Day two of the slowest week of the year here in my office, though I must admit that it is not the worst thing ever; long lunches and entertaining conversations are more common to come by and stress levels in the office are of course much lower. Today there are even a few more people in the office to talk to. Today, since I’d left all my cycling shorts at my folks home I decided I’d join a friend to check out a Pilates class he was doing here at the fitness center. He of course did not show up for work and so I decided to bail on that idea and instead rode out to Capital Hill Bikes out on 8th St. SE to attempt to visit a friend Adam that I haven’t seen for years.

He was working the desk when I walked in and after a few second he recognized me. We started talking and catching up and he showed me around to where all the real sweet rides are in the store. He hooked me up with some deals on some new winter riding gloves and chain lube and then gave me his email address so we could arrange to go mountain biking in January. Definitely looking forward to that although I’m a bit nervous about it since I have not been for at least 1 ½ years. Hopefully he doesn’t leave me in the dust and I don’t make a complete fool of myself either.

It’s good to know people around the city; it’s a good feeling when you are recognized and it makes you feel like you actually live there and that it is an actual community. When I first moved here I didn’t know anyone and for a long time didn’t feel like I really belonged here. Now I can walk down the street and recognize people and all that; I’m not quite to the point where I’m friends with the clerks at the market and all yet it is getting closer to the case.

Actually that brings me to something that Adam and I spoke about today which is how unfriendly bike shop workers can be sometimes. That brought me back to a post I wrote a while ago about how unfriendly the guys at city bikes could seem when I first started going there. Lately after having been going there and finally beginning to at least sound like I know what I am talking about I feel much more comfortable when I go in. It seems like a bunch of the workers there recognize me and I feel much better about walking in there now.

Three good friends of mine were all recently buying/looking at bikes and all of them asked me to go along since they felt somewhat uneasy going alone. One of them expressed that they were uncomfortable because they think the workers at bike shops in general are not all that friendly, while the other two wanted me to go so I could help them find the right bike. The guys there that day were actually extremely helpful with all of us and the time was well spent there. I’m beginning to wonder now if the perceived “attitude” that I thought I was picking up was just my own lack of self assuredness in the situation. Either way, I now feel much more comfortable walking into most bike shops that I have visited in the past couple of months and of course find City Bikes to be the favorite spot I knew it would be.

I actually thought about getting some bonus point with the guys there (read: the mechanics) by stopping by on Christmas Eve with a case of beer but unfortunately they were closed. I guess maybe I’m just not cut out for the whole brown nosing thing…