Pretty good Easter morning

1. Tulips on Park Avenue, 2. Bonnie stalking a bird, 3. Bonnie, 4. Shoes, 5. Delicious bagel, 6. Ricky G. 

Slightly Awkward Bike Outfits

These pants look much better (they're high-waist flares) without the ankle straps pinning them around so they don't get caught in my bike chain.




Helmets don't always look the coolest, but who cares! Brain injuries aren't usually sexy either.


Ooh! I got The Laundress fabric fresh spray to fight my paranoia that I smell like a tail pipe.

Bye, Bye, Green Bike

Our last morning commute together. I never got completely comfortable on this bike. I also had issues with the gears, as in, too-high and too-low issues. I turned in my first draft and I hope they let me review more bicycles and accessories in the future. It was fun having new responsibilities in my commuting. I was tasked with evaluating this guy, and I liked the process. It was fun to try out a new bike, even though I didn't fall in love like I was afraid I might.

Matt took this yesterday when we were off for President's Day. We aren't photography lighting experts, obviously.


I had ambitious gols for the holiday, but we mainly carried out our weekly tradition of The Bachelor watch party. A screen-shot I took of Courtney's strained, un-sympathetic face was used on I Hate Green Beans Bachelor re-cap blog. (!!!)

Tonight after I dropped the Nirve bike off at the shop that built him for me, I scurried over to the bus stop and waited patiently. I haven't used my metro card in so long I had no idea it was completely empty and I had to get off the bus. I ended up taking a cab, and that's just fine. We've been so lucky with this awesome winter. I know everyone must be sick of hearing about it, but this time last year I was doing good if the snow was clear enough for me to commute three days a week. I can barely remember the last time I wasn't able to bike to work. I am grateful for this warm winter. 

Valentine's Day Pussy Bow

I looked like a little old lady of the 1960's today in my heart-printed pussy bow and glasses.  Advanced Style is rubbing off on me.


I love this blue blouse - Those are hearts, not polka dots. I of course found it at a thrift store in Arkansas. It has those wonderful Made in U.S.A. tags you don't see much anymore.

I got the new TOMS ballet flats in pink suede and they are really sturdy and fantastic bicycle riding shoes. They have a really serious sole for ballet flats. Non-skid supreme. 

Yes, I had to ride my girlfriend, Kate the Bicycle, for Valentine's Day. The pink tires had to be out for the holiday!

Tonight we ate a heart shaped pizza and Matt passed out super-early. We stayed out late last night at out weekly The Bachelor watch party. Yes! We totally hate Courtney and we're disenchanted with Ben, but we can't stop watching. Can. Not. Stop!

Nirve Mixte Review Diary

I took the Nirve Wilshire Mixte on probably the biggest single ride we will go on before my review is due to Momentum. I've been doing my daily work commute, which is about 8mi. round-trip.

Today was 29º and very windy and I took it around the big loop in Central Park - about 6miles, plus getting over there and coming back. 


Doing the big loop was a lot more work than I expected on this bike. I'm just not sure about the gears on this bike. I feel like 1 and 2 are really high gears and 3 is quite low.



I don't want to be all, like, "On my single-speed, blah, blah, blah-" So I won't.

I made a video immediately, to collect my thoughts and because I was exhausted for some reason, but there was a lot of wind so watch it if you like, but I'll re-cap below.


Riding this over to Central Park and doing The Big Loop felt like a lot of work.
This bike has 3 gears. 1 and 2 feel higher than I would like, and 3rd gear seems really low.

It is fun to put the bike down in the 3rd gear on flat, straights and get crazy speed.

However, I am not a fan of speed because I envision however fast I'm going correlates to how fast my delicate, precious skin could be skidding on asphalt, so I do prefer to keep it slow.

I have a geometry issue with this bike. I'm going to have to make a diagram to explain it.
I've struggled to get the seat-height right and I need to show you a diagram to justify my conclusion.

I think these fancy tubes are why it handles bumps so gracefully. This also shows you the glittering green paint.


A portrait.


I got a bell added. I feel less-lawless and this is the most polite-sounding bell ever. I need to find out exactly what it is. It's not as blaring as you sometimes need among the noise in the city, but it's a really pleasant sound. If you're shy about being rude ringing your bell, this is your bell.


I put my basil brand wire basket-pannier on the rear rack and secured it with a bungee.


That's it for today. Please let me know if you have any questions because I've never reviewed a bicycle before. My first draft is due in about a week and I should have a few more commuter-rides on it 'til then.

Guest Post on BikeMinded

I have a guest post on BikeMinded today!

I tucked away some bike outfits so they would have fresh material for the post.

Check it out here. It's about bike style since it's fashion week... again.

I did this highly visible casual Friday look for the post.

RED coat - Forever 21, white bern helmet, clear glasses from Claire's, Citizens of Humanity jeans, F21 fake converse with gold toe.

