I want to ride my bicycle. I want to ride my bike...

... I want to ride my BICYCLE. I want to ride it where I like!" - Queen

So I bought a beach cruiser so that I won’t have to spend 11,40 Euros every 5 days going back and forth from work. That being said – we already are having problems.

The day after I bought it, as I was riding to the Musee D’Orsay, the chain slipped off twice. Now – most of you would say, “did you cry and get some nice French person to help you?” The answer is no… despite my repugnance towards dirt, I did get down on my hands and knees and fix the chain (thank you David Hall for showing me how to do that a few days ago… else tears would have been my only other option.) I did this twice within 2 blocks. So now that my hands were covered with dirt and grease (I looked like a well dressed mechanic), I went to the Musee D’Orsay. Thankfully the nice Italian woman in front of me looked at my hands and pulled out little wipes from her purse. When you least expect it, people can be so nice to you.

It ended up doing it again later on in the day – so I rode it back from the shop and Mike and David fixed me up with a tightened chain, and more air pressure in my tires (which may explain why it was so hard for me to ride… although it could be the fact that I had just climbed up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower.)

But this was just the beginning of my problems. A few days ago, I locked up my bike in front of the shop at 9am (well...not DIRECTLY in front of it... but near enough so that anyone who walked out the front door and looked left could see it), and when I went to go get it at 8pm - someone had SLASHED MY TIRES (now you know why I'm having anger issues).

Well... this may have been the best day to slash my tires, because I have been having nightmares about changing tires on a tour, and I had made a resolution to practice this particular skill. So the reason I was leaving the shop at 8pm was because I had just had another tire changing tutorial by Franz, and I was going to come in early the next day and practice more. So of all days... I was planning on changing tires anyway, so they might as well be my own.

(But that doesn't mean that if I catch those kids, I'm not going to hurt them.)

And the pic is just a random one of me on a bike... this is what I look like most days - and where I get to play...