An Urban Boychick Takes on the Outdoors

 Vignette 1 On Presidents Day I went on a bike ride with some Freezing Saddles teams. The ride was led by some young, strong riders, so it was a little fast, but those of us in the back still just about kept up. At the end of the ride we stopped for lunch at a delicious vegetarian taco place in Georgetown. Despite it being mid-February, the weather was nice enough that the ten or so of us ate outside on the patio. My cycling friend N was on the ride. She is a breast cancer survivor who chose not to have any reconstruction. After we finished our tacos she reached under her cycling jersey and from her bra cup pulled out a baked sweet potato wrapped in plastic, which she proceeded to unwrap and eat. She explained that since she "has only one boob", she uses her other bra cup as storage on bike rides. I love that she is totally casual about the whole thing, like pulling a sweet potato out of your bra is just the most normal, natural act. It certainly didn't lose her any poin...

Some friends got me a gift certificate to a Thai massage place for my birthday. They figured I might enjoy Thai bodywork, which is an admixture of massage, Twister, yoga, and wrestling . I waited until after the holidays and finally made an appointment for my massage last week. The brochure which came with my gift certificate listed three massage options: Traditional Thai Yoga Bodywork ($139 for 90 minutes), Signature, which is described as a blend of Eastern and Western techniques (also $139), and Signature Deluxe, which is Signature plus hot oil ($140). When I called to make my reservation the woman with whom I spoke insisted that there were only two options: Traditional Thai and hot oil. She asked the amount of my gift certificate and when I told her "$139" she said, "oh, that's the amount for Traditional Thai - that's what I'll put you down for". There was a bit of a language barrier in our conversation and I just couldn't get across to her the i...