I sure hope so. The past few weeks have been so, so rough. Getting the first part of my thesis report together was a nightmare and a half, though my presentation and panel review yesterday went much better than I was expecting and it was thoroughly helpful and gave my momentum a boost.
After a post-panel drink with Carolyn, I headed home to kick off my heels and pull on some layers for what will hopefully be the last frigid critical mass until fall comes back around. What ensued involved was falling a couple of times, being called "Hot Pants" by a police officer, my first bike-car contact, not getting to eat Indian food like a certain map promised, small and funny apartment parties, small and weird other apartment parties, small and awesome pool party, riding home with wet hair and clothes at 3am. Total blast. Dragons. Fake money. Sauna. Pizza. Band-aids.
And today I went with Carolyn to Working Bikes where we found her a nice Ralieigh mixte that she was happy with. Yay bike shopping! And on the way home I swung by the Renegade Handmade store for the bake sale my friend Sue was having to raise money for Haiti and while there I bought some delicious vegan (and non-vegan) treats and a great winter bike hat (that would have been very useful yesterday).
I'm out of energy. Did not get enough sleep last night. This post is over.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Monday, March 8, 2010
Chromes, Greys
I want a chrome bicycle so bad my guts ache! There is a chrome Carlton that works in the building next to my school. I've sat in the coffee shop window a few times to stake it out and see who comes to unlock it and ride it home, but I can never stick around long enough.
It's gloriously mild today, and thoroughly foggy. Despite being in a 9th floor window a block from the lake, I might as well be a day away, as it's enshrouded by the most solid physical manifestation of grey that I've ever seen. Like this, but tangible... and damp... and everywhere:
I'm making some good(ish) headway on the new thesis research. Looks like I'll be visiting Detroit a couple of times in June for a few days each trip, plus (funds allowing) Philadelphia, Providence, and Portland? Maybe San Francisco while I'm on the west coast if they have programs that suit my research. It's weird to suddenly feel very centered, when less than a week ago I was a total. wreck. Maybe I'm just in denial. Hm.
It's gloriously mild today, and thoroughly foggy. Despite being in a 9th floor window a block from the lake, I might as well be a day away, as it's enshrouded by the most solid physical manifestation of grey that I've ever seen. Like this, but tangible... and damp... and everywhere:
I'm making some good(ish) headway on the new thesis research. Looks like I'll be visiting Detroit a couple of times in June for a few days each trip, plus (funds allowing) Philadelphia, Providence, and Portland? Maybe San Francisco while I'm on the west coast if they have programs that suit my research. It's weird to suddenly feel very centered, when less than a week ago I was a total. wreck. Maybe I'm just in denial. Hm.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Worst blahgger ever
Worst week of grad school ever.
I have been working on my thesis proposal for a month, and then it got changed on Wednesday and now I have to do all that month of work all over again, but in a week this time, and when that all sank in I just hit a mental wall and cried a little and drank some whiskey in a stair well by myself (don't worry, there's a first time, and a last time, for everything, and it's exciting when those happen at the same time!). Then I realized that I care about my new topic 100 times more than my old one (and it's far less naive and self-righteous) and all was again right with the world. I'm noticing that days I skip my bike ride to school are harder to cope with than days when I click down the hall to class sweating and red-nosed.
So bike updates: I might be getting a new bike tomorrow. Yes, that will mean I have three bikes, but seriously, one of them is getting sold as soon as this weather looks a little more reliable and I can make my money back on it. And I got lobster gloves and toe covers last week just in time for RDDR.... oh wait! I never posted about the ride I dreamed up and planned with Amanda and Gabe- The Ride!Drink!Dance!Ride! Ride. Here's the flier I made for it...
I have been working on my thesis proposal for a month, and then it got changed on Wednesday and now I have to do all that month of work all over again, but in a week this time, and when that all sank in I just hit a mental wall and cried a little and drank some whiskey in a stair well by myself (don't worry, there's a first time, and a last time, for everything, and it's exciting when those happen at the same time!). Then I realized that I care about my new topic 100 times more than my old one (and it's far less naive and self-righteous) and all was again right with the world. I'm noticing that days I skip my bike ride to school are harder to cope with than days when I click down the hall to class sweating and red-nosed.
So bike updates: I might be getting a new bike tomorrow. Yes, that will mean I have three bikes, but seriously, one of them is getting sold as soon as this weather looks a little more reliable and I can make my money back on it. And I got lobster gloves and toe covers last week just in time for RDDR.... oh wait! I never posted about the ride I dreamed up and planned with Amanda and Gabe- The Ride!Drink!Dance!Ride! Ride. Here's the flier I made for it...
