shifting realities

this is my secret:
I have a new bike.

I am still in shock, and it's been sitting in my house for an entire week now.

I pass by it---handlebars still wrapped in plastic to protect the tape, front fork on the ground because the front wheel isn't attached---and it's as if it's just visiting, resting there, soon to be gone and off to someone else's house.

I was not planning to become the owner of a new bike, but the universe was doing it's little conspiring thing, and suddenly this beautiful piece of machinery appeared in my life.

ok, to be truthful, that version of the story does leave out a few small details, but it certainly encapsulates the theme quite well.

the entire truth is this:

thoughts about a new bike have been jostling around inside my head for many months now, and I've been open to ideas and information and even entertained a few thoughts about the kind of price range that would be appropriate. I read a review or two, and then decided the shopping process just incorporated absorbing TMI: too much information.

how could I ever really make a decision? there was too much to consider, and I just didn't have it in me to research this project the way it probably should be done.

then I met someone who has a friend who owns a bike shop. if you ever need a new bike, I can beat my friend up for you, get you a good deal. right, like I will ever NEED that new bike . . .

I filed that information away, for possible future reference.

and then a couple weeks ago I received an email from a friend who wrote, hey, want to sell your bike? I have a buyer for you . . .

truly, could the universe have spoken any more loudly than it did?

thus, I have a new bike, and my old bike is having it's little self tweaked in preparation for its movement to a new owner.

and this is why I am content to go to spin class and wait for spring to truly arrive before I ride outside: I'm afraid to take this beautiful new thing out into the real world.

it's gorgeous, it's clean, it's shiny, it's healthy.

I will make it dirty, marred and marked, and miserable.

I have some work to do, don't I?

I've been processing all of this for the past week, and I know that I will eventually make peace with the situation, and take this shiny new thing out to introduce it to my reality. which will become its new reality.

soon, perhaps.

eventually.

once I get over the shock of having a new bike in my life.