I'm going to blog for 30 days straight starting May 1st. No biggie. If you want to join me, please visit every day and pop your link in the comments.

Connie Hozvicka posted this. And then Andrea mentioned (on social media) that she got one, too.

And I remembered a brief period of bliss in my adolescence when I had a great bike, and I used it every day. Every. Single. Day. I rode that baby down to the river and I went up and down the river road for hours at a time with the wind in my hair and the sun on my face. That bike = freedom. That bike was my ticket to solitude, to nature, to heaven.

Much later, when I lived in Austin, I got a bike shortly after I moved there, and me and my kidlet would ride *everywhere*. Barton Springs. Ruta Maya. To the grocery store. Cycling was my only mode of transportation, and I rode myself happily ragged (Austin has some killer hills) until depression and a really shitty relationship (sorry, M, but you know it's true) cut me off at the knees.

I moved here and eventually bought a bike, but one of the kids wrecked it within a week of my getting it (jumped it off a curb and bent the tire). Another bike a few years later...same thing. I kind of gave up on the whole bike thing.

But Connie's post and Andrea's post reminded me of how much I loved cycling.

I mentioned it to the Manfingy (with whom I am housemates until further notice) and guess what I got for Mother's Day?

THIS! I GOT THIS!!!!! OMG SQUEE!!!!!

AND SHE'S PURPLE!!!

She doesn't have a name yet, but I'm thinking on it and I'll be sure and let you know what I come up with. At the moment, I think of her as my purple groove machine, but PGM doesn't quite encapsulate the sheer JOY she brings me. There are a few things that I have gotten as gifts from the Manfingy that I appreciate a great deal, but most of those things are either work related (my phone, my Mac Mini, which my girl kinder inherited after three years of solid use) or 'family orientated' (my Apple TV). This? This is for ME. And I love it more than words can say.

I had to ride it home from the store yesterday.

It was after sundown and the air was that perfect cool that only Spring provides. I soared home (wobbly legs and aching butt aside) and felt that old sense of freedom that I used to feel when I rode.

I rode again today.

I'm probably going to ride again tomorrow.

I am so blissed out over it.

And that's today.

(Art will be made this evening for my 30 day painting challenge, so I'll have something to show you tomorrow!)