Why bikes rock: Reason #384,279

Last night Amanda and I went out with some friends in Sacramento to celebrate a birthday (one of their other friends). We walked around midtown where they live and where all of their favorite bars are (they are gay and midtown is the Castro of Sacramento). Due to a series of miscommunications, misunderstandings and mistakes we only saw the birthday boy for a few minutes but we had fun along the way and made a bar-crawl of it. We stayed out pretty late and as a result I drank more than I had anticipated leaving me in an undesirable condition this morning. I tried all of the normal remedies; big fat breakfast at Crepeville, double espresso from Old Souls, gallons of water and some aspirin; all of which failed to rid my head and stomach of their respective aches. When it came time to head to work I weighed my options. I had a car at my disposal today, or I could take my bike. I walked outside to see how hot it was and it was pretty nice, probably 90 with a cool breeze. I decided to suck it up and ride, concluding that the blood pumping around my body would probably be a good thing. I grabbed a water bottle my panniers and headed out the door. When I got on the road I noticed that the breeze was blowing north, giving me a decent tailwind. I turned on my ipod (yeah, yeah, I know; but I keep it low) and the shuffle feature provided me with a mellow soundtrack of indie rock and reggae (Spoon, Ziggy Marley, Cake, Bright Eyes, to name a few). I pedaled to the beat, keeping me at a steady but effortless 16mph. Forgetting my aches and pains I rode my longer route, slowing down to check out yard-sales and stopping at one point under the bridge to watch a motorcycle race at the river-bottoms. When I got into town I found I still had a few minutes so I rode around old Marysville, checking out some newly renovated office buildings and enjoying the shade of the trees that were planted by the original settlers of Marysville. When I finally got to work I was sad to get off the bike but I felt like a million bucks and looked forward to my ride home.