"Porca Miseria"

That's what I said to myself today, seconds after I fell off my new bike. It's one of my favorite Italian slang phrases that literally translates to dirty pig misery, but from what I gather it's a cross between "Oh crap" and "This sucks." I find it much more satisfying, though, to scream about dirty pigs.

So back to the fall...

Everything was going along smoothly, until my long and dangling shoe lace began to loop around the right pedal. One, two, three times it looped and then the tugging began. I tried to slow to a stop but seeing as my foot was now attached to the pedal, I couldn't use it to break my fall. Instead my right palm and butt cheek took on the job.  Porca Misera. Ouch.

The most embarrassing part was when I couldn't untangle myself from the wreckage because the darn pedal was out of my reach. So there I sat as the rush hour of Treviso passed me by. Oh it was just fantastic. As I was willing my go go Gadget arm to extend just a few extra inches, a nice Italian woman stopped to help.

She untangled me and then demanded that I tie both of my shoes. She held my bike as I wiped the mud off my jeans and then sent me on my way.

Karmic retribution for the man I ran over a few weeks ago? Perhaps.