Who Cares About Bikes?

A big day is coming up this weekend - the bike race in Manayunk. People go crazy for this. Many of my friends plan to be cracking their first brew by 6:00 or 7:00 a.m. in celebration of the event. Sidenote: like me, most of these people have not touched a bike since they rode their Huffy in fifth grade. This sparked a conversation between my friend and me. I have been passively participating in plenty of events during my life simply because it is the norm. These things are usually dubbed as party days. I don't know how things got so out of control. Case in point - in all honesty, I don't care about St. Patrick. I don't think of him any other day of the year, but I will be the first to don a shamrock tattoo on my cheek and order a green beer on March 14th. Additionally - I could care less about any football game, including the Superbowl (this is blasphemy because I am a Penn Stater); I don't even know the meaning of Cinco de Mayo; the Fourth of July, Memorial Day, and Labor Day are all interchangable in my mind; New Year's is only important because of its Eve; and Halloween's appeal, which was lost when I was too old for trick-or-treating, came back with a vengence when I connected drinking and dressing up. I think that these days hold real meaning for very few people. Instead, they are a reason for people to come together and in one voice say, "I'll have another."