a little face time?

Thursday, May 20, 2004, at 09:27AM

By Eric Richardson

Today is Metro's Bike To Work Day. Even though my bike's been messing with me lately I hopped on and headed over to 5th and Hill to catch the red line. I got downstairs just as a train was pulling out, so I got to wait the full 5 minutes for the next one. That's the second time in less than 24 hours I've had my hand on the door of a train just after the doors closed.

At Union Station I was about to pick up my bike and climb the stairs when I got approached by a girl working for Metro's PR department (I think she actually said the MTA... isn't that verboten these days? "Call us Metro"). She was looking for bike to work day stories, and asked me the usual questions of whether I knew what today was ("yes"), if I rode specifically because it was bike to work day ("i made a point of it"), and why I did this rather than drive ("because it's more fun"). She also took a picture, which featured me standing in front of a gold line car next to my bike, helmet on, hair flowing out from underneath, and wearing a "Westside Baseball" half-sleeve. I hope they use that for something. I'll have to keep an eye on the site.

As I tend to do when I switch from car to bike, I forgot my JPL badge today, which means I get to walk around with a temporary printed badge sticker on my shirt. I even had the badge in my hand this morning, when I went to grab it and my headphones. The headphones made it here, the badge didn't.