i spent the night at my friend becca’s and we awoke early because i had to go back to her mom’s house with her so i could pick up my bike and she had to meet her mom to go to the airport to fly to mass. for a few days of vacation. becca’s mom said that i was more than welcome to sleep in becca’s old room at the house since it was so early, but i thought i’d ride back to the hess house and enjoy a part of the morning for which i recently find myself rarely conscious.
i love riding my bike in columbus, either early in the morning, or late at night – any time that there’s no traffic because i can lazilly cruise in the middle of the lane and look around at the city instead of constantly looking over my shoulder wondering whether the dude in the truck is going to yell something at me or whether the car next to me is going to open it’s door. columbus, despite being flat, and easy to navigate, is pretty crappy for riding bikes mostly because there aren’t any bike lanes and motorists still haven’t gotten used to the idea of people actually riding their bikes in the street. but, on a sunday morning with no one around, it’s great.
i cruised down high street and thought of nicking a pastry from the delivery left out in front of the coffee shop, but the packages were so neatly wrapped in protection from the night’s rain that i didn’t want to disturb them. i went further south and lamented that there wasn’t any equivalent to the diner in buffallo that had the .99 breakfast. i passed nancy’s, a diner that was open, and that i’ve never been to, mainly because it’s still the real deal and thus pretty inhospitable to vegitarians, but i’m glad it’s thee i guess – it at least makes this part of town feel more like people actually live there instead of being a “destination” like campus.
i cut west, out past the strip malls and into the corn fields nestled between odd shaped, ugly, institutional looking buildings that belong to the university. at an intersection, my roommate, driving to her early morning job gardening at a golf course waved at me as she drove straight through a red light.