I just want to ride my bike.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my bike? It somehow has been making for a great conversation starter. I also love that whenever I go into the shop next to my workplace, the guys that work there swoon over my bike every time. The other day, I busted a toe clip on it, and had my regular customer/bike guy quickly convince me that I should find some metal clips. Turns out the clips for my vintage bike are nearly impossible to find in metal. I had him order the plastic ones for me, but also set out in attempt to find the metal ones. While in my coffee shop, that boy I have a crush on mentioned that he works on bikes, so I asked if he had any suggestions as to where I might be able to find my rare clips. He sent me a bike shop, which he described to be more of a "used stuff" shop where the workers conveniently work on bikes as well.

The place seemed frighteningly sketchy until the guy working there was suddenly overly eager to help me. I showed up 5 minutes before close and didn't end up leaving for over half an hour, simply due to the fact that I was unable to end the conversation. Even while I was standing in the doorway with a buzzer going off notifying that the door was open, the guy just wouldn't stop talking. Unfortunately, the used stuff shop was no help for me actually finding my clips. Turns out I was about a month too late, as he explained that he did have what I was looking for, but they sold quickly.

Last Wednesday evening, I was doing my usual coffee shop thing, when a friend texted me asking if I wanted to bike around town and have some drinks. My immediate response was to offer to bring a few bright 80's wind breakers that I have. Somehow this turned into all of us going all out in 80's garb, including ridiculous tights and stellar sunglasses. Needless to say, we got a lot of attention all night, along with getting our picture taken numerous times. I'm not gonna lie, my outfit paired with my bright fuchsia bike looked amazing. Of course, one of the photos taken of me that night ended up as my profile picture with the caption "...and my family wonders why I'm single". Just now, as I got to my coffee shop, that one coffee shop boy I have a crush on mentioned that he loves that photo of me... meanwhile I'm standing there like an idiot realizing that for some reason my hand is bleeding, nearly disregarding his comment/compliment entirely.

Thursday, I had to go to court for a hefty ticket I got back in January. The ticket was for rolling through a stop sign, not using a turn signal, not having my current insurance card on me, as well as for letting my IL plates go expired...8 months ago. Initially, while in court I was given a slip stating that I was being fined $1200... yes, there is no missing decimal in there, nor is there an extra zero. TWELVE-HUNDRED DOLLARS!  Upon reading this, I was on the verge of crying. When I met with the DA and showed him my current insurance card, stating that I did have valid insurance at the time I was pulled over, along with my new CO registration, he decided to drop everything and wrote off the "rolling through a stop sign" as faulty vehicle. This left me with a fine of $75, which I was much more satisfied with paying.

Friday night, my roommate asked me if I wanted to get pizza with him. For a moment I was quite surprised he was asking me to hang out with him, but quickly realized that he probably just wanted pizza and didn't want to go alone. We set out on our bikes to a pizza place in the plaza next to our house. As soon as we sat down, one of my neighbors texted me to ask what I was doing and if I wanted to join him for a drink at pub also in the plaza. So, after finishing pizza, I headed over to join my neighbor and a couple other friends of his. After a few drinks, we decided bowling was a great idea. Turns out bowling is immensely more enjoyable when you're a few drinks in.
Upon arriving at the bowling ally (next door to the pub) we were told there would be a 20 minute wait for a lane. At this time, the guys decided that I should go ask the guy at the register if we could use the shuffleboard for free. Somehow, it actually worked.
Before long, our lane was ready, and we were all playing a wobbly game of bowling. I've I actually did quite well, despite how wobbly I was. The first game, I came in second, and I won the second game, which of course my neighbor had to make some deal about. I still seem to have a problem with the issue that I get rather touchy when I'm intoxicated around any guy who I may be slightly attracted to... I really need to work on controlling that. My neighbor ended up walking me home, since I had my bike, which there was no way I was going to ride home. On foot I was slightly wobbly. On bike... well, I don't think I would have even been able to get on the bike. During our walk, we made plans for St. Patrick's day festivities.

I had to work a noon-8:45 shift, but my neighbor and his friends promised that even though their St. Patrick's celebrations were starting early, they would still be going strong when I got off work. Work went well, except for the half hour that the regular who believe me to be the spawn of satan came in. I just sat in the back room the entire time he was there. On a better note, my bike shop guy came in and hung out for a short bit. In conversation, he exclaimed that his house is only a few streets away from mine, along with mentioning when he bought his house and that he has a pool... I'll just leave that story there.
Just before closing, Calvin stopped by to ask me if I wanted to go downtown with him and his friends for the holiday... holiday? I don't know if a day which has the sole focus of people getting trashed all day and evening can really be called a holiday. Anyway, I told Calvin that I would like to join him, since he would be leaving a couple days later. After giving this more thought though, I decided I would rather leave things as they were. Besides, he and I drinking together would have probably ended badly. Instead, I joined my neighbor and co.
Of course, as soon as I met up with them, they were sobering up and winding down for the night. Downtown was absolutely covered with stumbling drunks anyway, so I didn't really mind that we weren't out too long. The boys all became overly concerned about me walking back to my car and driving home by myself, so it was decided that one of the guys should come with me.

While driving, somehow he started telling me about how he was married when he was 27, and then they got a divorce when he was 30 because his beliefs about religion were changing, which freaked out his, at the time, wife. We wound up talking for quite a while about life and beliefs. He is actually of a very similar mindset as I am, in terms of faith. If anything, he might be more  inclined to Christian-type beliefs than I am. It was good to talk with someone else who is in a similar place as I am, and is coming from a Christian background. I have to say, my St. Patrick's day did not turn out anything like I expected. It was good though, and I didn't have to worry about a hangover the next morning.

Come Monday night, I was invited downtown for happy hour with a friend who I might be moving in with when my lease is up. I joined her and some of her coworkers for the evening, which turned out to be a much later night in which much more alcohol was consumed than I had anticipated. The big kicker of the night was that I fell asleep without setting my alarm for the this morning. Oh, and I had to open.

I woke up this morning when one of my coworkers was calling me at 6am. I was supposed to be there at 4:30am. I have never gotten out of bed and up the hill to work faster ever in my life. The store opened at 6:30 and the day actually went very well. My coworkers all were easy going about it and just kept laughing at me, but I know my manager is going to be pissed when she finds out. Fortunately, she had today off, however, she opens tomorrow, and I'll be coming in at the end of her shift. As if she doesn't already hate me enough, this is really going to help things. I've contemplated that during the lecture I am going to get tomorrow could be an opportune time to let her know that I have been going to interviews for another job... That will probably be a decision I'll make on the spot.
There is no doubt though that tomorrow will be awful.