Bike vs. Erin 1:0

Today I ate pavement on my bike, or rather, my bike threw me onto the pavement. Don't worry, I'm alive and relatively unharmed. I protected my face with nearly every other part of my body, so my knee, elbow and palms hurt, but not nearly as much as my pride. My Electra Townie is certainly an ungrateful wretch, given that just minutes before launching me onto 10th Avenue, I had installed blinky lights for riding at dusk and filled up its tires for maximum coasting potential.

The real culprit? It's one of the things that I fear most, which is riding next to the streetcar rails. I tried to cross over the track and my wheel got caught in the groove. Instead of my bike heading to the right, it stayed put. Unfortunately, my body didn't get the message and kept going in the intended direction. The whole thing happened in slow motion -- I know this because I had an entire monologue in my head:

Dear god, not my face! We're taking family photos in just a couple of days -- not that I haven't taken plenty of photos with visible bruises and scrapes, but as an adult it would be embarrassing -- will I never outgrow my insane clumsiness?! Oh shit, flying to Florida with a concussion is going to suck, especially if I have to wear bandages on my head. Son of a @!$%^ I have a meeting tomorrow afternoon! How do you accessorize a head injury? Oh well, at least I didn't wear my good jeans and we didn't stop by the grocery store to get eggs. Shut up! Protect the face!

Now my bike looks a little worse for the wear (like someone unleashed a large dog in the basement and it found comfort gnawing on my seat and right handlebar).

Oh, and also, I ripped a hole in the toe of my 14-day-old shoes and nearly tore through my jeans. Now that I think about it, my big toe hurts as well. Overall? Shitty outing. However, I'm oddly not terrified of going back out again. Just pissed at myself for being a dumbass. Next time, though, I will insist on taking a different route.