epic.

things i'm not excited about:

• potentially having trapped in the closet stuck in my subconscious for eternity
• my job
  

things i am excited about:

• the new ratatat
• the new islands
• islands show on june 2nd
• going to eurooooppe via atlanta
  
• visiting austin?
  
• my new bike!
• friends!
• the harvest-esque moon on the city skyline
  

soooooo, today was in (my head) every way epic. but let's back up a scooch.

on monday, i had the day off, did productive things like cleaned my room, danced around in my underwear, went to the bank, and drank a beer in the shower. to top the day off, my sister wanted to buy a bike as her entrance fee into "the cool club". i was to be her extremely inept shopping guide, teaching her the extreme basics of bikes.

as we were pulling away from our apartment building, i looked out of my window and happened to notice that where i had left my bike the day before, only 2/3s of it remained. sigh, i needed that wheel to make my bike go. they didn't take anything else off it, just that. why would you steal that shit? it was a heavy, old, out-of-whack mountain bike wheel. fuckers. so i bought myself self-tanner and milk duds.

so today, i had the day off (again! yay!). i went down to a co-op called working bikes with a bike savvier coworker of mine named erin. this place sells cheap fixed-up bikes two days a week and here's how it goes down:

when it's nice in chicago everyone in the whole fucking city decides they need to rush outside into the not face-stabbingly cold weather, probably while on a bike, but only on a cool, cheap, vintage road bike bought from a not-for-profit volunteer-staffed co-op. so an hour or so before it opened, me and 40 of my closest septum-pierced, chuck-wearing, flat-ironed side-part sporting hipster buddies were hanging out waiting for the place to open.

meanwhile, i was progessively getting more nervous, thinking that it was going to be like one of those creepy semi-annual bridal sales where all the twenty-something bride-to-bes maul each other to save $30, only more aloof. which it kind of was. i didn't get a bike, but i almost bought a bike that was a little too big, a little too fast and a lot too cool for me, because it was about $150 over what i wanted to pay for it. it was really pretty, though, and i'm a sucker for that, time and time and time again.

so 40 miles, 3 bike shops, and 8 mildly boring but friendship solidifying hours later, i got a bike with my name on it, literally! i went to this hole in the wall bike shop over by work. they hooked me up with what promises to be an awesome bike. they are selling me the bike, changing the tires, re-taping the handlebars, fixing the brakes, giving me a tune-up, guaranteeing the parts for 60 days, and throwing in a puppy that craps rainbows for $165 which is an awesome deal. i'm so stoked! i'll be able to get to work in like half the time! plus, i'll finally be able to return the judgmental glances of all my biking tattoochioed hipster brethren. yay! i'll be too cool for school, too! while we're talking about school, i'm thinking about going back to school for architecture (which i will one day be able to spell correctly on the first try) and moving out of the mid-west. more on that later, i guess.

the day ended with many friends at a vegan pot luck with high life and a lime watching top chef. there are days when chicago is divine. if it doesn't steal your shit.

p.s. erin, if you're still reading this, erin (the other one) used the word "pro-pro" to mean "prostitution" today and, after laughing hysterically, i thought of you.

p.p.s. for those of you counting at home, number of hyphens in this post: 16. i'll see if i can beat it next time.