it *might* be Christmas - in MAY!!

Today was the first day of the year that I biked to work. I LOVE riding to work. It takes just a little longer than driving, and I get a workout in. Plus, here in Colorado it's usually super beautiful out and I get to see things like the mountains, bunnies, birds of prey, new businesses in my 'hood, random stray dogs (there were three today, I was glad I was on a bike because I really wanted to take them home!) etc.

So I'm riding along, surprised at how good I feel (thank you, Katie H, who only teaches one spin class a week but totally helps me to be faster on my bike!) and thinking this is just a glorious morning (thank you, GOD!) and then I get to the part of the ride where the bike path ends and I have to ride on the road. This is a very busy stretch of road that heads north and is pretty much the only option to ride along. There is a wide sidewalk/path that parallels the road but it bends around vegetation mounds at every intersection and cars can't see you coming, so it's not really safe for bicyclists to cruise on through. I do use that path, but there is a lot of getting on and off the bike at all those crossings!

So anyhow, here I exit the bike path and roll up to the stoplight and... BEHOLD! Doth mine eyes deceive me? Across the street, directly in front of me painted on the pavement is A BICYCLE LANE!! And, oh my GOD! There is one on the SOUTH side of this busy road, too! Well God bless the City of Thornton for this wonderful gift! I was so giddy riding along that road, safe(r) in my little bike lane - shouts of joy accompanied each of the little bicyclist road graphics I rolled over. Way to go, Thornton, Colorado!

I'm not going to get into an silly metaphors or lengthy, literate descriptions to convey my love of riding my bike to work. Let's just leave it at: there are some things I really love to do, and biking to work is one of them. I've been doing it intermittently for about 15 years now, to various jobs in a myriad of urban areas. So let's just start with, just getting to ride my bicycle in today was a joy.

But there was something else making today's ride super special - it's Cinco de Mayo, which is the one day a year where I eat however many tortilla chips and drink as many margaritas as I want to. Tomorrow may be rough... May the Force be with you right into Revenge of the Fifth, but whatever, I digress. These days, I am actively trying to lose weight to be a lighter, faster bicyclist. The fact that the weather is perfect and I am able to get a good cycling workout in and mitigate some of my Cinco de Mayo indulgences is nothing short of spectacular. I have been so happy about this all week! [Incidentally I just saw a nutritionist this week and I'm pretty excited about changing up my eating habits (a whole 'nother blog) but I am also still super excited about the chips and margaritas today - olé!!]

Oh yeah, then I get to work and my coworker brought everyone Santiago breakfast burritos! So great to have some tasty green-chile covered protein ready to chomp before I hopped in the shower. (Skipped the tortilla, because, well, nutritionist.) But yeah, nom nom nom.

Christmas. In May. On Cinco de Mayo. Bike ride, bike lanes, nice coworkers, green chile, chips and margaritas... what a day, and it's not even lunch time. Happy Cinco de Mayo. 🚲 😎

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Did you know? Cinco de Mayo is the anniversary of the Mexican army holding off the French army in the Battle of Puebla. It was an impressive victory, given that the Mexican army was quite small. Cinco de Mayo is not celebrated in Mexico and it's not a true American holiday, so it has a unique distinction of being a Mexican-American holiday!