2010
spin that record
maura @ 10:36 pm
I am afraid to ride my bike to work. There, I said it! The bike’s been sitting in our living room for nearly 2 weeks now. It could be down in the basement hanging out with all the other bikes, but I keep telling myself that I’ll ride it to work tomorrow, yeah, that’s it.
I know I’ve whined about this before (here and here). I guess really I am still nervous about all of those things. It’s worth noting that I haven’t ridden my scooter to work since my fall last fall (ha!). That was ha! for the rhetorical turn, which Wikipedia tells me is called antanaclasis, not ha! for falling. Falling sucked.
I don’t rightly know what to do about this. It’s kind of ironic, because I just today told someone that sometimes it’s good to do something that scares you, because it knocks you out of your comfort zone which can often be good. The example I used was when I went to present at that conference 2 wks ago — I actually didn’t know anyone else there, which is sometimes hard for me (I kind of hover over the line between introvert and extrovert). But clearly I really should have used my fear of self-propelled wheeled transport, which is a much better example (and doesn’t sound all smug).
It’s not that I’m scared to ride the bike at all. We’ve been riding in the park many weekends (with a more or less whiny kid, depending), which has been fine. But there are no cars in the park on weekends. And I never lock the bike + leave it anywhere. And I’ve done it before which means that I know what will happen. And…
I never really think of myself as a fear change kind of person, but clearly I am, at least in some ways. I do feel like I’ve pushed myself in many respects in the recent past — this afternoon I had a conversation in which I was reminded that when I was younger I really, really didn’t want to do any teaching, which is pretty much the exact opposite of how I feel now. But it is just so easy to come up with reasons not to ride my bike to work that it’s totally evident that I’m just scared.
Things will have to change soon — it’s just getting too hot for me to walk to work in the mornings. Plus, I suspect that the bike is actually the fastest way to get to work, and with school ending and camp starting soon for Gus our mornings will shift a bit later, so I could use that extra time. Stay tuned.
2 comments on “spin that record”
I really like the subway, actually, but mostly for trips that go over bridges. From my home to work is just short enough on the subway to be annoying.
Next week is the week! Today I had RT and worked at home and took another test run in the park. Monday morning, seriously, I’m going to do it.
I didn’t know there was a word for it either! But I suspected as much so I asked my in-house English Literature consultant who said “why don’t you Google rhetorical terms from another century.” Which I did, which brought me to a glossary of rhetorical terms on Wikipedia, and there it was. True story! The magic of the internets!
I can’t really comment because I’m still afraid to drive in cities, so I totally get the fear. FWIW I did used to ride my bike to work in Boston and I’m totally phobic about transport. I just did it because it was so much better than the bus, and I was scared, but on the up side, I required less coffee to get going.
Would doing a dry run on a Sunday morning help? I realize nothing can help solve the problem of locking the bike while you are at work — you can’t bring it in anywhere?
I would have never known there was a word for the fall last fall word play.