January 16, 2005
Frost Bite Alley Cat
Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing some 80 to 100 bike messengers ascending upon Dupont Circle! Mary Beth and I were serving coffee at the Frost Bite Alley Cat Bike Race (a bicycle messanger scavanger hunt, if you will) to benefit the Bike Messanger Emergancy Fund. The turnout was fantastic (largely due to the long weekend where messangers were able to travel from afar). I met bikers from New York, Boston, Philly, Ohio, and Colorado. We stood around freezing our buns off for a while (though it only dipped down to 34) but watching the start was quite a spectacle and totally worth it! To make sure everyone got a fair start, they had everyone lay their bikes on the ground and stand inside the fountain (which is drained for the winter). Mary Beth and I were perched atop one of the benches looking in for our own safety. Dan yelled "go" and all 80 to 100 messengers spewed from the fountain, like cockroaches scattering, grabbed their bikes and flew into the streets! It was truly frightening, watching them exit out of the circle. Of course many didn't care about the traffic at all and it wasn't that they thought they could weave between the cars, they simply threw caution to the wind and pretended the cars weren't there! Gutsy little bastards they are.
It was a great showing though, and they raised a lot of money for their emergency fund. Great fun was had by all. I can't wait till Monday to find out if Joe or Chris won and hear the heart wrenching stories everyone will have to tell. It was also nice to put a little balance back into my life as I've been stressing out about the thousands of Republicans expected in our city this next week (they're already arriving)
January 12, 2005
January 04, 2005
January 02, 2005
New Year's Eve
This year, instead of hiding in my house from the crazies of DC, I went to Annapolis with Karriem to check out their First Night event (it's a more family oriented event. I figure I'll be able to use the plethora of drinking paraphanalia I got for Christmas this year soon enough)
Happy New Year and good luck on those resolutions!