small victories, part one

Yesterday I took my bike out for a spin. It was a gorgeous evening, and I was way out in China Basin, when I went over a couple nasty bumps, and then a few train tracks, and suddenly- I was pedaling air. I pulled over to the sidewalk to investigate, and oh man, my chain had fallen off. not broken, fortunately. I briefly considered how long the walk might be, but Loli is not a lass easily carried, and so I put down the kickstand and prepared to operate.
Now, my experience with fixing things- any kind of things- is minimal, but I'm okay with puzzles, so I thought, "no problem! I'll just- fix her!" I flipped her over and discovered that the cover over the chain, which so wonderfully protects my pants, gets mightily in the way of any fiddling around with the chain area. After a few minutes, a guy rode by and asked me if I had enough tools for what I was doing. I panicked, in my head, thinking: "tools? am I supposed to be using tools? oh, shit! I have no idea what I'm doing!" but said, "uh, no! thanks! I think I've got it!" "Because if you needed some tools I've got some in my backpack." "oh, no... I, uh, think I'm fine! just need to get the, uh, this, um. on. thanks, though!"
and then I fixed it! I rode home with hands covered in grease, and a great deal of pride.
you may applaud now.
curtsey