Good color combination, too

I just got the sweetest effing bike I have ever come across in my entire life. 


It just fell in my lap. No Craigslist browsing or begging. No shopping around for used bikes and price-comparing. I needed it but I didn't want it (at least, not as much or for as long as Joanne has).  In fact, it was only after consulting with both the Bike Shop (Centreville) and Bull Run Bicycles (Manassas) that I was even actually considering buying a new (...used) bike instead of just replacing the brakes on my hardly-used Huffy bike that has been with me since I was in middle school.


I didn't go to Goodwill looking for bikes. I went looking for khaki pants (and maybe shoes and blouses, because I always end up getting them without expressly shopping for them) for work.  It was only because I was considering getting those bookshelves for the library that I've been meaning to get that I even ventured out of the soft goods.


And there it was. Adult-sized bicycle. Looking functional. Not quite like my magenta bike in build--which could have been a deal-breaker, but it ended up being a deal-maker. On the middle rod it read: "FUJI."


Fuji... just the day or two before Joanne had mentioned the name, trying to get my blessing to buy a $100  Fuji bike off of Craigslist because they're "really expensive" and usually go for something like $1000 (or some other high number. Maybe $400. It was just seemed a lot to me at the time).  So I was thinking of Joanne but it was me--I really wanted it. Like I want an Italian silk dress no matter how it looks or fits. Like I want a Banana Republic blazer or chemisier from Lord and Taylor no matter how outrageous the print is.


Chrome. Gushy handlebars with another set of "advanced" blue handlebars for when you need to get down and athletic. Had an vintage-like charm to it. Maybe not 1970s like Amanda's solid-rubber-wheeled antique ride, but definitely not 2010's. All the essential parts seemed to be present and intact.


I went through the trouble of relinquishing my ID and maneuvering awkwardly into unwieldy double doors and around post-Saturday-yard-sale truck beds to try it out in the parking lot. I almost fell and I might have injured myself. It was way too tall. But there was a heavy, metal, out-of-the-ordinary attachment screwed on at the saddle keeping it there at its too-tall height. Anyway, for $35, if the metal attachment didn't come off or the frame didn't fit Joanne, it would fit whoever would appreciate a Fuji that retails for $hundreds, right?


It was like fate that I'd resorted to driving my mom's bulky van that day, empty, waiting for this brilliant silver bike with blue handles.


Bringing it home was something else.  


Unlike my impression of how I imagine intimate relationships to progress, the more I got to know it, the more wonderful things I found out about it: the saddle was clean and cushy and Fuji, too. Changing the gears gave my fingers the same sensation as typing on an old, clackety typewriter. Adjusting the saddle required no tools: only a flick of a pressure-fastened clutch and swoosh!--tall to short. There were similar flicky appendages on the front wheel, and back: quick-release levers (the kind that all the pros off the Vienna W&OD have... that's how they do it)!


Took in my baby today to Bull Run Bicycles for her check-up, vaccinations, oil, adjustments, etc. Can't wait to bring her home!