This past week was very, very challenging.  A good friend of mine was going through a medical crisis and everything else took a back seat, including my daily bike rides.  This was scary stuff, life and death material, and my rides and my blogs and myself exited as I entered the Twilight Zone of doctor’s appointments and ER time.  But things are looking up, and she’s going to be ok, I think, and tonight I got back on my bike and turned up my Bruce Springsteen, and remembered what it feels like to ride, alone, through this city.

I set out with a goal–a rare thing for me, riding at night.  But I wanted the delicious sugary fried dough and sweet cafe au lait from Cafe du Monde, along with all the tourists who put this on their short list of must-sees in New Orleans.  In this case, the tourists are right.  The place is a bargain and just what a girl needs to recover from a week of deep existential crisis.  I enjoyed my treats and then rode my bike down through the Bywater to the Industrial Canal and back up the St. Claude bike lane, snapping pictures and remembering what it’s like to be alone in the company of strangers, focused both inward–giving myself whatever I want–and outward–being part of a larger world, a context outside my–and her–head.   It’s good to be back.