Ah, blissful times

How is it possible that I didn't leave my home yesterday? I was technically outdoors, yes, but upon walking back from the coffee shop just now I realized how good it felt to touch the earth, and that I hadn't done it since like Saturday evening.

So it was Saturday evening and Z had put on a movie for us (claiming I had missed a certain scene so it was time for me to catch up). And I got that drowsy, drunken feeling all cuddled up on the couch under a blanket, and just rode it to slumberland. Till Z started yanking on my arms and insisting it was time to go try out our new headlamps on a night bike ride. It was only 7 pm or something...and spitting rain...but for once this kid was insisting on physical exercise outdoors so how could I say no. First she said "only to Louis St." To which I said, how about a little more. We got about a mile away to the Walgreens, locked up the bikes, and went in to waste some cash. When I unlocked the bikes I sort of clumsily dropped hers down the curb...and about then I must've knocked the training wheel loose. She got on, and started to wobble over to that side, and then did a nice slow motion tumble into the grass (thankfully not in traffic on Mt. Prospect Ave). Through panicked tears and gasps, she decided she was **done** and that we would walk the bikes home. Tried reasoning with her. But she scowled and stomped (I felt like I was watching an old home movie of myself at age 7--or 40) and ignored me the whole way home, wincing and fighting tears each time her shins got battered by bike pedals. Childhood sucks sometimes. More than adulthood.

Here she is blissfully coasting downhill before the cruel world turned on her.