My Kate Middleton Bicycle is so pretty... She needs to be healthy and strong. 

I'm Going to be Fair and Maybe Organized

I'm reviewing a bicycle and I'm reviewing what I wore today.

Here we are on our morning commute. 

Part A. What I wore.
Basic Denim button-up shirt; I feel sloppy in this, so I dress it up with suspenders

And a silk necklace I made.


My faux fur was benched for a while because it smelled so nasty from exhaust. Bastard trucks! 
It was a gray day, so I went with my bright white bern helmet. J Brand jeans, Gap booties, Kate Spade bag has to be worn because I forgot to bring a basket for this bicycle. 


Part B. The Bicycle.
For every negative thought I write here about this bicycle, I'm going to write a positive.
I want to keep everyone in suspense until my official review comes out in Momentum Magazine.

First, the bad news: This front logo thingie is peeling off.


Great news that will be repeated again and again and again because I can't get over it- This guy takes bumps like a freakin' cadillac. I don't really understand why, but when I go over bumps, like that nasty patch in Times Square, this bike feels very comfy and doesn't jar. I have to stand up a little and brace myself on my Linus those bumps are so bad.

This guy is smooth. Yes, I think this bicycle is a guy. A young man, not just a boy.

I also loved putting it in the low gear going around Central Park and passing the heck out of some other bikes.

But I need a basket. The handlebars are too light to carry even this small handbag without being a little loosey goosey.  But it's silly and dangerous to carry your handbag on your handlebars anyway.


Some people have real problems and I'm glad I'm not one of them.

Pretty Leaves Finally! Jeeez

Uggghhh... my hair is so big and crazy I'm just looking the other way most days and putting pins or a headband in/on it.

My camera eyelids are still messy but this guy's trees all got messed-up in our freak snow storm so they chopped 'em down. He's all alone but it's kinda pretty being all open.



I'm really happy about this!

I'm not thrilled that my evening commutes are guaranteed to be in the dark, but the leaves have fallen and the temps aren't too cold so you get some great lights & skyline views that were hidden away behind the leaves in Central Park.

Time's Up Moonlight Ride is All That

I just got home from the Times Up NYC Moonlight Ride and I loved it!
It occurs the first Friday night starting at 10pm of every month.
I've been trying to not-have something to do but have failed for several months now. I'm so glad we did it!

Malaika got this cape from a seller on Etsy. It's beautiful! And so is she and I had so much fun, I'm glad she didn't let me punk out and get in my bed at 8pm like I could have/would have.

If you're looking for a cape, she and I recommend this one.  I'm really in a mood where I want to buy made in USA things or thrifted items. I'm trying to not-buy disposable, cheap, made in china shit clothes.

Sidenote: I asked the head designer at my company what she thought of a certain local chain in NYC and she said "Slutty garbage."  Deadpan comments like that thrill me.

If you're not good at seeing in the dark- You need to get some sick lights or maybe don't do this because it was quite dark sometimes and you just had to trust that you weren't about to be bumped off your ass.

Great thing about it - It's a real treat to be able to ride on the paths in Central Park in the middle of the night. At first I felt like a rebellious schoolgirl riding on the walking paths where bicycle riding is forbidden and not to mention- rude.

But at night when no one is there it's sweet.

Our first stop happened shortly into the ride. This is Wollman rink and it's probably a good idea because I bet you a dollar it's way less popular than Rockefeller's or Bryant Park's.


I'm really glad about my outfit-

I was perfectly prepared for the temps and the terrain. There are terrain situations - wear sneakers! This is my tough-ass-bitch leather motorcycle jacket I bought over the summer from a real motorcycle supply place. It's finally cool enough to wear it. I got an American Apparel hoodie (heathered brown) to wear under it and beef it up a little.

Me and Malaika gossipped and chatted the entire ride and felt bad that we were probably bothering everyone but I hope we were OK and I hope we didn't seem too silly. We were dressed quite differently from everyone else. There was a majority of reflective safety vests, like utilitarian ones.

Overall- I loved this ride. We were dazzled almost immediately and maintained excitement and loveliness/romance about the city at night. I hope I can do it several more times and get some friends and my punk-ass playstation playing husband to do it too!

We stopped just a few times. I kind of expected more stopping, hanging out-type socializing. At this stop at the northern end of The Great Lawn, there were some astronomers who let us peep through their telescopes. That was fun and nice of them.


Suggestion: I think lights should be required or strongly recommended on this ride. (Lights are the Law anyway) -Not to light your way, but to make you visible to others. I came up real close on a slower person who had no lights in the beginning.

Safe coincidence: Only 1 person was not wearing a helmet in our group of about 20 riders.

Me at the end! I had a scarf wrapped around my head/ears to protect ears from wind.