The turn out was great. 20 people at the start? Lots of riding and dancing and I'm already looking forward to April's RDDR, RDDR:EUROTRASH. We'll be hitting up Polish Country on the west side of Chicago and starting at a Polish buffet where I guess I'll eat cabbage and boiled potatoes. And dance. Click below for more RDDR:INAUGURAL pics...
...we were pretending to be riding our bikes in time to the beat. NERDZ.
What else? What haven't I covered? School's hard. I've been eating less real food and more ice cream lately than is healthy or good for anybody. I've been buying groupons (and not redeeming them- YET) so I can eat fancy foods on a grad school budget. The weather was mouthwatering for a couple of days, but the rain's moved in and now I absolutely must invest, finally, in rain gear. Somehow I imagined this town just going from snowy to sunny with zero liquid precipitation in between. Sigh. Scout still hates the other cats. I'm going to visit Detroit soon to check out the Rivera mural as "research" for my art history paper. I shot a gun for the first time today. Then I shot another one. Two of us went through 150 rounds really really fast. I want to go again. I cut my hand on a library book drop box. I finished my homework early. I realized that unless I make peanut butter cookies, it takes months and months to finish one little jar of peanut butter.
And in a minute I'll post some pictures of shooting and the Blue Bike I Want To Sell, plus here- a picture I never posted after I first finished the paint job on my Gitane...
Oh, here:
The Bridgestone I'll be selling asap. Comfy seat, goofy bar tape. Nice rack (heh) that now lives on the Gitane. Somehow it's just never felt like my bike since I got it home. Too bad.
Aaand shooting... so weird.
Monday, February 8, 2010
Danger staring you in the face
Oh yeah, here's my inspirational jam for the week. Did you sing this song alone in your bedroom and think you were an amazing vocalist? Yeah, me too...
Those dimples, that little nose wrinkle... Motivations.
So I went to a bike expo over the weekend and didn't buy anything except beer and a veggie burger, but then I went home and planned on studying but I couldn't shake the feeling of missing something... something important. I then went to a bike shop and spent a lot of money (though it was only $18 more than I'd budgeted to spend at the expo... about the same as the burger and beers...) and walked out with these babies
and the pedals to go with them, and a wrench for the pedals, and a litt-le bag that will fit under my seat and hold small things like keys and a wallet and a phone so I don't have to carry a backpack all the time. Within the next few days, I will be riding my bike, attached at the feet, and it will be awesome. Between now and then, however, a winter storm is expected to dump 7-10" of fresh snow on my fair city.
Grad school got real last week. Real real and real hard. And I'd thought that had already happened... Remember that really reading-intensive class last semester? Yeah, well I've got three of 'em this semester and I'm not sure how I'm going to actually accomplish everything that needs accomplishing. I guess it doesn't help that I am blahgging instead of reading, huh?
It also doesn't help that, as I believe Angela pointed out, I have accidentally joined a bike gang and, resultingly, I have taken on the exciting challenge of organizing a mobile dance party ride called The Ride, Dance, Drink, Ride! Ride. If the weather is good, I'm guessing we'll get 15-20 people out on bicycles to ride around town and dance a lot, both off and on bikes. With mobile sound systems. Am I excited? Yes. Am I spreading myself thing? Ehhh.... yeah, probably.
But taking it easy doesn't feel as good as taking it... hard. Hrm.
Oh, and I just picked up some more hours in the computer lab, just this second, so that's, per week...
9 hours of class
12 hours of TAing
12 hours of lab monitor duty
and 30-40 hours of reading/homework if I want to be a good student and have a complete thesis proposal by the end of the semester...
The rest my time will be for the most fun stuff I can dream up (see: mobile dance party).
Those dimples, that little nose wrinkle... Motivations.
So I went to a bike expo over the weekend and didn't buy anything except beer and a veggie burger, but then I went home and planned on studying but I couldn't shake the feeling of missing something... something important. I then went to a bike shop and spent a lot of money (though it was only $18 more than I'd budgeted to spend at the expo... about the same as the burger and beers...) and walked out with these babies
and the pedals to go with them, and a wrench for the pedals, and a litt-le bag that will fit under my seat and hold small things like keys and a wallet and a phone so I don't have to carry a backpack all the time. Within the next few days, I will be riding my bike, attached at the feet, and it will be awesome. Between now and then, however, a winter storm is expected to dump 7-10" of fresh snow on my fair city.
Grad school got real last week. Real real and real hard. And I'd thought that had already happened... Remember that really reading-intensive class last semester? Yeah, well I've got three of 'em this semester and I'm not sure how I'm going to actually accomplish everything that needs accomplishing. I guess it doesn't help that I am blahgging instead of reading, huh?
