Biking

Since I bike to work almost every day, and I like to volunteer, and need to keep myself active and out there rather than just in my house, I responded to a request for bike volunteers for an upcoming two day walkathon.

Thing is, if they just threw me into it I probably would be ok. Maybe. But it's kinda like the Peace Corps.* Huh you say? Well, they give you lots of details and the more I learn about it the more anxious I become (though I'm feeling a little better today after getting my period last night - TMI, but relevant). Seriously two 12 hour days on the bike, and they want you to sleep in a tent city and share a tent with someone you don't know - potentially a snorer or someone who kicks. My body won't be able to take that. And I refuse to pay an ungodly amount for a hotel room. So, I'm trying to figure out what to do - I might try to make the trek home to sleep, and worse comes to worse I do the first day and fall apart and can't do the second. Actually, it might be worse to start the second and fall apart after a few hours. But we'll see.

On a brighter note I asked to borrow a bell from a friend (you're asked to have a bell, and it's not something I've considered necessary since I can scream loudly if needed, and politely say 'on your left', but 2 days of that and I might lose my voice), and yesterday a bell mysteriously appeared on my bike. Which was so sweet. Of course all the way home I was singing in my head "you can ring my bellllll, ring my bell".

And my generalized anxiety transferred to me doing something different this morning. There's a spot in my commute to work that is really really dangerous, because in the morning two lanes go to the right, but during regular hours that right lane can go straight, and there really is no truly safe way for a biker to go through that intersection, but I've been doing and so far not been killed. So, I rode on the sidewalk on the other side of the road this morning, and of course there's construction so I had to go into the road at one point, against traffic. Hmmm... which is more dangerous?

Anywho, that's my biking stories today.

*I applied to the Peace Corp in the 90's. I got an offer to go to St. Kitts and Nevis, and didn't go, in part because they tell you way too much about any possible problem you might encounter. I know why they do it - to show these young idealist volunteers that it won't be as they imagine (Peace Corps has a really huge drop out rate), but for me, I need to NOT know what I'm getting into (to a certain extent). When I went to Zimbabwe - if anyone had told me what I might encounter and go through, I'm not sure I would have gone. But I survived and even did fine and dandy.