Sidewinder

Remember conversion class? Remember how much fun it was to read about? Well, things are only going to get better as I go through a conversion of an entirely different sort. Today I almost rode my 1970's era bianchi women's bicycle onto the BQE! Yes, I made a turn that looked okay, perhaps a little bit dodgy, until I noticed the big white arrow and a sign that said "express" instead of "local". Don't worry, I didn't do it. I rode up on to the sidewalk like a big dork and walked a few blocks back to a place that looked like it could be Carroll Gardens.

But it WASN'T Carroll Gardens! It was RED HOOK! Red Hook and seagulls and desolate parks with the biggest housing project complex I've ever seen. Imagine no cars and a lot of bored-looking folks hanging around a Stalinesque landscape. That's where I was and I did my best to look tough. I think that involves seeming kind of blank and uninterested. I'm probably wrong. In any case, I called my husband at work in Manhattan and asked him to pull up a map on his computer. It was then that I thought that when you're not sure, you should just move fast and hope you're right.

I'm home now. I had a chai in Park Slope and read a parental advice column in the local paper. Lots of folks there. One guy looked at me and seemed to emanate sympathy, as though I looked so messed up that I might as well have yelled out to anyone who would listen: "I spent two and a half hours riding my bike through the sketchiest parts of Brooklyn!". Of course I'm imagining this. But I'm home now--with a cat.