Friday, April 9, 2010
It was Friday, April 9, 2010. Bryan and I were parting ways after the best date of my life, and I played him a Flight of the Concords video, Jenny, before I left for work.
Hilarious, he said.
Later that day, Bryan joined me at Cal's, where I'd gone drinking after work. Those were the days when closing at work meant getting out by 5 at the very latest, so I'd been there for a good 3 hours by the time Bryan joined me around 8. He brought me a new patch kit, tube, and levers, as the contents of my saddle bag were stolen while locked up to his fence the previous night.
He'd spent the afternoon building his first wheel with Owen's help at Blue City Cycles, our LBS on 32nd and Halsted, just across from Bernice's. It was a front wheel with drum (!) brakes and... I want to say a gold hub. I'm doubting myself because that sounds garish, but I think his wheelset had gold hubs. Owen was building up the rear wheel for him - maybe he'd done it that same day, and Bryan rode up to Cal's on new wheels? That would make sense!
He liked working with his hands, and it was clear Bryan was proud of his wheel and pleased with his afternoon. There was that spark in his eyes again, now that we were at Cal's. There was live music, as was often the case on Fridays, but I didn't notice the band much. We closed down the bar and headed back to Bridgeport.
The next day, on Sunday April 10, 2010, we met up at Teresa's Lavanderia on 31st Street for a laundry day date. We lived so close to each other that we shared the same laundromat. We got coffee and breakfast at the Bridgeport Coffee House. After our respective laundry piles were done, we deposited them at our houses and met up at Blue City, and after the bike shop we continued to the 31st Street lakeshore to read. [i wonder what i was reading by the lake! i don't have a mental image of this so i wish i had something more here, but all i wrote was "laundry, bike shop, read at lake and 31st."]
For dinner, we headed to a small BBQ at Chuck and Heather's place.
Hilarious, he said.
Later that day, Bryan joined me at Cal's, where I'd gone drinking after work. Those were the days when closing at work meant getting out by 5 at the very latest, so I'd been there for a good 3 hours by the time Bryan joined me around 8. He brought me a new patch kit, tube, and levers, as the contents of my saddle bag were stolen while locked up to his fence the previous night.
He'd spent the afternoon building his first wheel with Owen's help at Blue City Cycles, our LBS on 32nd and Halsted, just across from Bernice's. It was a front wheel with drum (!) brakes and... I want to say a gold hub. I'm doubting myself because that sounds garish, but I think his wheelset had gold hubs. Owen was building up the rear wheel for him - maybe he'd done it that same day, and Bryan rode up to Cal's on new wheels? That would make sense!
He liked working with his hands, and it was clear Bryan was proud of his wheel and pleased with his afternoon. There was that spark in his eyes again, now that we were at Cal's. There was live music, as was often the case on Fridays, but I didn't notice the band much. We closed down the bar and headed back to Bridgeport.
The next day, on Sunday April 10, 2010, we met up at Teresa's Lavanderia on 31st Street for a laundry day date. We lived so close to each other that we shared the same laundromat. We got coffee and breakfast at the Bridgeport Coffee House. After our respective laundry piles were done, we deposited them at our houses and met up at Blue City, and after the bike shop we continued to the 31st Street lakeshore to read. [i wonder what i was reading by the lake! i don't have a mental image of this so i wish i had something more here, but all i wrote was "laundry, bike shop, read at lake and 31st."]
For dinner, we headed to a small BBQ at Chuck and Heather's place.