I also had to zip my chest-plate up. The wind was cool and fierce on the way home. Sometimes the wind is pushing against me and it feels like I can't move forward and I laugh nervously in those times sometimes.

Also- I got these Ski glove at the K-Mart. Thank goodness I had them!


I rode home at almost midnight up a desolate Madison Avenue.


When I got home at Midnight I was hungry mungry! Thanks to Malaika for a very nice Friday night bike date and thanks to Time's Up for being such a nice organization. I was so happy when they got a shout-out on Rachel Maddow tonight for the generator bikes down at Occupy Wall Street.

No- I have not yet been to OWS because I'm scared the police will beat me up. 

Missoni Day was a Fun Day

I ventured down into the Pulitzer Fountain area in Central Park this morning. 

I'm glad I've got Missoni scarves coming my way from my very thoughtful and team-work-oriented Mother-in-Law from Arkansas, and my Sister-in-law in SC, because I need the style challenge of wearing scarves. 

It was really fun today getting updates from friends in different cities about the status of the Missoni selection at their local Target store. Drought and ravage seemed to be the themes of the day. 

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law kept me busy all day with pictures of options at their Target stores and later I got pics of my little niece modeling her new stuff. Target got their promo game right with this one. This was a very fun day. 

If you missed it- This is what I worked out BEFORE 7am. 

I love that Bethenny Frankel was in line before they opened. 

The Good Kinds of Appointments

Sometimes, I swear my days have a magical air about them. Yesterday was one of those days.

I had the appointment at the FIT Museum where I turned over that vintage, Made in U.S.A. Betsey Johnson swimsuit from 1983 that I was recently gifted. I'm thrilled they are reviewing it to be accepted as a donation to the FIT Museum.

I got there and the registrar came to greet me. She exceeded my wildest fantasies of what an Fashion Institute of Technology Museum staff person would look like. She was wearing the perfect outfit. She was very sweet and took me to a room where I laid the swimsuit out on a table covered in a cloth that looked like muslin. I filled out a form kind-of like a release form. She was enthusiastic about the item and said other people on staff were happy to see it too- They will meet in October to decide its future.

I could see racks labeled "Daphne Guinness" as there is an upcoming exhibition of her things. I told her that I'm excited for it since the McQueen exhibit is over, and I'm glad I'll have a good fashion exhibit to scare my family for all my visitors this fall.

She told me how great and helpful Daphne was being and I felt special getting a little behind-the-scenes scoop.

Next up, I found out my cousins have a cabin upstate. Our originally scheduled Labor Day Vacation resort had to cancel on us due to Hurricane Irene damage, so my cousins are saving our vacation-needing lives. We are beyond thrilled to:

A. See my cool cousins
B. Escape the city and get into nature
C. Not have to pay the previously booked nightly rate we were bracing for

So our vacation posse is absolutely elated that our vacation has not only been saved, it's sounding awesomer by the minute.

As I was leaving work headed to the East Village, one of my favorite delivery boys was also heading downtown/home on his bike. We didn't know that each other rode bicycles so it was exciting and we had a social ride. I think riding together with another biker makes you more visible so it was nice all-around. Here is is on his bike:

It's nice to ride with a friend.

I put on lipstick for the next event-

This lipstick is MAC Full Fuchsia

I went to the East Village to do my BikeGirlsTV interview. I think I did a pretty good job.
I hope the show gets picked-up or just sees the light of day in some way so I can share it.

I ran into a very sweet former co-worker and we had a nice little quick chat. We keep in touch online, but it's great to see people's actual face sometimes. How was my day working out so perfectly!? 

I used 1st Avenue to ride all the way uptown home. The temps are cool lately, so it felt great. I think I made it home in record time because I just made it into the pet-food store for Bonnie.

Me and Bonnie walked across town and across the Park. I was a little scared that we would get in trouble for being in the park after dark but we walked up on the very loud, police-attended protest of the Boat House. There were all these drums and hecklers. I had the Bonnie dog, so I felt safe. Not like she's fierce, but I knew we were not alone.

We hung out with our cute friends on the West Side. One of them had some new dresses and we checked 'em out and Bonnie made herself right at home in their apartment and put herself to bed in their bed while we caught up on some trash TV.

By the time Bonnie and I were ready to head home it must have been shift-change time for taxi's so we could not get a cab and not because one of us is a dog- We gave up pretty fast. We walked back through the park and enjoyed the nighttime views and the peacefulness.

When I got home Amy Sedaris was on Jimmy Fallon. I love both of them a lot.

Bike Tricks - Biking in a Short Skirt

The shorts gave me one less thing to worry about. I even wore them around the office because they weren't bothering anyone. No one could see them!

But they did peek out on the ride. Just a little.

