Bikes, Ice Cream, and Anime

Let's play doctor. I'll tell you what my symptoms are and you tell me what the affliction is. 

1. The amount of soccer I played last week doubled. 

2. My coffee/espresso consumption tripled, at least. 

3. The amount of cute girls I got phone numbers from stayed the same (zero). 

4. The amount of thai food and ice cream I consumed increased by an amount that cannot be measured without using unreliable, cutting edge metric techniques. 

If you guessed that Alban came to visit, you're pretty smart. Or you read my previous post. I won't make a big deal about "who used which method." You're all winners. Right? 

Saturday we decided to take bikes and ride Bainbridge Island. Like bosses. Horrible bosses. 

After riding the ferry (one of my favorite things) and enjoying a delicious meal of bread and cheese, Alban rented a bike and we left. Bainbridge Island is a little more curvy than we had anticipated. But as Tommy always says, "Ain't nothin' wrong with a little extra curve." A few miles into our tour we ran into a hill that got the better of us. We dismounted and sheepishly pushed our bikes the rest of the way. When we reached the top, we saw her. The most beautiful road-biker-babe either of us had ever seen. On a scale of 1-10, she was forget your name cute. She added to our misery as she rode past by giving us a semi-flirty - "good try boys..." 

Later, we caught the ferry back to Seattle and started the walk back to my apartment. I wasn't really paying attention... and what should have been an easy walk back to Capitol Hill turned into an experience. We ended up in a weird concrete park surrounded by hundreds of what we later learned were attendees of Sakura-Con. Wikipedia describes Sakura-Con as an "annual three-day anime convention." These people were dressed head to toe in costumes that go way beyond anything most people can imagine. They spoke alien languages and placed spells on one another. It was amazing. The irony is that Alban and I were the misfits in our jeans, t-shirts, and matching shoes. 

Our accidental visit to Sakura-Con reaffirmed the idea that people need community. I'm sure the anime enthusiasts were experiencing the same warm feelings I had when my brother and I attended an Arsenal game in London. It's a good feeling to be in the company of like-minded people.