Monday, March 21, 2011

Annie and the Bikerace

I just got a bike and it is BE-U-TI-FUL.  Brad gave me some money for my birthday and I was supposed to get jewelry and instead I got a roadster bike and now all I can think about is how I can get my hands on some money to accessorize it.  It already has a basket, but I figure I need a cup holder, a lamp, some cool reflectors, a bell, a horn, and possibly a rack in the back.  It has a retro feel but it is totally urban at the same time.  The guy at roll who I became instant friends with, called it "curban". 

While I was there he also combined some other words that I threw out and this became a game between the two of us.  There's chic and stylish - "chilish".  When I was purchasing a new helmet for Eva, I told him that she is very petite but that all of my children inherited Brad's and my enormous mishapened skulls - he declared her head "penourmous".  We were talking about what I was doing for spring break and I told him I was going to Louisville, Indiana and Chicago.  "Oh, Louindago!"  He could have sold me anything.  I just wanted to jump in his back pocket for the day. 

He told me how he had gotten the same bike in green for this mother-in-law and that she keeps it in her living room in her brand new expensive condo because it makes her so happy.  She also enjoys the accessorizing aspect of biking and she has a vase that she keeps a daisy in and apparently she has a new helmet she wants to attach a silk daisy to so that it springs out of the back of her helmet and bounces in the wind when she rides.  She would be a daisy biker or "Diker". 

So I was just telling my friend all of this and she reminded me of my friend, Annie, and her bikerace story.  She and her husband live in Colorado and last summer they signed up for a bike race in Boulder.  I can't remember the exact distance but it was something like 100,000 miles or it may as well have been because how ever many miles it was, it seemed astronomical to me when she was telling the story. 

Anyway, she makes her husband, Scott, trick out her bike by welding a big plastic crate on the back which she intends to put a jambox in (old school, people, no ipods for her)  in which she has to change cd's and stuff, I guess, to motivate her to finish the race.  She has ONE cd and it is John Denver.

SO the night before, she is drinking wine and she says that Scott is like hydrating and goes to bed early and she like, "C'mon stay up with me," drunk dialing her friends and stuff.  So the morning comes and she saddles up on her bike, turns on her tunes full blast, is feeling a little hazy and then looks around and everyone around her is very serious and they all look like Lance Armstrong lining up for the Tour De France and here she is with John Denver blaring out of the back of her bike in a crate you used to use at college, oh and she is wearing this wide brimmed straw hat.  She says at that moment she realized that everyone else had entered the wrong race.  Now, in her defense, the people of Boulder are very quirky.  When I lived there I saw the most random shit.  Once, when I was discussing this very point with a co-worker, a man with a gas mask drove by.

Ok, so naturally Annie falls behind in the race.  Scott stayed with her for a while but then he got tired of all of the jeering so he went ahead.  So here Annie is with her jambox blaring "Rocky Mountain High" for the 100th time about 10 miles back from everyone else.  She said that she had developed a little fan club, though, that would cheer and run along side of her like people did in Forrest Gump.  But after a while, she was just too slow and they lost interest and went on about their day.

The best part is that Annie finished the race right as they were taking down the finish line and Scott, who adores her, was there just shaking his head and smiling, along with three die hard fans who sang at the top of their lungs to "Country Roads."  So, naturally I asked her if she is going to do the race again this summer and she replied, "Hell, yes.  Those people are depending on me."  Love her.

I went to all three bike stores in and around Arlington.  I try not to go past Henderson if I can help it.  Roll is the best one.  I have gotten all three of my kids' bike helmets there, too.  I have had our bikes serviced there.  I just keep going back.  It is expensive, but they all are and I think they have the best inventory and customer service.  They also do a lot to give back to the community and I think that is cool.  When I was leaving with my new bike, I was so excited and they said, "Send us a picture of you on it and we'll put it on our Facebook page."  I did a video instead.  Hilarious.

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