It’s been a little more than three years since I hopped on a tandem bicycle with my soon-to-be husband and rode through the streets of Kensington with some of our best friends to get hitched to my best friend. While our marriage has fared quite well in the subsequent trio of years, the tandem suffered a different fate, basically falling apart right after the wedding. Last summer, we entrusted the tandem to the fine folks at Doylestown Bike Works upon the urging of a friend of mine who has been involved with DBW since they opened in 2011. Ever since we picked it up in April (and no, it didn’t take that long for them to rehab it–we’re just delinquents), I’ve been meaning to show off the fantastic work they did. Our anniversary seemed as good as any occasion for a little show-and-tell (even if I’m a few days late for that, too).
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I’m Capable of Unlocking My Bike on My Own, Thanks.
After a delightful night out with friends last night, I went to hop on my bike and head home, and I had an interesting experience. I was going to write a Facebook post about it, but as I biked home and thought about it some more, I realized that it warranted a longer response. I’ve been following the #yesallwomen conversation online, and I’ve read some really great articles and have had some really great conversations with friends about it. I’ve reflected on incidents in my life that that echo what it’s all about, and then tonight’s incident occurred.
Here’s the deal. After saying goodbye to my friends, I walked off alone to retrieve my bike and head home. We had been out in the Gayborhood in Philly, in which I have never felt uncomfortable or unsafe. Ever. I’m sure that bad things can happen to people there, as they can anywhere in a city (or anywhere, really), but it’s a lovely part of Philly, and it’s well-lit, and there are almost always people around. I mention this to set the stage.
As I approached my bike, I noticed a man walking by himself 10 or so yards in front of me. I noticed him pick a flower from a bush as he passed it (Which seemed slightly bizarre, but who knows? Maybe he digs flowers.) and as I arrived at my bike, he noticed that I was behind him and stopped about 5 yards away. He said that he was going to make sure that I was okay, and then he made some joke about me being scared of him. (Which I wasn’t, but when someone makes a joke about that, it does give you pause.)
Why the USA Ultimate Conversation Should Really Be About Transparency
For the past 36 hours, I’ve been glued to the shitstorm that’s occurred since Major League Ultimate (the professional ultimate frisbee league for those of you who aren’t in the know) aired an episode of their podcast, Cleats & Cufflinks, that took aim at USA Ultimate (the national governing body of ultimate frisbee) and its priorities. The podcast broke down what it sees as some of USA Ultimate’s (USAU’s) inadequacies and presented data to compare USAU with the governing bodies of other growth sports like lacrosse and hockey. The picture that Major League Ultimate (MLU) drew of USAU was not a particularly flattering one, and it was clearly perceived by a number of individuals as unnecessarily inflammatory and provocative. After the podcast aired, Twitter blew up with accolades and righteous indignation.