On my ride home from work yesterday I was on my usual route at the usual time when suddenly I found myself in a sea of bicyclers. Traffic was completely stopped as hundreds - maybe thousands? - of bikers did the equivalent of strolling down the street.
I had heard of this before but never come across it. This phenomenon is known as Critical Mass.
It was started in San Francisco (of course) in 1992 and now happens in more than 300 cities every last Friday of the month. It might be to draw attention to biker's rights in the city. Or it might just be fun to stop traffic. I don't know. But they happened to be going my way, so I joined the throng* and let them escort me the rest of the way home.
It was quite wonderful.
*I said "throng"
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A little more about me
I don’t expect that my blog will be of enduring interest to anyone other than perhaps my mother (who, incidentally, struggles tremendously with the “technology” of the blog) but if you find yourself here and reading it, you might like to know a few things about me.
I grew up in Chicago and have moved every few years since going away to college, which is tough. Just a few months ago I moved from Washington DC to San Francisco and my mother seamlessly switched from worrying about terrorist attacks on our nation’s capital to worrying about earthquakes. I have a younger brother who just moved back to Chicago after five years in Barcelona and speaks Spanish fluently, but still not as well as I do.
I have a few superpowers: parallel parking, getting ready to go quickly, and sleeping on airplanes.
I’m an average dancer. I have an MBA. I like pumpkin pie. All things pumpkin-flavored, really. I wonder if that might be a sign that I have a beta carotene deficiency.
I am almost definitely not living up to my potential.
I am madly in love with my husband Eric; possibly obnoxiously so. I often wonder what I ever did to deserve him. Probably nothing, but I try not to let that lure me into dangerous moments of self-sabotage. Try.
So, pretty much I’m just your typical 31 year old professional-type woman trying to figure it all out. And though I am usually a pretty upbeat gal, I am a little worried about the future. Maybe, sometimes, a lot worried. But as I have learned in yoga and from endless books on being happy, the present moment is where it is at and so that is where I (try) to live. And where I blog. Comments welcome.
I grew up in Chicago and have moved every few years since going away to college, which is tough. Just a few months ago I moved from Washington DC to San Francisco and my mother seamlessly switched from worrying about terrorist attacks on our nation’s capital to worrying about earthquakes. I have a younger brother who just moved back to Chicago after five years in Barcelona and speaks Spanish fluently, but still not as well as I do.
I have a few superpowers: parallel parking, getting ready to go quickly, and sleeping on airplanes.
I’m an average dancer. I have an MBA. I like pumpkin pie. All things pumpkin-flavored, really. I wonder if that might be a sign that I have a beta carotene deficiency.
I am almost definitely not living up to my potential.
I am madly in love with my husband Eric; possibly obnoxiously so. I often wonder what I ever did to deserve him. Probably nothing, but I try not to let that lure me into dangerous moments of self-sabotage. Try.
So, pretty much I’m just your typical 31 year old professional-type woman trying to figure it all out. And though I am usually a pretty upbeat gal, I am a little worried about the future. Maybe, sometimes, a lot worried. But as I have learned in yoga and from endless books on being happy, the present moment is where it is at and so that is where I (try) to live. And where I blog. Comments welcome.
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3 comments:
I ran into them, too! I felt like one of those little bunnies on a different planet that suddenly enters a field full of other bunnies.
(PS: is it weird if I comment on your blog? if it is, let me know!)
Yes! It was so neat. I am going to try to time my ride in the future to run into them. We can go together the last Friday in July.
Not weird - fun! More!
What? You have never seen critical mass before. Dude! You don't go out on Fridays enough!!!!! Bad ellie! I was first trapped in a streetcar surrounded by critical mass back in the ye olden days of 2000.
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