The bicycle adventure

(Note: Over the next two weeks, I have three 10-15 page papers, three essays for a final, and a poster to make...not to mention the readings. I'm a little stressed out.)

I tend to react like most people to stress, I think. Or maybe I'm bizarre. Whatever. Basically, I can keep going under a lot of stress - I can keep things going fine, like something boiling on the stove. But at a certain point, if something adds on, I simply freak out, and everything explodes. Usually that "something" is small. I guess it speaks to the level of suppression I use in my life. Whatever. Anyway.

So I had noticed that my bike lock was acting a little funny. Sometimes it would take longer than normal to open it - wiggling the key back and forth, etc. But whatever, no biggie. Yesterday afternoon, after I had done a couple hours of work (and talked to Kevin on Skype - where I freaked out because I was sad to leave my friends here in Michigan...anyway...) I decided to go to the gym. "This will be great! It's 4:30 now, I can get there in 10 minutes, do 30 minutes of cardio, a couple of free weight things, cool-down, come back by 6, eat and shower, start working at 7. Maybe I can punch out that paper tonight! Awesome!"

But no.

I spent 15 minutes playing with my bike lock outside, trying to get it to open. Eventually, obviously, I did - although I locked it with hesitation outside of the gym. Worked out, fine, no problem. Came back out, and spent another 15 minutes working on this lock. Would not budge. At all. Tried someone else's key, wiggled my key forever. I even had one of the employees at the gym bring out some bolt cutters. The bolt cutters starting BENDING with my bike lock. (Bonus - my bike will not get stolen.) Eventually, I had to leave.

I got home at 6:30. Didn't get done eating and showering until 7:30. Called the police department, who said they wouldn't cut my bike lock until I registered my bike online. Fine. Tried to register it online. The site doesn't work - it keeps erasing my answers to the questions. (Remember that it did this last year too, when I decided to forget it.) Sat down, tried to start working, and called Kevin, bawling "I can't do this! I can't! Now I have to go register my stupid bike in order to get the stupid lock cut off! I wasted an hour dealing with this stupid thing and I wanted to get work done and I CAN'T DO THIS!"

Yeah, it was bad. Poor Kevin. He is being very kind, especially considering he got his tonsils out on Tuesday. :( Eventually I calmed down, and got reading done...but not what I wanted to do.

After class today, I called the bike place. I couldn't register it over the phone - I had to come in. I needed the bike serial number. So I walked to my bike. Couldn't find it. Called them again - "It's on the underneath part of the bike - if you turn it over, you can find it." Of course, I can't turn my bike over - it's locked to a bike rack. So I lie on the ground and look for it. I find it, but it's upside and kind of worn off, so I have to go to the other side of the bike and lie down again to write it down. Then I walked to the Student Store to buy a new bike lock. (I bought a cheaper one, because I do NOT want to deal with this again. No u-lock for me, no way.) Then I walked to the parking center to register my bike. Then I walked BACK to my bike and called the police. "Okay, we'll send a parking enforcer right now - they'll be there soon." (Parking enforcer. I wanna be a parking enforcer!) Wait by my bike, and about 15 minutes later, they showed up with these huge cutters that were pneumatic or something. Probably not, but they were very large and intense. He cuts the lock, and I go on my way. That took 1.5 hours today of walking and waiting.

Man.

Hopefully I can be productive this weekend. It's been a frustrating couple of days.

Please admire my picture of the remnants of my lock. This is after walking around in 80 degree weather for 90 minutes. Sweet.