Dude on a Bike...this one's for you!

Ahhh. Blogging. I can't say that I have ever had the desire...until today. I feel inspired! Let me tell you why:

For those of you that don't know, I have been living and working in Finland for the past 2 years as a professional (haha) volleyball player. At this moment in Northen Finland, we have begun to experience the first weeks of winter (that being about 5 inches of snow and ice as well as cold weather to accompany it). My club does not provide me with a car--and the town I live in is so small that I would hardly ever need it--so instead, I rely on my bicycle to get me around town.

So this morning, about 7:40am, I'm riding my bike to practice extremely cautiously trying to concentrate on the divets in the ice and finding the sand tread and to be honest, the ride is SLOW. So naturally as I'm riding, I get to thinking and honestly, it's mostly negative things--I don't want to go to practice, I would rather be sleeping, I don't like my Coach, my body hurts--and that's when I see him. A lone male biker heading towards me at an alarming rate of speed. Immediately I begin to get nervous that he won't "share the road" but as he clears left so that I can stay right, I notice the HUGE smile on his face. At first, I begin to think that he is smiling a "Hello!" to me, but to my surprise, he makes no eye contact and speeds past me while continuing his goofy grin.

Why the hell was he so happy? Where was this man coming from so early in the morning? And where was he going? Clearly he was in a hurry, and clearly (not joking) the man was mentally ill. But nonetheless, he tickled me so deep that I couldn't help but bring it up to my teammate, Erica, (who travels the same way I do in the morning) at practice.

Me: Uhh, did you see that smiling guy riding his bike away from the sports hall this morning?
Erica: OMG YES! Did you!?
Me: hahaha YES! What the hell was he smiling about?
Erica: I don't know, but as I was getting close to him my Ipod shuffle broke into the Jackson 5 song "A-B-C"...how perfect is that?

And for the rest of the morning, whenever I had a negative thought, all I had to do was remember that dude on his bike and I suddently felt better. So, today, all of my positive thoughts in the universe go out to you, Mr. Biker-Man. Thanks for keeping it real.