PSA - No Phone Zone

Public Service Announcement! I take No Phone Zone very seriously and you should too!



Basically, I give personal tips for running a No Phone Zone life. When I visit Arkansas and use a car, I take it very seriously. I want all my friends and loved ones and contacts to know this.

I hope texting and driving gains a negative social stigma and people stop this dangerous, scary, senseless behavior. 

My tips: Be loud and proud about your stance on the matter. I'm not ignoring you, I just don't answer my phone while I'm operating a vehicle. It's not snobbery, it's safety.

Tell your date/friend what time you will meet up. Set and keep dates so you are not reliant on your cellular phone/text. If you run late, pull over the car and park it before you pick up your phone to alert anyone that you are running late.

There's nothing so important that you should update facebook while driving. Only Beyonce is that cool, and she has a driver.

If you're in a text convo and you need to drive, text your friend: BRB Gotta Drive and they should know that they can expect to hear from you later. 

Journal Entry

I'm carefully painting my nails at my desk at work...one at a time... as to not attract attention with the smell. We had our The Bachelorette watch party last night (up past bedtime) and tonight I'm going to see the Gossip (concert of rad music) so here and now is the only time I can paint my nails into the hot pink festive color that the season requires.

I'm very excited to see Beth Ditto tonight. She's an Arkansas girl too. The last time I saw her, she had a cute, custom-made dress and her voice is so big and mighty, it's thrilling.

Last weekend was nice. Matt's first weekend at home in a few weeks. I was so busy, I let him vaccuum. Usually he is not qualified and I do it. I volunteered at PP on Saturday and he played basketball with his little gang. I got there early and took myself to get breakfast at Peels. I had a biscuit (It's hard to find biscuits around NYC) and jalapeno grits. My volunteer shift was pretty peaceful, but there was a small event when a neighborhoodie stole one of the anti-choice protesters signs. This is an act of dreamboat charm in my eyes.

If you ever need to go to an AB clinic and you don't want the pro-lifers to swarm you, I advise you to not come with your boyfriend. Come with a group of girls so they don't know where to focus their energy. They also seem to be ageist, in that they don't harass not-so-young ladies. Or maybe they know the not-so-young ladies will rip up their propaganda and toss it in their face, which sometimes happens.  

Monday I got pretty rained-out on my bike. I had a little trouble stopping on the wet streets. It's hard to ride slowly and gingerly when you really want to haul-ass and escape the misery of being rained on. My jeans were wet til about 1pm. I get in at 9am. It was gross.

I never really did a post about the bike fashion show. The best part was meeting JSK and getting to talk to her about her career path before the other people figured out who she was and started bombarding her with requests and complaints and I felt bad for her, because this must happen in every social setting. Later I said something like "Gosh, it was nice before everyone figured out who you were" and she was cute about that. She's a badass and it was really lovely to get to speak to her. She rides a globe brand bike and wears the Bike New York nutcase helmet.

The other great part about the fashion show was testing a bunch of bicycles but I'm really sick of talking about bicycles right now.

Let me get back to painting these nails. (revlon fuchsia fever :)

The Bike Ladies Picnic was Rad

Everyone was really cute, really cool and everyone already rode bikes so it was just a good old, lady biker jam session on a beautiful sunny afternoon. Rad, I tell you!

I'm really tired but I wanted to digest what I feel was a great success and a very nice time - My Bike Month event - the Ladies Brown Bag Bike Brunch Picnic. (Back in the cold of winter, I was invited to a TA bike month planning event and I was compelled to host a little something-something and this was my event.) I had such a nice time and I'm so thrilled with the awesome ladies who turned up. Thank you! We have a wonderful community of stylish ladies on bikes. I'm so proud of us. 

I was really busy talking and listening and eating things so I didn't get the most thorough pics but I stole Malaika's pics, per usual.



Malaika and I were hanging out for a little bit after the event, and I realized how amazingly coordinated she was today - Helmet looks fab with dress. She's the best.


I wanted to have something so the ladies could find me, so I went to Party City and got a dozen balloons. It was fucking insane riding with a dozen balloons. The wind was hearty today and the wind resistance of riding a bicycle made this really exciting in the obnoxious way, but man, they looked cute, and I think they were awesome for my visibility going down the street.



After balloons, I went to pick-up cupcakes. When I came out, Ethan Hawke was on his cell phone in the bike lane. He totally watched me balance a huge bag of cupcakes on the left handlebar and wrangling a dozen balloons kind-of behind me (so I could try to see) with my right hand. Luckily, I wasn't going far in this precarious arrangement. I'm not looking for boys, but I'm pretty sure Ethan Hawke was impressed with what a boss I am.

I loved everyone who came out today and they were all cool ladies who I'd love to see again.


Everyone who attended already had bikes and rode in either Manhattan or Brooklyn or Queens regularly. Some were daily commuters. Some were getting started in commuting. Nobody was a scaredy cat - everyone seemed confident about riding. We talked accessories, cargo and helmet hair.

Oh! I loved how most everyone showed-up in a helmet. Safe chic, baby!

Amanda is such an awesome girl. I've met her before and I enjoy her through many internet outlets, especially the tweeter. She's floral everything and a faux chanel fanny that I'm quite envious of.


Totally unrelated to the topic at hand, but really cool and we were excited was a plane flew over and spelled-out a marriage proposal in smoke letters or whatever-you-call that stuff.

Christine Hall will u marry me? We hope/imagine she said yes. We couldn't readily locate her from our post.

I made it home with just two balloons, a lot of string and shreds. It was all good riding home with just two. That's probably my max.


I want to say again, THANK YOU to everyone who attended. I feel so happy that we have such a nice community of stylish ladies on bicycles- Seriously, everyone looked so stylish. Made me so proud and happy!  We should have organized and had a little photo shoot, but we were so busy talking and talking.

Chantal, Gabrielle, Krista, Jen, Amanda, Adrienne, Malaika, and Gigi, Thanks for making the afternoon so great! 

Bike to Work Day!

Bike to Work Day! , a photo by JPH - Juleskills on Flickr.

Happy "Bike to Work Day!"

I can't tell if the extra people I saw on my commute were in it for the Holiday, or just the awesome, gorgeous weather.

Either way, who cares. It's fun to have more bikes going down the street so you can stick together and part the waters betwix us and the cars.

My Bike Ladies picnic is this Sunday! Check the link of info in the right margin. I really want to meet ladies who are contemplating riding these mean streets.

I got the courage to start biking from a tiny, badass Japanese lady who rides a kiddie BMX. I thought "if she can do it, I can do it" and I hope ladies meet Me and see "If SHE can do it, I can do it!"

Happy Weekend!

PS- I'm 99% sure I'll have a bouquet of balloons to mark the spot at the picnic.