It’s also a bummer because I was supposed to start climbing this week forward on Tuesday and Thursday mornings early (like 6:30am early) at the Stone Gardens Gym in Ballard with Harmony. But, seeing as I barely get up the stairs, I doubt I’ll be Spider-Man-ing up any walls soon.

Wow, two Marvel Comics references in one post. Nice.

Saturday, I rode from my place to the University District to get some lights and a gear problem looked at. I rode to Gasworks park to meet my friends Erica and Eva, and a bike festival was going on in the park. Not seriously, I took that as a good omen of my newly determined hardcore hobby. Turns out, Eva just got a bike too, and needed a bike buddy! Perfect. After a bit, Erica went to go sailboating (as people are want to do in these parts) and Eva and I fetched her bike from Phinney Ridge and headed downtown to meet up with other friends for The Dark Knight at The Big Picture. After that, I rode from Belltown to Justin’s place in lower Queen Anne, and even ran into (not literally) Andy along the way. Biking is great! All was well. I was feeling really prepped for Monday’s commute.

So, along rolls Monday. My ride into work is swell. I scoff at a hipster on a fixie along my way (internally, anyhow). I feel like a hardcore bike commuter. I got up Pine Street! Booyah!

(Warning: graphic description of DOOM)

Ride home: not so much. Down on Westlake I attempt crossing the SLUT tracks (South Lake Union Trolley, for those not in Seattle) and totally biff it into the street. TOTALLY BIFF IT. FIRST DAY. OMG. A hipster on a fixie comes to my rescue. IRONY. I peel myself off the pavement and into the timely #17 bus (Patron Saint of all Wonderful Bus Lines). The pain… oh the pain… like a good geek, I twitter to keep my mind off the stinging as oxygen starts hitting raw areas on my legs. Noticing high heeled girls on the bus giving me looks, my attention is brought to the fact that blood is making two little paths down my leg from my knee. The pain. Off the bus. Pain. Up the hill. Pain. Limp into the condo. Pain. Gingerly, I peel my clothes off and lower myself into the tub, then realize that my left leg is lacerated in several places on my thigh, and my knee looks like a large peeled blood grapefruit (but with real blood). I also sport a huge oval grease mark intersecting with the deepest part of the wound on my left knee. My right leg looks like it has gills. There’s more bruises starting to show up than unknown relatives after a lottery win.

I pour that stinging anti-bacteria stuff all over, and hold back on crying like a baby. I nearly loose it when I realize I have to dig the grease out of my knee unless I want an impromptu involuntary tattoo. This was the really painful part, especially because it seemed to take forever. I clean a sharp pair of scissors and scrape as much of the grease out of my wound as I can stand to, then sit in the tub, whimpering a bit. My kitty meows and tries to comfort me from the edge, fearing water yet very obviously concerned. Oh yeah, I’m a hardcore biker. Riiiight. I’m also Barack Obama.

Can’t wait for Day 5 – but I think I’m wearing pants instead of shorts tomorrow.

MORAL(s) OF THE STORY:

1.) The SLUT is a cruel mistress, and not to be trusted. If you must cross the tracks, try to hit it at a ninety degree angle exactly. I was close, but not close enough, and my tire got lodged in the track. Newtonian physics does the rest.

2.) Always carry change for the bus. Don’t leave home without it.

3.) Like Han Solo says, “Don’t get cocky, kid!”

4.) Don’t judge the hipster on the fixie. They don’t all hit drivers with U-locks in the back of the head.

Things are going really well with the Big Brothers Big Sisters volunteering. My “Little” is really fun to hang out with, she’s very smart and full of energy. It’s also encouraging me to go on some fun little adventures. For example, on Saturday we’re helping to restore a creek in Juanita while learning about the environment.

Also, on a bit of an overdue whim I’ve decided that over Independence Day I’ll be headed to hot, hot Arizona to visit my dear friend Connie. That’s fewer than two weeks away! It will be great just to have some quality one on one time like the good old days, but as a bonus we also have some fun plans: we’re going to the July 4th Tempe Town Festival, and then we’re going camping in the Grand Canyon. Camping in the Grand Canyon – how awesome is that? Pretty awesome. I am super excited for camping with Connie. I miss her.

Saturday morning I sort of randomly went canoeing with Kevin, a fellow BrightKite beta user who I ran into last week at Indy. I had a great time and have never seen more turtles, check this out:

Crazy, eh? I love exploring the area via canoe, in fact I think the highlight of our morning paddling adventure was attempting to find a way through the reeds. It was pretty hilarious, especially when the going got tough and we nearly tried walking across some not-so-stable marshy “land” that turned out to be not so much “land” as a floating mass of vegetation.

Later on Saturday, I spent time with the girls at Gasworks Park for Elise’s bachelorette and went to a spa with Melissa for her birthday, so it was a very relaxing day. Saturday night Danielle and I went to the Ladytron concert, which was a blast, albeit a bit smelly in the mosh pit. I got some great pictures, so it was worth enduring. :-)

Sunday was our once-a-month family day, during which my nuclear family hangs out together. I always look forward to this, and Sunday was no exception. We enjoyed lunch at my place and a beautiful day at Woodland Park Zoo, but mostly we just enjoyed each other’s company.

Sunday night the usual crew and I went swing dancing, and the DJ was playing some rockabilly stuff that was rather jumping. Kevin dropped in as well and proved to be a really fun swing lead. But, we all had to get up early, for the next morning the crew and I (plus Bryan and Dustin) went hiking. We tried the Snow Lake trail off exit 52 on I-90 for a while, but as it was named appropriately we soon found things to be very, very cold and wet. We abandoned that trail and took the Rattlesnake Ledge trail – one of my favourites – and went further on it than I have before. Rattlesnake has some absolutely stunning views. I have to mention that the entire weekend had nothing but beautiful weather.

Weekends like this just make you love life. I feel really lucky.

Oh, and this is not related to last weekend, but I’m really excited about it, so it’s going in the blog anyway: I just got a call from Big Brothers/Big Sisters. It looks like they have matched me with a “little”; I’m really excited. I’ll be meeting her and her mother on the 10th. She’s 7 years old, and I’ve been told very bright and friendly. I’ve know what it’s like to be a real-life big sister, but Harmony is only a year and a half younger than me. We’re so close in age, it’s great – we’re best friends. But I’m a little nervous about how to be a mentor and friend to one so much younger than me. My excitement outweighs my nervousness though, I’m really looking forward to meeting and getting to know her.

Here’s a video of last Sunday’s canoeing adventure with my friend Micah:

(Can’t see embedded video? Watch it on Flickr.)

I generally paddle over to the Washington Park Arboretum across the ship canal. Washington Park is a beautiful, uniquely synergistic partnership of the very urban and the very wild: the concrete limbs of 520 intertwine with marshes, reeds, and small plots of land home to interesting animals to observe and photograph (watch for Great Blue Herons and Bald Eagles). The season and weather severely change the foliage and atmosphere, so you always get a different experience. This is compounded by the fact that you can of course bring as many people as you’d like, making it as solitary or social as you’d like. Canoeing suits every mood, as long as you enjoy being outside: I find sometimes when I go I prefer to drift along and relax, just listening to the birds sing, and other times I like to push myself to put all I can into aggressive paddling and race other boats. This is another one of those sneaky workouts that’s cleverly disguised as fun. :-)

I’ve been canoeing pretty frequently lately, especially on the weekends. If you’re interested in joining, text “follow firewallender” to 40404 to follow me on Twitter* for impromptu invitations to paddle.