August 21, 2007

• Ugh…i’ve been breaking out in hives really frequently lately.  I don’t know why.  I’ve always been a hive-y person…if I were to react to anything, it would most likely be in hives.  But i find myself waking up with hives on my legs and neck almost every morning.  I thought maybe it was my sheets/blanket…since during the day i’m usually fine.  So i washed everything and changed my sheets…and it was okay for a few days, but now they’re back.  Usually it happens along the edges of my clothing…so like where the neckline of my shirt meets my neck, or where my pants hit my ankle/foot.

  anyway, my very good friend and I went out and bought mountain bikes this weekend!   There’s a gorgeous park system not too far from us…and the roads that run through it are really wide (and paved).  During the week, it’s a 4 lane road…but on the weekends, they shut it down to cars and it’s reserved for bikers/runners/rollerbladers, etc.

  But I had the hardest time finding a bike.  I couldn’t even get onto some of the women’s bikes!  How many women are THAT tall…I basically had like the crook of my knee hanging over the seat and that was as far as I could get.  And then some of them were really long, so i felt like i had to almost lunge for the handlebars.  It was really frustrating.  So then I decided to try kids/youth bikes…but then they were TOO short…and I had to crank the seat all the way up….I looked like those neighborhood kids who ride the way to small bikes.  So after we went to almost every sporting good store in the area (I did find one that I liked and that fit…but of course if was one of those high end ones and it cost WAAAAY too much)….we made our way to Target as a last ditch effort.  Well, I found my bike at good old Tar-jay.  It’s a Schwinn…and it’s purple…all over.  I call it my barney bike.  It was the only bike that fit.  I was contemplating a matching helmet…but I decided against it.  I splurged on the helmet and got a Giro (aqua blue) since I felt my noggin was worth it.  My very good friend was luckier and found a great deal on a nice Diamondback…it ended up being cheaper than my Tar-jay barney bike. 

  But can i say how embarrassing it was testing out my bike at Tar-jay.  First of all, i had no room since people were shopping. UGH.  And I’m terrible on a bike since I never ride….and i’m especially horrendous as very low speeds.  So i’m like wobbling my way around the aisles (half of the time, just pushing my bike with my feet)…and trying to test out my gears at like 0.5 miles/hour.  And when people saw me coming, they didn’t even move out of the way!  So i had to stop and make a series of really tight K-turns to turn my bike around and wobble back down the aisle. (think Austin Powers when he’s on that machine and gets stuck in the hallway).

  I can’t wait to go riding.  We were planning to go this sunday, but then hurricane dean rolled in and it’s been raining ever since.  I’m definitely going to pack a camera to take some nice scenic shots along the way….yay!

   

  • 10:31 pm
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