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September 21, 2005
winded 
On my ride home, I was still cranky about a California-plated SUV driver who was adamant that I ride in front of her across Broadway—four lanes of traffic speeding directly at me, about a block away. I did get across the road, cursing myself for giving in to her "kindness", and then every stop sign required a stop. Get up some speed, then, stop. Repeat. Okay. Fine. Remember, Vicki, you're a good rider. You obey traffic laws (when other vehicles are around). Even though my adrenaline had my heart in my throat.
I'm waiting at a stop sign when I hear a voice behind me saying hi. It's Ali, one of my PTC teammates, also on her bike, natch. We chat, and then she says those words that freeze you in your tracks: I read your blog.
I met Jessamyn West at a party once. I followed her journal, so when we were introduced, I said so. That creeps me out, she replied. I wasn't expecting that. Hell, she posts her journal online, and I'm telling her it's interesting enough that I read it, and she's creeped out?? I didn't really get it then, but I do now.
There are all these invisible people (to me) who read a blog, and then there are the ones that make contact. When you meet the ones who have made contact, it's not weird, really. So why is it weird when someone you know socially tells you they read your blog? I don't know, really. It makes me confused, because, honestly, why shouldn't Ali read my blog? I mean, it's a compliment, dagnab it!
Anyways, I think I got over my initial freak-out quickly, probably by trying to get up the little Dishman hill, and was just enjoying talking with her. What a nice coincidence! I thought about it afterwards—bicycling as a form of social interaction. Pretty darn cool.
If I were scootering, would we have talked? Probably not. If we were on the bus—maybe. But that is one of the beauties of bicycling or walking—you have these opportunities to interact, to be friendly. Nice.
We parted about a block from my house. She shouted something; I couldn't distinguish what she said from the traffic. I wanted to say goodbye, and say, hey, my house is a block up and it's a nice through street (though not as through as others), and great to see you, nice talking to you, and thank you for reading my blog, but, no.
This morning I rode Pinky in. Not as fun as Sweetie's bike. Oh, that pains me to say that! But true. It was a nice ride, cool, sunny, absolutely beautiful. I loved seeing all my regular peeps: the karate guy, the ham radio operator who always walks the esplanade loop, the friendly homeless folk.
I swooped into the garage (whuhoo, I swooped! Shouldn't that by itself be the highlight of my day?), and then saw the guy, who I used to consider an ally, who is proposing outsourcing my work. I rode behind him, and I wanted to shout, So, So-and-so, are you outsourcing my job?, but then I thought that the combination of me bearing down on him (even on a pink cruiser bicycle with silk flowers on the basket) was probably too aggressive. So I just said hi, and I meant to ask him about it, but then a couple of other cyclists came through, and that was that.
So in the end, I didn't ask. I don't trust that he'd give me a truthful answer anyways. If I was in his position, would I?
Oh, and so far in the Bike Commute Challenge, I have ridden 78 miles. This doesn't count the couple of times I've bicycled to lunch, done errands, biked to dinner in Northwest, gotten bored and taken a longer route, etc. 78 miles!
I decided this morning to take a look at other daily Portland blogs. I know they exist, I even follow some of them, for heavens sakes. But doing a blog search only turned up three useful hits (in the 80 I bothered to skim). Interesting.
I'm kinda obsessed, again, with alt.portland, and working on a redesign so it looks new as well as is new. I have been working on a daily blog for it, which I haven't announced there. I don't want to announce it til I have a number of entries, and now I have a number of entries, but... But I think when I get the redesign finished, I'll move the blog to the front page, and the front page to an about page. Exciting stuff, huh? Oh, the minutia!
Posted at September 21, 2005
Comments
It would freak me out if I someone I knew read my blog. I'm fine with total strangers reading it but it seems too personal for someone I know. I know, it is weird.
Posted by: Heather at September 22, 2005 9:31 AM
I'm a lot more used to people reading my blog nowaday, but I think at first it's always weird when you realize that it's not just folks you know, as well as folks you DON'T know, but folks that cross that line and go from knowing you online to knowing you in person.
Posted by: jessamyn at September 23, 2005 6:58 PM