"I have a big head," I said to the bike store dude. He shot back a "literally or figuratively?" comment, and I admitted to perhaps a bit of both. And then I said I wanted my new bike helmet to be pink.
I'm not what most people consider a girly girl. If they realized just how many pairs of shoes I own they might reconsider this notion (then again, the volume is high, the heels are not.) More people are surprised when I admit to make-up (if you know me through anything related to this blog, though, you've never seen it...) I keep running out of skirt hangers in my closet. And I wanted a pink bicycle helmet, dammit.
I can give you practical reasons, too. Years ago, I was riding on some busy roads. With my grey helmet, black shorts, and generic baggy t-shirt I could have been anyone if you're in a transport truck speeding toward me. Then, I bought a bright red jersey with yellow daisies, and suddenly the transports gave me more room. It turns out a certain element is more reluctant to spray a woman with gravel than a man. You take what advantages you can get. A pink helmet would me much the same.
And the bike store had the prettiest pink helmet ever. It had flowers on it, even. I went straight to that one, and the smartass salesguy took it out of its package and put it on what he figured was an appropriate notch. And then he put it on the biggest notch. And it fit, but only just... there was no room for a toque, and I'll be riding this winter and my old helmet is so old that I don't think it's really worth wearing anymore.
Thus, since my noggin is too big for the girly helmet, I have a boring blue one. I consoled myself by buying a pink bell for my new bike. Well, my now-old bike: Kevin was going to do some upgrades to the Konabike (and the smartasses would say, putting a different frame on it makes it a different bike, but I would have argued, it's all my components! it's a new frame on my bike!) but as these things go... first there was a comment about some cables being too short. New cables are hardly a big deal. But then the grip shifts pissed him off, and he changed to regular (indexed) shifters. And my derailleurs bit the dust, and my headset is gone and there are different handlebars and I've been upgraded to an eight speed cassette and now, it turns out, this new bike has the same pedals and crank and rack and brake levers as my old bike, but that's about it. And as of tomorrow, it's going to have a pink bell. The days of womens bikes and mens bikes may be gone, but I shall girlify my commuter yet.
Oh yeah, I'm commuting on bike every day now. My office is exactly 5.1 km from my front door, and that makes for a very pleasant and easy commute. It's just one of the things I love about my new job, though I'm still a bit startled when I look at my ID and it says "faculty", or when I get all the official mail that is addressed to Dr. Wandel. I've had the title for over two years now, but the only times it was ever used was when I had done something particularly boneheaded and one of the smartasses of this world felt the need to point out that all my book learning wasn't so useful after all.
Yeah, I know: skirts, make-up, proper job... it's time I went paddling again. Withdrawal is setting in.
Posted by Johanna at September 6, 2008 07:03 PM