i was pumping my brakes twice every second. when i looked down at my brakes i thought i had ripped them from my handlebars. i then realized that i had the woman's high heel shoe wedged onto my bars. i must have really hit her. i turned around and delivered her shoe back to her. she and the other woman had just gotten themselves together and started to cross the street again. she thanked me and apologized again. i felt a serious pang of guilt as i rode slowly away on my wobbly wheel. why would she keep apologizing if it wasn't even her fault? i hope they're both okay. i should have been more profuse in my apologies.

oddly, i escaped any real injury. i was wearing my helmet (thank god) and the fingers on my left hand are a little cut up and very sore (which kinda sucks, because i'm a south paw and draw a lot), but aside from that, i'm fine. well, a sore jaw and a slight headache, but that's about it. i just feel like an absolute jerk for what happened. what if it had been a family and i hit a 3 year old? jesus...

so i need to get my rim banged back into shape. i would prefer not to get a new one--my bike has good rims. i've actually ridden on them with flats before for miles--something that you're *never* supposed to do. but late at night in the city i like to keep moving, even if it means i'll have to pay for a new rim. but my rims have held up quite nicely...so hopefully it'll be a relatively inexpensive fix. we'll see.

I've been making ads at the Washington City Paper for two and a half years now, and I'm tired of it. I've been doing more or less the same thing for the same money since I started, I'm way underpaid, and I'm really not very enthusiastic about furthering my career as a graphic designer. I just feel strongly that I should be doing something else with my life, but I'm not much closer to knowing what that should be than I was when I graduated from college seven years ago. I'm still looking for the same sort of work that I'm doing at the paper, for better pay (I could make almost twice as much), but if it's a job I won't really look forward to each day, am I wasting my time?

Some facts:
• I don't have much going for myself in DC (no job I especially like, no friends I've
really connected with, no love life, no money to spend on things that are important to me, i.e., no life at all, really).
• I'd like to travel more.
• I'd like to learn some foreign languages, especially Spanish.
• I'd like to have lots of new experiences and put myself in a situation where I'm forced to be more interactive.
• I haven't experienced any significant personal, intellectual or creative growth since college, because I've been going through life as a drifter with no real ambition or means of trying new things that interest me. I feel isolated from people in social situations, because I don't feel like I have much to offer. All of this has depressed me immensely.

So now I'm considering teaching English abroad for a year, maybe Argentina since I'd like to learn Spanish and Argentina is supposed to be a pretty happening city. I know that this is generally something people do immediately after college or when they want to take time off from college, but my own situation is really not much different from someone fresh out of school, so what do I have to lose? Maybe I'd discover something about myself I didn't know or overcome some doubts. And hopefully, I could even save some money, something I've hardly been able to do thus far.

Who's done this, and how did you like it? I know Kaycee has. Does this sound like a good idea for an aimless, 30-year-old man? Do you know some good resources? Words of caution?