There was an inch of snow on the ground when I woke up this morning. It stuck around all day, and more is going to be coming down throughout the week. Let winter begin.
How did I respond to this snow? First with a lot of impolite words, mostly under my breath, and then by turning my singlespeed bike into a fixed gear. See, I'm not going to ride my race bike in the snow because not only would it be dangerous on skinny slick tires, but I'd end up ruining the bike once they start putting down salt and I start crashing because of ice. So, in order to continue riding as often as possible this winter, I need to ride my steel-framed clunky commuter bike. But that's no fun. At least until now.
A fixed gear bike does not let you coast. Any time the wheels are turning the pedals turn too. It's how all bikes used to be before the invention of the freewheel. The benefits of riding a fixed gear bike are that you get stronger (zero rest = strength + endurance), pedaling technique improves, and you learn how to pedal at a really high cadence, because that's just what happens when you going to go downhill. And, it's a whole lot of fun, mostly because it's a new challenge. The challenge is simple, if you attempt to stop pedaling while the bike is moving forward you do one of two things: If you're in control you skid to a stop and feel lucky, if you're out of control the bike flips you over the handlebars. I rode it around the block a couple times today, but it was getting dark fast, so I'll need to do a real test ride as soon as I get the chance. With luck I won't be doing any flips.
In other news, school is still insane, but I'm still enjoying it. I will be observing in the operating room all day tomorrow, which I'm really looking forward to. I have no idea what kind of surgery I'll be able to see, or if I'll see multiple, that will be decided when I show up.
My housemate, Jess, and I spent an entire day baking this weekend. We're coming up with winter survival plans and a lot of them involve food. This plan was specifically to get a weird food at the public market every week and make something with it. This weekend was persimmons. I'd never had one before, but it turns out they're really delicious. We made persimmon tarts and persimmon cookies. And then just for fun we made some hummus. Next week I think we're going to try making bread, and something with our mystery market food. This is a fun game.
Showing posts with label bike. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bike. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Sunday, July 13, 2008
Rainy Day
I'm loving the rain right now. Yesterday was a miserable 90 degrees with the sticky humidity permeating everything. Today it is about 70 and raining, which just feels like Portland.
I'm done with my first classes. I've written the last paper and taken all the tests. I have most of the grades back, but not quite all. Some are better than others, but I should pull at least an A- in everything, I think. I'm actually going to go talk to my pharmacology professor about my clinical paper assignment, because I either really screwed up something and can't figure out what, or the TA that graded my paper didn't do a very good job. I'll find out which tomorrow.
This weekend has been pretty lazy. I spent all day Thursday at Muddy Waters writing my genetics paper. Friday I lay around the house watching a really good stage of the Tour, then went for a ride in the rain that was sadly cut short by a flat tire. I changed the tire but the pump I carry with me is only powerful enough to inflate the tire to 75%. That's enough to get home on, but isn't fun to do any real riding on and any underinflated tire is more likely to flat again. After I got home I was covered in mud and grease and spent about an hour scrubbing myself clean.
I then ate lunch and promptly fell asleep while attempting to read. Luckily I woke up in time to get dressed and head over to Sarah's for a game night. Unluckily, I decided to pump up Johnny's tires before I left and managed to break the valve and let all the air out. That meant that I would have to change the tire, which takes a ridiculously long time on Johnny because his tires are kevlar and not very stretchy. So I called Sarah and she came to pick me up. She had Yasmine and Maya with her and Maya was not very happy at all. She's got a probable yeast infection, and was doing a lot of screaming. Anyway, when we got home Sarah took care of Maya while I got a lesson in cucumber peeling from Ronen. Apparently there's a very particular way to do these things in his family. Paul showed up at some point and we were all put to work getting dinner ready. Dinner involved the usual toddler-induced hilarity and chaos. After dinner, while the little ones were being put to bed, Paul and I made cookies and got Settlers out to play. We played the Cities and Knights version, which I had only played a couple of times before but really like. Paul beat us without too much competition, and then we just sat around chatting until Sarah looked like she was going to fall out of her chair from exhaustion. I got a ride home from Paul and immediately passed out in bed.
