"I'm sorry, we're cash only..."

Entering a new coffee shop is like entering the local breakfast hub in a rival city wearing your team colors in the off season. It's not during the season, so emotions are lulled, a bit, but you still feel all eyes on you. You bravely enter because you'd heard some wonderful things about this place and have finally gathered enough courage to step out of your comfort zone and enter this new, to you, enigmatic refueling station which just happens to be just around the corner from your usual spot in the small college town you call home.

fleeting chance....

Was that it? Was that my chance? My one chance at true happiness? Looking back, it was a single moment in time. An instant. A split second. A stitch. As fleeting as that perfect breeze. Not too hot, not too cold, not too hindering or disruptive, but just...perfect. The kind that allows you to stop, if for just a moment, and completely exist. Your troubles are stripped away like husk, warmed by the sun, from an ear of sweet corn, exposing your vulnerable self. Alive, breathing, as light as sea mist, you feel yourself elevate as the air from that perfect breeze fills your lungs and empties your mind. You're free. You hover, feeling weightless, yet feeling your inner child, so eager to begin, so excited to be let out to romp, to run, to jump, to kick and throw things at nothing in particular, to howl at that perfect breeze, flow out of your body and onto the ground sinking his roots deeper than a mighty Oak tree grounding you in that very moment...allowing you to truly accept it for what it was.

Then, you grow older and begin to question what it was. It was. . . . and maybe that's just it.

I think I need to plant a garden...and play in it for a while...I used to love playing in the dirt and mud...

Parrkin'...porrkin'...parrkin'...pearrkin'....porrkin'-parking.

Am I the only one that looks around when exiting the car after performing a perfect, flawless parallel parking job? I get out of the car and catch myself looking around waiting for the applause or at least a compliment. It never comes. I feel like pointing it out to people walking down the street. No, I'm not the kind that needs constant approval. Though now that I think about it, I do tend to ask my girlfriend at times if it was "good for her too" always wanting to make sure she had her cookie before I did. Cookies....I love cookies.

Sooo...

I've always wanted to live in "The City". I guess I've never had the opportunity. I mean, how does one "move" to "The City?" I guess having a job in "The City" would be a start. I mean, having money to be able to afford a place in "The City" would be nice. Maybe it doesn't take much at all. Maybe I could be one of the few people who live in "The City" and commute to Sacramento for work. Maybe there are more than I think. I imagine traffic would be just as bad. Maybe I could take Amtrak. Maybe I could buy another bike for commuting. I always wondered what it would be like to get rid of my truck and live solely by human propulsion. How would I get AJ and I with all of our gear to the races. I'd have to rely on teammates and friends or Dawn...don't think that would work. It might at first, but I think it'd wear pretty quickly.