Give all the angry people Dutch bikes

I have never had so much fun traveling to a meeting downtown, the bank, and the dentist.  I smiled at Republicans.  I whistled church hymns.   I winked at men attached to their iPhones and their football games.  I high-fived girls in skinny-jeans.  I hugged PC-users.  I saw my reflection and Halle Berry stared back.

If you want to inject giddiness, carefreeness, and love-for-all’ness into the mundane, the routine, the everyday, do yourself a favor — get a Dutch bike [also known as an upright or a cruiser].  I fell in love with them when I borrowed Uncle Dan’s in Denver and college-friend Erin’s in Amsterdam this summer.  But I already had a bike.  A Lady with Two Bikes?  Who am I?!?  Someone who lunches at Gibson’s, sips cosmos, and buys jewelery somewhere other than Kohl’s?  I resigned myself to being a wistful Lady with One Bike.

But then last Friday, I was hurriedly and weirdly shooed out to Boyfriend’s garage.  An early birthday present!  And our Amsterdam friends, in town for the weekend, verified it as authentic-Dutch.  Bliss.

New Dutchies are expensive.  Troll Craigslist [“criusers” appears to be the best keyword to search with]; there are a lot of seemingly good deals out there.  If you already have a bike, sell it.  Give it away.  Or become You with Two Bikes.  On a cruiser, you’re ten pounds lighter, your teeth are whiter, and everyone wants to be your friend.