It also doesn't help that, as I believe Angela pointed out, I have accidentally joined a bike gang and, resultingly, I have taken on the exciting challenge of organizing a mobile dance party ride called The Ride, Dance, Drink, Ride! Ride. If the weather is good, I'm guessing we'll get 15-20 people out on bicycles to ride around town and dance a lot, both off and on bikes. With mobile sound systems. Am I excited? Yes. Am I spreading myself thing? Ehhh.... yeah, probably.
But taking it easy doesn't feel as good as taking it... hard. Hrm.
Oh, and I just picked up some more hours in the computer lab, just this second, so that's, per week...
9 hours of class
12 hours of TAing
12 hours of lab monitor duty
and 30-40 hours of reading/homework if I want to be a good student and have a complete thesis proposal by the end of the semester...
The rest my time will be for the most fun stuff I can dream up (see: mobile dance party).
Monday, February 1, 2010
Is this turning into a bike blahg?
Perhaps it is, and I'm okay with that because clearly that suggests what part of my Chicago life I'm most super pleased with right now.
The semester started last Thursday. I TA two sets of freshmen now, all day Thursday, all day Friday, and my kids now seem super fun and generally more energetic than they were last semester. Maybe we all had a rough start. We were all new. I looked at my reviews from last semester's class and they were, to put it modestly, stellar. I feel like I'm doing something right here. I am wondering how late is too late to switch the the teaching track...
I'll still be working long Mondays and a jaunt on Tuesdays in the computer lab, and I've got a required Art History class on Tuesday mornings, Thesis I on Tuesday nights, and another social theory sort of class on Wednesday mornings with the same incredible teach from last semester. I am generally pleased with this schedule, and it leaves me with mostly free evenings and nice blocks for studying/reading/doubting.
Over the weekend I rode for a short bit of Critical Mass and also did the Full Moon Fiasco with my new bike friends. I seem to be developing two full sets of very different social scenes, ArtEd and Chainlink, and I really really like it. Like a lot. I suddenly feel like I know people here who could eventually make this place feel like home. I am working on it and embracing it and feeling generally in love... but that kind of tentative love where you're sure this thing is worth loving in thought, even if it hasn't yet quite proven it in deed, so you decide to just go ahead and love because that is more pleasant than resisting, but sometimes you still get a little worried about the whole situation and you tend to keep that to yourself. Unless you have a blahg.
So here are things I want/need (besides bikes themselves):
Clipless Pedals , major major step
Shoes , for my pedals. Velcro for grownups!
Tights like this , but specifically windproof
Lobster gloves , for real finger quotes and dinosaur impressions
Rain gear , because it isn't always snowing
For those and many other reasons, I've been asking the universe to help me win the lottery. I guess I should help the Universe by actually buying a lottery ticket some time.
Post lottery money deposit, this place will be one of my first stops.
The semester started last Thursday. I TA two sets of freshmen now, all day Thursday, all day Friday, and my kids now seem super fun and generally more energetic than they were last semester. Maybe we all had a rough start. We were all new. I looked at my reviews from last semester's class and they were, to put it modestly, stellar. I feel like I'm doing something right here. I am wondering how late is too late to switch the the teaching track...
I'll still be working long Mondays and a jaunt on Tuesdays in the computer lab, and I've got a required Art History class on Tuesday mornings, Thesis I on Tuesday nights, and another social theory sort of class on Wednesday mornings with the same incredible teach from last semester. I am generally pleased with this schedule, and it leaves me with mostly free evenings and nice blocks for studying/reading/doubting.
Over the weekend I rode for a short bit of Critical Mass and also did the Full Moon Fiasco with my new bike friends. I seem to be developing two full sets of very different social scenes, ArtEd and Chainlink, and I really really like it. Like a lot. I suddenly feel like I know people here who could eventually make this place feel like home. I am working on it and embracing it and feeling generally in love... but that kind of tentative love where you're sure this thing is worth loving in thought, even if it hasn't yet quite proven it in deed, so you decide to just go ahead and love because that is more pleasant than resisting, but sometimes you still get a little worried about the whole situation and you tend to keep that to yourself. Unless you have a blahg.
So here are things I want/need (besides bikes themselves):
Clipless Pedals , major major step
Shoes , for my pedals. Velcro for grownups!
Tights like this , but specifically windproof
Lobster gloves , for real finger quotes and dinosaur impressions
Rain gear , because it isn't always snowing
For those and many other reasons, I've been asking the universe to help me win the lottery. I guess I should help the Universe by actually buying a lottery ticket some time.
Post lottery money deposit, this place will be one of my first stops.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Full Moon Fiasco
I think I'd be really depressed if I suddenly couldn't ride my bicycle.
That happened fast.
That happened fast.
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