Back when the Reverend Jesse Jackson, Jr., was running for president, he gave a speech at the University of Texas at Austin. By the end, he had the crowd of 5,000 Longhorns and some townie interlopers like me all riled up. He said “Repeat after me: “I am somebody. I AM Somebody! I AM SOMEBODY!” In true call-and-response gospel fashion, we chanted in full voice back. I believe that most of the time. But other days I’m just some dude who rides a bike and stuff, edits my bike memoir, and writes this blog. Sometimes there is no one theme for a post, so only a hodgepodge will do. This is one of those days. To quote John Lennon, another American icon of peace and justice: “My momma never told me there’d be days like these.”

This day started normally enough, with me sleeping in late because I’d stayed up late reading the (bad) news, editing my book, taking a pre-yoga nap, yoga-ing, then finally getting to sleep in the wee small hours. After getting a fitful sleep, I greeted the day reluctantly. The little black dog sleeping on the couch is always delighted to see me, and dog love him for that. At least I have that going for me.

I let him out back into the clear winter day and we both got some sun. he does an excellent downward, well, you know. And get this: if you tell him to shut the door, he will! He gets up on his back feet and scootches it shut. I’ve never seen another dog do that, and it’s completely adorable and endearing. He also does fist bumps and high fives. I’ll miss the little guy when I move. Well, not his barking at nothing and trying to lick your face after licking his you know what.

I showered off the scent of chlorinated pool water still lingering from my swim two nights before. Hooray! It was conditioner day. I breakfasted on the usual banana and my morning chocolate. Second breakfast was scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, potatoes and onions, checked some communications and (bad) news, and then biked under a mile to my part-time, very short-term job just in time for the second shift. After a few hours of work I took a break for a short walk to get some sun, buy a hydration drink, cheese-flavored popcorn (a whole grain snack), and oh yeah, a lottery ticket. They keep saying “NOT A WINNER” but I’m beginning to take that a bit personally. I am some… body, right? Right!

Then a co-worker, who previously gifted me with a hand-made paperback cozy that she normally sells for $6, asked for my number. (Curb your enthusiasm! — she’s older and married.) Apparently her husband is a “reality” TV cop show addict who doesn’t like going to movies, but she does. She overheard me say I liked going to them and there’s a new AMC Dolby Cinema in town with $5 Tuesdays, and the discount theater farther up the road that my friends don’t like to go to. So she invited me to drive me there sometime. That was really sweet and made my day. She also wants to write her own memoir about being a nurse in Vietnam, so I’m giving her tips on that.

It was cool and dark as I left work. I took Sophie the Fairdale on my second walk to meet my 1.5 miles, 30+ minute daily goal. Then I mounted up and headed to the house of a bike friend’s girlfriend for dinner. She made a nice feta-brined chicken, a flour-free salad with some bean pasta and chick peas (I said I couldn’t eat it because I was a dude – she likes puns, actually), and a fresh salad. Wine and a brownie were proffered but politely declined, trying to keep my carbs down and flour-free diet up. I went with passion juice and sparkling water. One can never have too much passion.

The roommate made it four. He is a Spanish speaker, so we chatted in his native tongue, which I do very proficiently but don’t get nearly enough practice. After dinner, he retired to his room, and the host gave me a tour of the small but cute house. It’s full of artifacts from her travels, musical instruments, and two friendly cats. There’s a wild herb garden, fig trees, and a yard backing up to some woods. The differently-colored brother cats checked me out, one making himself at home on the futon next to me while we talked about her work, music, trips and so on. The bike friend boyfriend chimed in on occasion. It was a pleasant evening and I bid them adieu.

I biked home in the cold to write this, read some more (news), and look over some fellow bloggers’ posts. I’ll do my half hour of yoga, five minutes of meditation, and gratitude/ingratitude journal. Hopefully I’ll get enough sleep for my third to last day on the job and put in more miles on the bike to get me closer to my weekly 100+ miles. And that’s what’s goin’ on with this dude. Just remember, repeat after me: YOU ARE SOMEBODY! What’s goin’ on with you?

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