Don't Judge a Book(store) by its Cover

What this picture doesn't show is the 

attitude of the place as I walked in.

It wasn't negative but a, "what are you 

doing here?" type of reaction.

My bike broke yesterday. The parts holding the derailleur to the frame fell to the floor while I was leaving my building. Luckily, I could still roll it on the sidewalk. Together, me and my peugeot walked up LaFayette to Bicycle Habitat. My bike is old and they didn't have the parts to fix it. What's a boy and his broken bike to do?

I remembered a bike shop near my apartment on Avenue C last year. Landmark Bicycles specializes in bikes from the 1950s to the '80s. My bike fit snuggly somewhere in that range. And, best of all, a quick phone call said they had the parts I needed... and, wait for it, they could repair it on the spot while I waited.

Dashing out to the shop, I quickly realized that they would need time to fix it. I didn't have anything with me. "It'll be an hour," they said. All my stuff was 20 minutes away, not worth the walk back and then back to shop again. I asked the owner if there was a book store nearby. "Go back to first, take a left, there's one a block or two down from Houston," he said.

Inspiration: It's what I need

I've been wanting to write something in here this past week. I even have a friend whose blog I've promised to read and he'll read mine, and we'll comment on each other's posts. We ran into each other today and he mentioned I haven't written. He's holding me accountable I guess, but that doesn't change the fact that it's almost 2:30 a.m. and I have class at 9:00 a.m. and need to sleep.

But... here are some ideas I've had floating around. Maybe you all can tell me what you want to read about?

• Leadership and who makes a good one, especially from my perspective as a student leader
• Freedom, I'm in a philosophy class this semester and we talk about it a lot
• My summer job search (or lack there-of)
• More posts about biking
• Poetry (if only I could write something about the cherry blossoms like I want to every time I see them)
• Old (polished-up or raw?) journal entries from Belize or Florence or Dublin or Paris
• Your ideas?

A Modern Resurrection

I celebrated Easter this morning at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church on Sixth Avenue and Washington Place. Easter Sunday is a celebration of Christ’s resurrection; a new beginning rising from an end. He died but conquered death.

Coincidentally, I visited the Tribute WTC Visitor Center ($10) last Thursday; the day of Christ’s Last Supper before his crucifixion. There, I visited the galleries, took a 60 minute audio tour of the site and heard from John Henderson, a volunteer guide at the center.

The audio tour included 16 stories from survivors and first responders from the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Their 9/11 stories made me think of my own.

Have I finally joined the NYC bike culture?

After a week of rain, the sun finally decided to show its glorious face. More people are on the street than in the past few months of winter. Crowded sidewalks and streets make it harder for everyone to get around but most people don't seem to mind. It's too beautiful outside to care.

And for some people, it's too beautiful outside to care about looking both ways when crossing the street. Or, to even look at all before quickly darting across the road. Today, a girl crossed LaFayette at Bleeker and the biker in front of me, riding north on LaFayette was caught between traffic on one side and construction on the other. The girl popped in front of him, out of nowhere. He yelled. She got out of the way. No harm no foul.

I started biking in NYC a year and a half ago. I've pedaled through rainstorms, snowstorms and freezing cold days. Not until today, though, have I felt a part of NYC's diverse population of urban cyclists.