Last night I spent my gym time (twice a week) in a Family Spinning class, which from what I can tell is about the same as a regular Spinning class but doesn't include shrill yelling from the instructor - more like, supportive conversation - and does include arguably less obnoxious music (Family night entailed some Christian contemporary pop rather than, blarf, Fergie). I absolutely love to listen to music while bicycling and at least in Spinning it's entirely safe to do so - if a bit of a sad selection.

I also had a great time, in large part because my two friends Shannon and Jennifer were there. So my normal goofy, snarky humor need not be squelched since I had trusted friends who've know me since the eighties and already know I'm a dork. I also found that my time biking with two children and groceries in a bike trailer was still very much with me. I felt sore after Spinning but it didn't kill me. In fact even at the highest dial point on the bike it wasn't nearly as hard as pulling Sophie and Nels up Hoquiam's big bridge.

And on that note, today thanks to a small donation and with post-payday permission from Ralph, I accomplished one of my New Year's resolutions: I paid off my layaway bike. It awaits me in the garage, about to embark on its maiden voyage. In ideal conditions: cold, wet, and dark. I don't care. My whole life I have only owned cheap / Walmart bikes. I have been towing my trailer on a borrowed big cruiser of my mom's with fatass tractor seat. Even if the bike was OK enough to do it, it wasn't mine. This is mine. It's new. It's going to be getting us around. Nels is only slightly smaller than the installed bike seat so it won't last long, but for a while at least I'll have him behind me and no trailer when it's just he and I.

Sophie just left for her first sleepover next door for a birthday party. She took her little green vinyl suitcase. She was rarin' to go, but kissed us many times to tell us she'd miss us. I am surpressing the urge to stalk the house like the over-involved mother I am. They have a big ol' dog anyway so it wouldn't be wise.

Labels: bike, milestones, Nels, newness