Tonight my old roomie is coming up to visit my new place. We are going to my favorite restaurant, Julianos (as much as Id love to cook, I can not pass up an opportunity for Julianos!) I have a ton of kale that I want to use, so I plan on making kale chips. I soaked cashews last night to make a cheesy sauce for them. I plan on just chilling at home until she arrives, cooking and cleaning and writing. I get home and turn the facet on to add water to my kettle, but nothing comes out. The building had posted a note that the water would be off today, but somehow I only took that to mean no shower. Apparently, I have become ignorant to the amount of running water I use each day.

I now have no water to heat for tea, no water to purify for drinking. I can make a shake, but will not be able to clean out the blender after, so the remnants will dry to a yucky gunk. I choose to go ahead and make myself a shake, regardless of the gunk that will harden and to go ahead and make make my kale chips so that I can get them in the dehydrator. I whip up the cheez for my kale chips in the food processor, thinking I will bring the dirty dishes over to my friends house since I am planning on borrowing her car to run errands. Oh, wait but I can’t make the kale chips yet, because I want to wash the kale! And now my hands have green shake and cheesy ingredients all over them and I don’t have any water to wash them! HAAHAHA. I am laughing through all of this.

OK, so not having running water makes a big difference in my daily life. I’m gonna get out of here as to not make a further mess that I can not yet clean up. I head over to my friend’s to wash my hands (I choose to not bring the dirty Vitamix and leave it for later) and borrow her vehicle. I usually just do my errands via bicycle but it is sooo windy today that I almost got blown sideways off my bike on my way home from yoga earlier. I get to my friend’s and end up hanging out for a bit, chatting and enjoying my time and then my friend asks if I am going to take the car. You know what? No, I am just going to bike it. I just can’t fathom getting in the driver’s seat of a car! So I take off on my bike, heading 1 mile back in the direction of my home and then 3 more miles to the store.

The laughter begins immediately as my attire was not windy bike-riding approved. I am wearing flared leg yoga pants, which I step on all of the time, so there are tails hanging off of both legs (ripped from the leg). On top I have on a sweater which hangs open in the front, over just a tank top. There is no zipper, button, or tie to keep the thing closed. So, I am riding with the wind and have a big cape flaring up around me and my pant leg tails keep getting caught in the gears. I am laughing my ass off! I get an idea to grab each side of my sweater under my hands on the bike handles to keep it from flying about, so now I just look like I am wearing I huge blown up black balloon.

I make it to my destination (which I have been putting off for weeks) and soon my basket is overflowing. I grab bottles of red wine and check my list to see that I need toilet paper, so grab a big pack of it. I check out and exit to stock my purchases into my bicycle bags. Hmmmmm. What was I thinking!?!?!??!? How is this all going to fit? I arrange and re-arrange my items, trying to balance the weight and laughing as I imagine how the ride home is going to go. Is the wind going to blow my heavy side bags and me over? Will the wine bottles break and bleed all over? Will the toilet paper fly away and hit a car’s windshield? This is for sure an adventure!

I start pedaling and hit a bump. The toilet paper does jump out. I turn around and hop off the bike to grab it. The bike is heavy with my purchases and is trying to lie down on the ground. I stretch myself to keep the bike upright, and grab the t.p. I got it! I hop back on and take off again, laughing loudly out loud. On the three miles home I am getting as much an ab workout as I am a leg workout because I am laughing in equal amounts with my pedaling, so basically the entire 3 miles.

I have moments of being a superhero with the wind behind me pushing me down hills. I have moments where I am riding a stationary bike, the wind as so powerfully against me. I have moments that I am in The Wizard of Oz as I feel like I am been carried away into the sky. I have gravity defying moments riding at a sideways angle.

At one traffic light I meet up with three other bicyclists. They are dressed to the max in bike gear. They have the shoes, the helmets, the spandex, and the super bikes. I choose to let them go first when the light changes, because I make up that they will be pedaling at an uberspeed. I mean, they are dressed like they mean business! I travel about a half of a mile behind them and have to keep putting on my breaks to not run into them. What? They appear to me to be racers and I appear to be a goofball on an overly packed old road bike, they have to be faster than me right? After almost colliding into them when going down a hill, I choose to go ahead and pass them. Just a little reminder to myself to not judge a book by its cover. Just because they look racers, doesn’t mean that they are and even if they are…that doesn’t mean that they choose to race with each pedal that they take each time they are on a bike!

Now, I am almost home. As I turn onto my short street, to my building that is right on the water, I am frozen. Not frozen cold, frozen because the wind in so strong! I am in slow motion. I am laughing so hard that I start to snort, but I make it! I am home! I unstuff my bike bags and go upstairs. It is now 3pm. I check the water and it is back on! Perfection! I wash my kale for the chips, do my dishes, clean my place, make tea, purify water, and even take a shower!

Later, at dinner, I share this story of my day with two of my best girl friends, and they laugh along with me. One of girls claims that she is so lame when her boyfriend is out of town. That she just likes to lie low and do stuff at home. I say that with that definition that I am pretty much lame all of the time. She screams, “What! No! You are always up to amazing things and on adventures. I say well today I rode my bike in the wind to the grocery store. That is really what I did. To me, it was a hilarious, mind-opening adventure to which she agrees. BUT to someone else it could have been just a bike ride to the grocery store, or it could have been a horrible experience that really pissed them off. It is just how you see it. Life is what we make it.