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The Counter at Baltimore Bicycle Works on Falls Road

A crowded bike shop with a worker behind a counter and lots of tires and accessories surrounding them.

One of my bike rides this week took me down to Baltimore Bicycle Works, our local worker-owned coop bike shop, to make an appointment for a tune up and some new bar tape. I went with my friend R., who is getting the electric bike her dad gifted her in better working order. It took both of us making each other go to take care of this task, and I’m so glad we have each other to overcome the inertia that can keep me, at least, riding on a bike that needs a derailleur adjustment for far too long. Friendship is magic!

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Trucks, Fencing, and Traffic Barriers on Wyman Park Drive at Remington Avenue

I had a great week on my bike. I rode to the Y and back, even when I could have used the car–a small thing, but a big shift, and it takes basically the same amount of time. I biked to Mount Vernon for a coffee date, to Hampden for a lunch date, and down to Harbor East for dinner with a friend I hadn’t seen in over 20 years. It helped that the weather was unseasonably warm, but really, it’s a mind shift: the bike is how I travel, so that’s how I traveled this week. It was glorious.

My ride to Hampden took me along Wyman Park Drive, which was a construction clusterfuck because Johns Hopkins is building their new AI center on that corner, and they are cutting down a bunch of trees to make room for it. People who care about those trees are not happy about it, not at all. Hopkins says they’ll plant an additional 300 trees, but people who care about these trees want these trees.

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NO EXIT at Greenmount Avenue Signs at Barclay & Venable
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NO EXIT at Greenmount Avenue Signs at Barclay & Venable

I didn’t ride my bike that much in 2025. I spent much of the first part of the year slowly but surely recovering from three surgeries in the second half of 2024. I could bike commute that spring, but a single ride would take me two days of recovery. I spent a lot more time on buses and in carpools than usual. And then it was summer–too hot–and fall–work was so busy. Lots of late nights, I don’t like to ride at night, my boo works ten minutes from me–we’ll carpool.

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Building Obscured by Trees and Vines at Fremont & Lafayette

A building covered by trees against a blue sky.

I ride my bike all the time, but the most consistent riding I do is my commute. I ride the same way, day after day, for years. In New Orleans I rode between the Garden District and the Tremé so many times I knew the asphalt, intimately. I have spent years riding the Maryland Ave. cycletrack, right on Monument, left on Paca, right on Lombard. And then they moved the shuttle stops, and everything changed.

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Fall Tree Against a Backdrop of Blue Skies and Construction at Bank & Caroline

I had the time, energy, and weather for a bike ride today, and wow, it had been a long time since I got to do that. I started with a quick ride down the hill to meet friends for brunch, in celebration of B. and D.’s birthdays. I had a cobb salad–classic brunch dish, I know–and a cup of coffee, cheers-ed the friends, felt grateful for this part of my community, and then hopped on my bike to head home.

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Bikes at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park

Four bikes in a clearing on sand surrounded by trees against a brilliant blue sky.

Ok, this isn’t what I saw while riding my bike around *today* but I finally have a minute to write about it. I went to Miami last week to watch women’s basketball and visit some natural parks. I have no desire to spend money in a state like Florida, but I have every desire to spend money supporting women’s basketball, and I also really needed a vacation after canceling everything good last year. Thanks a lot, cancer! No clean living in capitalism, so I headed down there by myself, sunscreen and sneakers in tow.

And oh, I had such a wonderful time. I fed so many parts of myself. I went to Biscayne Bay National Park and learned about coral reefs, mangroves, and how many different histories overlap in a single place, as always. I took the bus to Miami Beach and South Beach to hobnob with rich people and the people who are meant to stay invisible while making sure the rich people don’t have to know that it takes labor to get that effortless lifestyle–and I got to learn a new bus system. I also learned, again, that yes, I like my black beans Cuban-d.

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Gorgeous Sky at Fremont & Mosher

Row houses against a backdrop of a giant blue sky with some looming cloiuds.

I was worried I wouldn’t still like riding my bike around, and then I’d lose access to the part of myself that likes riding my bike around. And then I thought to myself, if you don’t like riding your bike around anymore, that’s ok! Things change! You’ll always have enjoyed that, it will always have made your life so much more interesting, and you can be on to the next thing. It’s like getting a tattoo–what if I regret it? But regret or not, it will always have marked who you were at that moment, and that’s a record worth keeping.

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Construction at Greene & Baltimore Streets

Giant building under construction at Baltimore & Greene Streets

It has been a really long time since I sat down and wrote about what I saw riding my bike around today. I was diagnosed with breast cancer for the second time in June, 2024, and it has been a whirlwind. It was the best kind of cancer you can get, sort of, I guess, but the way you treat this cancer, especially the second time around, is by cutting out and off everything. I had three surgeries in five months, and even when I got on my bike between surgery #1 and surgery #2, my heart wasn’t in it. I knew as soon as I got back to my old fitness I’d get knocked down again, and also I was just still so tired.

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Cloudy Skies and New Construction at Monument & Central

It’s like they threw me in a blender at the end of June and I’m being poured out just in time for a new school year. Cancer, man, it’s a trip. I had a skin sparing double mastectomy on July 19, and the following couple weeks are a blur. And then it was all appointments, waiting, stripping that one drain that wouldn’t let up, and wondering if I’d have to do chemo. I found out on Monday that I won’t be doing it this time around, and my relief, overwhelming. I’ll do it again if it is important to extend my life, but I have never felt so detached from my life and whether I lived or died as I did when I was doing chemo. Happy to not go back there.

But there’s still a lot of healing to do, and more surgeries and treatments. I’m still fatigued. If you don’t know the difference between being tired and fatigue, ask one of your friends recovering from surgery, living with fibromyalgia, or doing pregnancy. I don’t know what my body will be up for each day, and when it turns off it really turns off. I can’t really put into words what it feels like, but believe me, it’s a rough go, and all the sleep in the world can’t fix it. For me, it’s my body’s way of telling me to slow down, we’re still healing, take it easy.

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Construction and a Tree on Caroline Between Pratt & Gough
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Construction and a Tree on Caroline Between Pratt & Gough

Construction workers in front of a big project with a lone tree in the foreground.

When I first rode my bike around east Baltimore after moving to town 13-odd years ago, I often rode through the Perkins Homes public housing development. I wondered to myself why the city let public housing and the people who live in public housing live so close to the ritzy neighborhoods of Harbor East and Fells Point. and here we are, and Perkins Homes is gone, being rebuilt like this. It is like being in a whole new place I barely recognize, and I also know that once it’s finished, it will feel like it has always been here. Because we get used to things, for good or ill.

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