Birthday, Baldness, Bicycles, Buses, Beer

Yesterday was my half-birthday. I turned 30.5. Since my birthday is in August, I was never able to celebrate with my friends while in school, so I started commemorating my half-birthday in college. I think some people who remember my half-birthday actually don't know when my real birthday is unless they do the math. Others, including most of my family, don't know either but they can get the month right, usually. That's good enough for me.

In other news, I have no hair.

Except on my face. And my chest, arms, legs.... I mean I have no hair on my head. I shaved it. And just for the record I would like to say that I did it before Brittney.

Last Friday I began my new fitness club membership with a vigorous workout before going to teach in the morning. I was feeling energized and admittedly a bit proud of myself when I walked outside. But those feelings were soon replaced with irritation and disappointment. My bicycle was gone. Either stolen or impounded by the city for parking on the sidewalk. I don't know yet which one. This is probably the fourth time Japan has taken one of my bicycles. But it will be the first time I pay the $25 U.S. to get one back. That is, if in fact it was the city that took it. And yes, it was locked. So I had to walk to work and then back home, but oh well.

Then on Saturday night I did the almost unthinkable. I stayed home. I wanted to get up early and try a new church on Sunday. It was really hard for me, but somehow I managed. I stepped out into the frigid morning at about the same time I would usually be coming home on a Sunday. I rode my mountain bike, since my other bicycle is M.I.A., and proceeded promptly to wreck it. To add to the fun, I was almost hit by a taxi in the process. The rain had made the streets really slick--a fact that I did not notice until I tried to make a fast left turn against traffic onto a one-way street. The taxi driver and passengers were not amused, even though I tried to be, uh, funny about it. Cold, hard stares of derision. Anyway, the chain was off my bike so I had to push it the rest of the way. I parked at the place where I work in order to avoid losing another two-wheeled friend to bureaucracy. I finally got to the train station, rode to the stop nearest the church, and then walked to the place where the shuttle buses come. I was two minutes late. No bus came. So I went to a coffee shop and read for an hour or so and then walked back down the hill to wait for either of two shuttles to the next service. I was 15 minutes early and waited an extra 15 minutes after the scheduled arrival time, but no bus came. So I went back home. Fortunately I made it to another church in the afternoon. But that's not really the point of this story. The point is: Grrrr.

But some good news is that, thanks to Valentine's Day, I now have lots of chocolate, my iPod still works after all (I was worried it might be broken), and bald is beautiful.

Sometime in the next few days I suppose I will write about the rest of Sunday, and how spilling beer all over a girl is a good way to start a conversation.

Really, it works. If she still talks to you, she is probably really worth getting to know. If she doesn't, well you probably just saved yourself a lot of time.