Spokes-woman

Biking through Manhattan is, in a word, exhilarating.

Yesterday it took me forty minutes to bike to work – over the Brooklyn Bridge, through the Financial District, up the Westside Highway. It was great. But I gotta say that my favorite part of biking Manhattan is, shockingly, midtown (wearing a helmet, a neon yellow vest and a special no-hit shield made of fiberglass, mom).

At lunch I pedaled my way over to Park Ave. and 46th. Weaving through the taxis and police cars, tourists and businessmen, garbage trucks and delivery vans, I truly felt, I don’t know, like a New Yorker. I felt like I was part of something. I even took my iPod earbuds out to listen to the sounds of the city. It was exciting.

I was part of the brave group of cyclists that battle the Manhattan traffic everyday. A diverse crowd including Chinese food delivery men, Thai food delivery men and Japanese food delivery men. I was tempted to hang two plastic bags of take-out from my handlebars just to fit in.

But being in that traffic, in that collective energy, in that living, breathing chaos – what a rush. Which is why I’ve decided to quit my job and become a bike messenger.