I’ve been sick with a cold for over a week now. I started getting sick last Wednesday. By that night I was feverish and dizzy. Dizzy is a weird symptom, right? I don’t usually get dizzy. I started freaking out about how I could not be sick because I had to go to work, I just started this job, bla bla bla. I slept for 14 hours that night which mostly fended it off. No longer dizzy, but still feeling like crap, I figured the only way to drag myself to work was to take the bus, where I could sleep while in transit. So I did that. I figured maybe by Monday I’d be up for doing part of my bicycle commute again.

Sunday night, the car broke down as I was driving it. My boyfriend usually drives to work. Now he needed the T pass. We can only afford one T pass. So it looked like I was bicycling to work on Monday.

Not only did I manage to do my whole random 12 mile route, I finally made it up the hill! Many thanks to the gears on my bicycle for helping me and my legs.

I’m sorry, too, that I haven’t done anything for Bike Week because I’ve been sick. I slept in on Sunday. Tomorrow morning there’s that thing at City Hall plaza, but I don’t feel up to waking early to get over there. It’s just bad luck, I guess, that I’m sick specifically for Bike Week!

Today I woke up unable to decide if I’m starting to feel better or if I’m just becoming accustomed to having a chronic cold. It was a short, one-job day today so we’ll see how I do tomorrow . . . but I tried the hill again just to make sure it wasn’t a fluke. I huffed, and I puffed, and I made it. Again.

As I pedaled to the “summit” (It actually levels off a bit at my street and then keeps going up) a little girl on a scooter stood there staring at me. I gave her a big grin and said, “Phew!”

I then turned down my street. The girl scootered behind me at a distance and then loitered outside of my house as I maneuvered the bicycle inside, watching me and then making conversation with kids passing by in a way that seemed like a pretext for getting them to stop and stand there so she could keep standing there without looking odd. I wondered what she wanted, but I felt awkward trying to talk to her.

I guess I figure that when I’m actually seen as male by most people it would probably look strange to strike up conversations with elementary-school-aged little girls unless it’s in very specific, overtly appropriate contexts. Maybe I’m just being paranoid but I know this is the sort of stuff I need to figure out. And yeah obviously I’m not a psycho or a predator, and it’s terrible that all men who show a normal interest in children are viewed with suspicion . . . but since that is the case I don’t want to keep doing the “wrong” thing and then have some kind of slap-in-the-face moment later on down the road.