Bicycle Girl

This is one of the loves of my life: my red bike.





I love it because it is red. I love its practical and savvy milk crate (that makes me feel a bit rebellious as a misuse it). I love it because it saves me money on gas. And I love that it was found at a garage sale.

Living a half mile from my office I truly have zero excuse not to walk or bike to work. This has been great for me because I can be quick to buy into excuses, and there is something about not driving every day that makes me feel healthier. While some of this is perhaps due to the fact that not driving means that I am more active, I know there is more to it than that. After days of not driving anywhwere I feel more connected…to myself, to the earth, to my neighborhood and community…it just feels right, like it’s the way it is supposed to be.

A few weeks ago I was introduced to a neighbor who lives around the corner and down the block. Upon being introduced she gave me the “I’m-trying-to-place-you-and-will-work-it-out-in-my-head-before-resorting-to-ask-you” look. After a few seconds she exclaimed, “Oh! Are you Bicycle Girl?”

Little did she know that she had just issued me the best compliment I had received all summer.

View From My Desk

This is what I look at when I sit down at the desk in my office:
A bulletin board full of faces and places I love...quotes to challenge and inspire...and little bits of love and encouragement from the faces and places I love.

No real complaints about this bulletin board. It was a bit of a labor of love to get it covered with a fabric remnant I found (and though it was a steal of a deal, I still wish I had splurged the extra 50 cents for another piece) and it gives me a place to stare when I am procrastinating this, that and the other thing.

What I have been wondering lately, however, is when do you take things down from the bulletin board and replace them with other things? As I have stared a lot at this sucker this summer (summer has a knack for allowing me to perfect my procrastinating skills) I have simply been wondering what I might want to replace. But then, what do you do with the things you take down? Throw them away?

I some of the same thoughts when it comes to framed pictures. I love, love the pictures I have in my apartment but some of them are o.l.d. and I have some new pictures that I would love to put up but don't want boatloads of frames around my house and can't bear to take down some of the old ones.

One thing I wonder is if the resistance to changing these things is part of wanting things to stay the same. And since I have been in a bit of a mindset of "I Liked Things Better the Way They Were Before" for oh about...an entire year now...maybe it makes sense that I don't want to change some things. But let's get real: I don't really like snow and it is summer. The cut-out snowflake could easily go.

Lest you think I search for a deeper meaning behind everything I do/think, I also readily acknowledge that part of the "resistance" to changing these things might be better known by another term: laziness. And, I realize that if this is the extent of my problems (knowing when to put up new pictures), it means I'm having a pretty good day. Meanwhile, if you see something you would like (note: I refuse to part with the large, naked Barbie on the chaise lounge) let me know...it might help solve my dilemma.