I met my friend Tanya, and several of her friends, at Off The Grid in the Haight tonight. We tried a variety of different fusion foods from various trucks until we'd eaten our way around the world.
Then we walked a few blocks to Hobson's Choice and split a punch bowl. After a few hours of good food, good drinks, and good laughs, we decided to call it a night. I unlocked my bike and said my goodbyes.
As I rode home, I felt the breeze blow through my hair. It felt so liberating. For a moment I was completely content, as I glided down Cabrillo, singing softly to myself. That is, until I realized that I was only feeling this liberating breeze blowing through my hair because I wasn't wearing my helmet.
"Shit!" I said out loud as I slammed on my breaks. I realized that I must have left my helmet at the bar.
I turned around, and rode back to the bar as fast as I could. I got there in a speedy 10 minutes, sweating and panting, I asked the bouncer if I could leave my bike with him while I ran in to grab my helmet. He gave me an odd look and agreed. A newish-looking couple was sitting at our table. "Excuse me," I said. "Is there a helmet over there?" I definitely caught them off-guard, but they obliged in standing up and briefly looking. I turned my flashlight on and ducked under their table when they weren't able to find it.
"Hey!" I yelled to the bartender, after I didn't find it under the table. "Do you have a helmet? I mean, I left a helmet. Did anyone turn it in?"
He didn't even give me eye contact, and shook his head.
I walked out of the bar, defeated. Where could it have gone?
And then...oh. I felt my backpack, and sure enough there was a hard helmet-shaped object in there.
I tried to walk out of sight of the bar, but I'm pretty sure the bouncer saw me pull my helmet out of my backpack. Then as I hopped on my bike, to ride away as fast as I could, the chain fell off the gears. So I sat about 10 feet away from the bar fixing my bike for the next 5 minutes, and then took off like a storm.
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