Important Life Skill Number 274? Check.

Today, I rode a bike. By my self. For the first time ever. And mostly didn't fall. Someone should write a song. And do a dance. Tra-la-la!

Many thanks to the weather for being so beautiful and cool, the Beverly Airport for a nearly-empty parking lot, the Bicycle Gang (Nick, Mat, Kirk, Dawn, Sarah, Christy, Bekah) for their encouragement and good company, Nick and Mat for transporting me there and back again monkey-style, Kirk for helping steady the bike so I wouldn't fall and die before my time, and Brad for the generous although unwitting provision of a bike small enough for me. And, of course, my utter gratitude to the entire Beans Community for the tremendous atmosphere and conversations and food and all kinds of other things that they have grown and and sustained thus far and which have enabled me to dance, climb mountains, and stand on my head. Without all of you, this milestone in my life would remain sadly unpassed.

Next stop: Important Life Skill Number 293: Swimming.

[It has been suggested that we are all morphing into one communal personality...scary]

Bekah says, "Yo" now. And Grimes says, "I want Dunkin'Donas (in a thick Latino accent)" I say, "Yess...Pleassee..." in a very Bekah-esk way, and continue to expand my repertoire of accents and versatile mannerisms the more I live here.

It's what happens when people live together. No matter how different you are, you pick up each other's mannerisms, facial expressions and internalize peices of their personalities--so that when you bump into a friend of a friend's on Cabot St. they say, "that sounded just like Mat Schetne" or "you're starting to talk like Nick Hanlon."

It's what happens when you mock one another so much that you adopt that very thing that used to amuse you about him, about her--so that what used to be David mocking me has now turned into his own urban twang: "Gurlchild, please." "Oh no you didn't."