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June 26, 2006
Bike Fair! 
Maybe it's the heat. Maybe it's my psoas. Either way, I've been moving slower than I'd like since Saturday.
The Bike Fair was fabulous! Sweetie and I went and got brekkie, and then dropped off the water and sunscreen at the park about 9:30 am as volunteers were just beginning to raise the tents.
I made it to the park in record time, 15 minutes. (And yes, I wore the schmatte)
By the time I got back at 12:45, things were starting to look like they were going to happen. Jeff was all set up, ready to size folks for helmets. Jonathan had the craft area up. The pedal-powered smoothie stand was in process. Everyone was working on their area: beer, the stage, the food, the bike portraits, etc. Bike clubs were starting to set up their club houses.
A volunteer area was already set up, next to the t-shirt sales. After a quick walk-around, I stationed myself there and the volunteers started streaming in.
People came in early. People came in late. People showed up for the wrong shift, or just showed up. Everyone was astounding patient with the process, which inevitably involved some waiting, and then some frantic needs all of the sudden. All my volunteers were troopers.
Early on, it was clear that my psoas was not happy. I'd try to find some out of the way place to stretch, but stretching seemed to be just a momentary relief, and anyways, people would kinda freak when they'd see me stretching. Are you okay? So, I just tried to be as comfortable as I could be, and make other people happy.
I had invited some cow-orkers as well as the Texiles, and I saw some contingents of both. The Texiles, in particular, were effusively happy—I've found my people!, Bill would exclaim, gesturing at people wearing costumes, clown paint, garish wigs, goofy clothes.
When my relief came, I immediately went to the bike wedding that I had been invited to. One of the events at the Bike Fair was to Marry your Bike, and one of my volunteers was very excited about doing just that. Lo and behold, her parents came to give her away, and her sibs were there as support as she married her Schwinn road bike. So sweet. It nearly made me cry.
Then I found the Texiles and stood with them in a shady spot, watching the rodeo. Sweetie arrived, and we got in the beer line, which I sucked down altogether too fast. Then another. Meanwhile, the Sprockettes performed, then Johnny Punchclock, then the tall bike jousting.
When everything was done and said, I was exhausted, limp like a, well, I'm not entirely sure. We went down the street to get a slice and some more beer, and then went to catch the bus home.
Here in Portland, we have racks on the front of our buses for bikes, and I have used them successfully a number of times. However, my tiredness and quite possibly the beer I had drunk was catching up with me. I couldn't get the bike on quickly, and then a passenger ran out and started yelling at me that it wouldn't fit on the rack and I needed to ride it home.
I was just too tired to argue.
Not that I minded riding it home... but I just wanted to go home with Sweetie, rather than him on the bus and me on the bike. But in the end that was how it was, and it was fine. Riding home was a bit uphill, and it took me about a half hour, but it was tremendously pleasurable to be riding down neighborhood streets at twilight. I actually made it home before him, and sat out on the stoop, drinking a beer, waiting for him. Nice.
...
Yesterday, I spent the majority of the day prone. It was just too hot to do much of anything.
...
And today, I'm just spent. Everyone I meet appears drained.
Posted at June 26, 2006
Comments
Is schmatte a non-english word meaning "15 year old KMart dress"? Sounds like loads of fun!
Posted by: neca at June 27, 2006 5:53 AM
oops! Yes, it's yiddish for rag. And in this case, it was the 15 year old KMart dress ;)
Posted by: vj at June 27, 2006 7:01 AM