Stopping Traffic
Talk about stupid. Whenever biking to and from work, I often count the number of times I could have died. Those little instances when a light turns yellow while you're crossing an intersection and someone doesn't *quite* see you. Or you're almost pegged by an ignorant pedestrian or motorist while minding your own business. Or people don't think they have to obey the right of way laws with bikes. Sometimes I'm a little too daring. Sometimes I run reds if there are no cars (and only then). Sometimes I ride on the sidewalk or cross lanes of traffic- but usually when I almost die it's not my fault.

Today I witnessed two extreme acts of stupidity, one Justin's and one my own, as we were biking to school. We always have to launch ourselves off the curb and into Centennial when coming out of Chase; there is no crosswalk. There's also an inconveniently placed curve in the road right there that makes visibility shit. You can usually see the cars coming through the fence though. Well, this morning Justin just didn't see the white Lincoln (HUGE old person car) hurdling down the street at him. So he merrily pops into the street and is immediately faced by a two-ton hunk of steel. Stop. Freeze. Both the car and the bike are now motionless in the roadway and me flinching on the sidewalk, having seen the whole thing coming. The driver doesn't even honk and just pulls around Justin and goes his way. Bike along...

We arrive at Onyx bridge and Justin is departing for class. We're shouting goodbyes on the move, and he asks me something which I need to contradict. So, while we were biking pretty much parallel, he has now pulled off to the left to park and so I swerve to catch up to him. Cue psycho biker girl, who has decided that it would be a good idea to bike *through* us. Totally my fault, because I didn't look before I turned... but would you 1) bike *between* two other bikers who were obviously travelling together when there is 20 feet more sidewalk or 2) bike between two people having a conversation and not paying attention to you, unnanounced? I wouldn't. She gets kudos, though. First, for the lovely panicked cry she made when I turned; it quite confused me because I wondered who the hell was making it. Second, because she was wearing a helmet. She must have gotten into accidents before ^^. Actually, she braked, swore at me and at her general terror for about five seconds, and rode off. She stopped within a few feet of me, wasn't even really a close call. My life didn't flash before my eyes. Needless to say, I felt like a retard. Bikes are silent though, and it's not like I was actually crossing a street.

Still, I'd much rather be hit by a velo than a 1980 Lincoln. I think Justin takes the prize.


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Gave blood yesterday for the third time. This always makes me so happy! I biked home without incident and felt normal except for exhaustion throughout the evening. Apparently, yes, I have A- blood, even though my parents are O+ and B+. It's a recessive thing... strange, but true. This also means that if I have children, I will probably have difficulty carrying the fetus. Most people are protein positive blood types and generally, if I have children with a positive, the children will be positive because it is a dominant gene. If I'm carrying a fetus with protein positive blood, my own body will, in all liklihood, react to that protein and try to destroy it. There's a good chance of this happening. So if I get pregnant, I will probably have to take blockers that inhibit this reaction to prevent me from aborting. Oooh, how exciting. More incentive not to have babies. At least I can remember to take pills. ^^