Bizonkulous

I just wrote a whole lot then accidentally used this tab to google something. It was gone when I pressed back Anyway, where to start, AGAIN?

Saturday morning I had a trial shift at the bakery - everyone on the shortlist will have two. It went quite well, I think I was as competent as the current employees. I do feel a little unsure, because though I enjoy doing active stuff more than sitting behind a desk,the atmosphere was… not as nice as the studio where I interviewed for the receptionist position. The latter has a lot more people, especially about my age, and therefore more social potential which can't be undervalued. Well, I'll see who offers what.

Saturday afternoon went to Bard on the Beach with James, his mom, and his sister to see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Quite well done.

Saturday evening, James and I went to the Illuminares Lantern Parade at Trout Lake. There had to be several thousand people there… sitting on blankets, walking around with lanterns, looking at the professional ones (the Ogopogo lantern IN the lake was particularly impressive), drumming, dancing with fire, and of course, smoking pot. It was great.

Sunday after church, I made biscuits and faux sausage gravy for lunch. Seriously, you have to give Gimme Lean sausage a try. About the same price as good quality pig sausage, looks, feels, and tastes exactly the same, but no fat and no cholesterol.

The afternoon was just the best though. Having just purchased a new seat, lock, patch kit, and reflectors for my new (to me) bike, James and I headed out to SFU to try out their mountain biking trails. When we got there, another guy was just arriving and gave us a few tips since I'd never mountain biked before - try out Mels and Dead Moped, challenging but not too hard for someone just starting out, and avoid Nicole's. har har. Trails aren't marked and we ended up on Nicole's by accident, and James (who is much much better than I am) was way out in front of me. This would have been a pretty good workout for HIKING, nevermind biking.

So, I'd crashed once (crotch straight into the frame - OUCH) and lost my chain twice, and I was absolutely terrified out of my wits, not to mention worried about not seeing James for about half an hour, since for the first part he'd go up ahead for a while then stop and wait. So, I was walking my bike down most of the way, getting on at times and trying to ride before freaking out and bailing five feet later. I'd just walked down a laddery bit, and I was worried, feeling lost, and discouraged and embarrassed about letting this scare me out of having fun, that I took a break and contemplated sitting down to have a good cry.

Just then along came the guy we saw at the trailhead! Honestly, that was a godsend. He asked me if I was okay and said he didn't think I meant to take this one, I must have gotten turned around somehow to end up on the hardest trail here, and offered to ride down the rest of the way with me and help me out.

Then when he noticed my bloody shins, he made me borrow his leg armour. In addition, my bike was not too well suited for this. It's okay for me riding on the road, and it would be okay for a much taller or more experienced person mountain biking, but I was having serious problems. It especially terrified me that the frame was big enough that it made bailing out hard to do when necessary. So he lowered his seat and let me use his bike since it had a smaller frame, dual suspension, and all kinds of kickass stuff which I can't afford on my bike. Then he coached me all the way down, he'd even hold on to me from behind to help me get past the steep drops till I wasn't afraid to do it anymore. I felt 100% more confident.

All this help from a total stranger just made my entire weekend, I couldn't thank him enough. It was amazing.