Breaking My Silence

I realize that the last few weeks have been quiet here on Going Oregonic, and I'm sorry for that. I don't really have an explanation for it, except that I just haven't felt much like writing. And, I haven't really had much to say, either. I've been spending a lot of time with new friends, and enjoying life in general instead of constantly looking out for blogging opportunities. You know what I mean?

My mom sent me this cartoon a while back, shortly after I started this blog:

Cartoon from here.

When she first sent it to me, I thought, "I'll never be like that." You know, not enjoying the present moment because I'm constantly thinking of how I'm going to write my post about it. Anyway, it seemed kind of like it was starting to happen lately, so I just wanted to take a little break and enjoy things as they happened, not worrying about the subject of my next entry. So, that's sort of what's been going on. And, on top of that, I just haven't felt very creative lately. I also haven't been cooking much, which is my primary creative outlet. I think my obsession with zucchini recipes has stifled my culinary prowess. It also doesn't help that I live in a city (and now within blocks) of excellent, healthy, cheap food. I have been eating out for an obscene amount of meals lately.

Until today, that is, when I decided to bust out some cookbooks and plan a couple of new meals for the week. And during this outing, something happened that has caused me to finally break my silence.

It's a beautiful day today, and I was going to walk to the store, but I just got this wicked new bike basket for my birthday and thought it would be a shame not to use it. I'm still trying to overcome my fear of biking, and since it was the middle of the day, I figured it would be a less busy time to go. So, I hopped on, got halfway there and realized I forgot my bike lock. Turned around, proceed to get said bike lock, and departed again. I mosied over to the library first to pick up some books I had waiting for me, and then headed in to get some groceries.

I brought an extra bag with me to hold heavy stuff, because the previous (and first) time I used my bike basket to go get groceries, I found it made my bike a little bit front-heavy and harder to steer and balance (not a good thing for a beginner like me). I figured I could put the books and canned goods in my backpack, and produce in the bike basket to make things a little easier on myself. Well, you can probably see where I'm going with this by now, so I'll just cut to the chase.

After my shopping was done, I started to make a right turn out of the parking lot onto the street when I realized some crazy chick in a BMW was flying towards me (I promise I'm not making excuses... she was going entirely too fast.) Well, it scared the shit out of me and unfortunately there was a car parked on the side of the road right by the turnout which I was trying to go around... anyway, I got all wobbly, lost my balance, and totally fell into and hit the parked car. Then I totally overcompensated and thus started to fall the other way in front of crazy BMW lady. When my brain realized that I was about to fall into the street and oncoming traffic, I somehow snapped out of it, straightened myself up, and kept right on riding/hyperventilating all the way home.

I'm totally fine, no scrapes or anything which is good. But my ego is sufficiently wounded, as is my confidence that I should even be on the road in anything other than a car. Which is a real bummer because my new bike basket is super cute and I want to use it again.