Yesterday was supposed to be my first day of working on the Fuld project. I met up with Elspeth, another friend from class who is working on the project with me, and we rode our bikes to an STD clinic in the "bad part of town." It's actually about a mile away from my house, but it's amazing how the neighborhood changes in a very short distance. It's not a dangerous place to be in the middle of the day, but I would never go there at night. We found the clinic and met with LaRon, who is running the study. We thought that we were going to be recruiting young moms to participate in the focus groups but LaRon informed us that they had been having trouble getting enough people, so they've hired a full-time recruiter. That was a big relief to me, since walking up to teenage moms in the street and asking them if they'd like to come talk about their sex lives didn't sound like much fun. So Elspeth and I just got a tour of the STD clinic, which is a cool nurse-run free clinic that offers a lot of really good services for free. He then gave us the software and stuff we would need to do transcription and emailed us the audio files of preliminary group sessions so that we could get an idea of what to expect. I started listening to one last night and transcribing it is going to be hard work. First of all, it's hard to understand what they're saying because of the way the talk and all the slang they use. Secondly, they all talk at the same time, and they have their kids with them to scream in the background. I'm one of the people transcribing next weekend, so it'll be very interesting to see how well I do. At least I don't have to recruit, but it'll be slow going.
Today I'll just be hanging out at home finishing up a lot of minor chores. I'll edit my genetics paper, do some laundry, maybe some baking, finish listening to those audio files, sew patches onto my scrubs, and maybe get to the assignment that we already have for our next class. It's not due until Wednesday though, so I'm not terribly worried. My schedule looks pretty manageable next week, it's the following week that things get crazy with the beginning of clinicals.
I'm done with my first classes. I've written the last paper and taken all the tests. I have most of the grades back, but not quite all. Some are better than others, but I should pull at least an A- in everything, I think. I'm actually going to go talk to my pharmacology professor about my clinical paper assignment, because I either really screwed up something and can't figure out what, or the TA that graded my paper didn't do a very good job. I'll find out which tomorrow.
This weekend has been pretty lazy. I spent all day Thursday at Muddy Waters writing my genetics paper. Friday I lay around the house watching a really good stage of the Tour, then went for a ride in the rain that was sadly cut short by a flat tire. I changed the tire but the pump I carry with me is only powerful enough to inflate the tire to 75%. That's enough to get home on, but isn't fun to do any real riding on and any underinflated tire is more likely to flat again. After I got home I was covered in mud and grease and spent about an hour scrubbing myself clean.
I then ate lunch and promptly fell asleep while attempting to read. Luckily I woke up in time to get dressed and head over to Sarah's for a game night. Unluckily, I decided to pump up Johnny's tires before I left and managed to break the valve and let all the air out. That meant that I would have to change the tire, which takes a ridiculously long time on Johnny because his tires are kevlar and not very stretchy. So I called Sarah and she came to pick me up. She had Yasmine and Maya with her and Maya was not very happy at all. She's got a probable yeast infection, and was doing a lot of screaming. Anyway, when we got home Sarah took care of Maya while I got a lesson in cucumber peeling from Ronen. Apparently there's a very particular way to do these things in his family. Paul showed up at some point and we were all put to work getting dinner ready. Dinner involved the usual toddler-induced hilarity and chaos. After dinner, while the little ones were being put to bed, Paul and I made cookies and got Settlers out to play. We played the Cities and Knights version, which I had only played a couple of times before but really like. Paul beat us without too much competition, and then we just sat around chatting until Sarah looked like she was going to fall out of her chair from exhaustion. I got a ride home from Paul and immediately passed out in bed.
