1. Surf diddly surf: window of webmail access at the office.
2. Motion and commotion: breezy biking through the mild city, with memories of last night's squeaky-clean chlorine streetscape.
3. Pickled pearl onions: surprise complimentary salad.
1. Free replacement brake pads (already worn down). I'm going to keep biking through the winter: wear them down again!
2. Runway-hair-meets-bike-courier. Getting the up and down - in a good way - on the elevator. I love arriving at work in my bike-greased khakis.
3. Complimentary pickled ginger from the local Japanese restaurant. When all else fails, I cut it up and improvise tea. I refuse to get sick.
Now I'm pickled tink! This is my 365th post.
1. Early evening. Large groups of young men chased each other through the financial district, the air thick with urgency. Relief when I discovered I would not get caught in the cross-fire of a gang war. They were playing Capture the Flag.
2. Mid-evening. ‘I'm feeling great, and I have sex almost every day. Almost on Monday, almost on Tuesday, almost on Wednesday...’ - Fitness guru Jack LaLanne, who has turned 93.
3. Late evening. My folding bike supports two! Dan and I rode double, none too sober, from Union Station to Queen Street West. My legs sprawled out sideways so my wide pants wouldn't get caught in the gears; his legs pedalled with fury. We laughed all the way there - we did it!
3. News. Ontario has a new statutory holiday in February!
2. Truce. The guy at the bike shop showed me how to use a mini-pump for my tires, then slotted me in with the mechanics to examine all the bruises on my baby folding bike.
1. Touch. In a moving experience, I sat next to a woman reading Braille. Her fingers ran over a thick white cardstock book about the size of an LP. It looked like sheet music, but with imprinted notes. Imagine reading words by touch!
1. Urban Beach: Chilling outdoors at hTO.
2. Gluteus maximus: It's-about-time massage!
3. Motion: While the West End slept, propelling through darkness like oxygen through blood. Late-night biking through empty streets and dark, warm, windy pockets.
If I could name today, I'd call it Rejection. Among its lights:
1. Waking up to the September cover of National Geographic magazine. Look at his eyes!
2. Jung and Benson met me in Kensington Market (where the incredible Nunca Antes, Brazilian Maracatu drummers, performed).
3. My wonderful friend Audra listened to me spilling my heart out from a payphone booth, folding bike parked outside, cell phone dead.
And I kept biking and biking, all the way home...
1. I called out in anguish on the street to no one in particular, ‘What day is it today?!’ And a nice guy replied, ‘Tuesday!’
2. After my bike ride, Paul took me into his home and offered me grapefruit juice - which happens to be my favourite.
3. In the Aftermath of Paul, I lingered ... in a good way ... and I got more free legal advice! Damn, that's the best kind.
1. Sweet: Country lemon pie for breakfast from my parents.
2. Sweeter: Gentle slope all the way down the city, from the top to the bottom, making for an excellent high-speed bike ride down Yonge Sreet (especially on a hot, sticky day like this).
3. Sweetest: A quiet night in which to get some work done.