I've worn this dress before. It's a $20 piece from Charlotte Russe. I couldn't believe it was cool enough to start out with a little cardigan this morning. I took it off before I went on my way and by the time I was at 51st Street at 7th Ave - I was sweating in some places.


Vans cat eye sunglasses - L.A.M.B. hobo in the basket
Cardigan with sequins - sample from work
Leopard dress from Charlotte Russe
Belt - Thrifted vintage snakeskin - found in Arkansas
H&M conservative faux suede pumps with studs on the heels
Bicycle by Linus
Pink tires by Fyxation

Camera-Free Times

I read this article and felt queased. Sometimes I feel like I'm wasting my life taking pictures of things and of myself. I try my best not to take photos in museums or in performances. It's rude for the most part.
I also don't point my finger really close to, or point a toe toward art or low-lying art or sculptural objects. -But I don't hang out with that person anymore. Just sayin'

Friday evening I went camera-free. I had small moments of panic, but I remembered to just chill and enjoy the moment. I didn't even have my phone. Un-plugged. Free. I set out with some money and my dog. And some baggies.

Me and Bonnie walked West to Madison Avenue. We browsed the LeSport Sac store. Bonnie lay on the floor while I walked around trying different bags out for size. She's an older dog, so I can count on her for good behavior. That's why I was brave and took her into Jonathan Adler. I was equal parts nervous that I myself could break something. We both succeeded and the staff was very sweet to both of us. -Even after Bonnie infiltrated the employee side of the cash-wrap. 

I realized we were close to the Met and I was hungry and dressed like a bum, so we got an iced coffee and a cupcake at a food truck and sat down on the steps. A cute Asian girl reached out telling me she wanted to pet Bonnie. She said "Sooooft!" Yep. 

I realized how deep in tourists I was and had an idea that I could start a tour business there. I could just take tourist ladies out on Friday nights. "Wanna party with a neighborhood girl? Let's go!" -just a thought. 

I dropped most of my cupcake on the steps. It was a gorgeous cupcake and it was missed immediately. I let Bonnie have at it. A man was asking me question after question about dogs in New York. I needed to escape this. Bonnie was ravenously searching the steps for more discarded cupcakes. We broke free from the interrogation and headed south to enter Central Park.

We walked south from The Met checking out those little tourist vendors with tables of artwork. I got the idea for our family Christmas card. I'm really proud of my idea and it will be a fiercely guarded secret. Here's last year's card. 

I heard a really jazzy, New Orleans-sounding brass ensemble and we walked toward them. I got out a dollar for their tip hat. I told them they were doing a great job and they said I should stay. I said "She's on a mission" as Bonnie's nose was to the ground. We moved on. 

The sky was getting dark and I recently discovered famous-person's address I wanted to stalk. I came upon a man with a huge tripod and telephoto lens and others with binoculars. I knew it was a birding club. They had a fantastic view of a red-tailed hawk. I was feeling pretty friendly so I found out that this hawk was one of pale male's babies. It was a large, intimidating creature. Bonnie was not interested. She hunts ground birds. 

I sat on the little fence looking at this bird and talking to this man with the big lens. The hawk flew out of plain sight so I said goodbye. We headed to look for this famous person. I can't tell which home is hers, but I bike that street a lot, so I'll keep my eye out. Hint: I've seen her before. Twice. Once I paid and once I saw her out in the wild. 

We were pretty close to home when it started raining. It was thundering and lightening. By the time we were about a block away, the rain started coming down in cold sheets. We waited under an awning with a girl until we got the cross-walk signal that we could cross. When we got to our building I let go of her leash and we both skip-ran toward our apartment across the courtyard. 

I was freezing and had grime on my legs from running in the rain. I started to run a bath and one of my relatives called. It was a really good phone call. They needed me to make the airline arrangements for their visit. I'm very happy they are coming up for Thanksgiving. It's going to be really fun and festive with these two. 

I got a funny gossip-text from my husband who was out at a bar. 

This was a really nice evening. Camera free, technology-free, on foot, just me and my puppy-dog. 

Matching your outfit to your bike 101

I didn't try to match my bike today, but it's a happy coincidence and of course I love the color palette.

This is a TJ Maxx $16 or $19.99 rainbow leopard print dress and a little girls section elastic glitter belt from H&M. Claire's boutique white bow sunglasses. J. Crew leopard tote in the basket. Patricia Field Polly heels. They're not the best bicycle shoes. I will give-in and admit that. But they're very comfortable.

My nail polish is Essie Tart Deco and at first I thought it looked mac & cheese, but it's grown on me and I'm so happy I see Gwen Stefani also has peachy-orange nails so that's good affirmation.

Two pink watches- Neither one set very accurately.

Sanrio 50th Anniversary McDonald's Happy Meal My Melody watch and Casio digital from Target.

New York City is finally stinky, sticky hot. Tomorrow I am gonna slut it up to beat the heat.

Bike bruises on display!