Yesterday was supposed to be my first day of working on the Fuld project. I met up with Elspeth, another friend from class who is working on the project with me, and we rode our bikes to an STD clinic in the "bad part of town." It's actually about a mile away from my house, but it's amazing how the neighborhood changes in a very short distance. It's not a dangerous place to be in the middle of the day, but I would never go there at night. We found the clinic and met with LaRon, who is running the study. We thought that we were going to be recruiting young moms to participate in the focus groups but LaRon informed us that they had been having trouble getting enough people, so they've hired a full-time recruiter. That was a big relief to me, since walking up to teenage moms in the street and asking them if they'd like to come talk about their sex lives didn't sound like much fun. So Elspeth and I just got a tour of the STD clinic, which is a cool nurse-run free clinic that offers a lot of really good services for free. He then gave us the software and stuff we would need to do transcription and emailed us the audio files of preliminary group sessions so that we could get an idea of what to expect. I started listening to one last night and transcribing it is going to be hard work. First of all, it's hard to understand what they're saying because of the way the talk and all the slang they use. Secondly, they all talk at the same time, and they have their kids with them to scream in the background. I'm one of the people transcribing next weekend, so it'll be very interesting to see how well I do. At least I don't have to recruit, but it'll be slow going.
Today I'll just be hanging out at home finishing up a lot of minor chores. I'll edit my genetics paper, do some laundry, maybe some baking, finish listening to those audio files, sew patches onto my scrubs, and maybe get to the assignment that we already have for our next class. It's not due until Wednesday though, so I'm not terribly worried. My schedule looks pretty manageable next week, it's the following week that things get crazy with the beginning of clinicals.
Friday, June 20, 2008
End of Hell Week #1
I survived and did well on all my exams. Now I get a little bit of breathing room, supposedly. Except I need to stay on top of the written assignments so that I don't have to deal with them during hell week #2, which is coming up after the 4th of July weekend. Current assignment list:
- Nursing Care Plan (ugh, but shouldn't take too long)
- Clinical Paper for Pharmacology (this one will be fun!)
- Comprehensive Health History (ridiculously detailed, will take forever)
- Health Assessment Final Demonstration (I get to do this on my birthday. Yay?)
Notice the complete lack of exams for this week. I'm very excited about that.
Today was the class picnic. We had a lot of fun and I got to meet and play with many small children. Mostly Sarah's kids, because I have been officially adopted into Sarah's family. I even hung out with her at their house and played with her dog this morning. And she asked her two year old if I could come over and play again and the answer was yes. Apparently that's all it takes to get adopted. Oh, and she still wants to hook me up with her friend Paul. So I should expect an invite to a BBQ any day now.
Anyway, the picnic was good, and the ride with Bernie after the picnic was good, and tomorrow I'm meeting a guy that might be renting me a room within a 2 minute walk of school and down the street from Sarah's house. I'm really ridiculously excited about that. I'm sure I will write up a full report about it tomorrow. Oh, and my new roommate finally moved in tonight. I've barely met him, but I'm sure I'll write about him once I get to know him a little more.
Oh! One very exciting development on the landlord front. The oven broke this week, so I emailed Jon about it. He actually called me back the next day to tell me that he would have a new one ordered. This afternoon we got it arranged so that the delivery will be next Wednesday. I'm so impressed with his handling of this after the dryer fiasco. Maybe he's learned that he actually has to hold up his end of the bargain if he doesn't want to lose money. I sure hope so, even though I probably won't be living here beyond the summer.
I think that's all the news of the week. This is going to be a crazy weekend of writing, researching, and cycling. I think that's a perfect way to spend a weekend.
- Nursing Care Plan (ugh, but shouldn't take too long)
- Clinical Paper for Pharmacology (this one will be fun!)
- Comprehensive Health History (ridiculously detailed, will take forever)
- Health Assessment Final Demonstration (I get to do this on my birthday. Yay?)
Notice the complete lack of exams for this week. I'm very excited about that.
Today was the class picnic. We had a lot of fun and I got to meet and play with many small children. Mostly Sarah's kids, because I have been officially adopted into Sarah's family. I even hung out with her at their house and played with her dog this morning. And she asked her two year old if I could come over and play again and the answer was yes. Apparently that's all it takes to get adopted. Oh, and she still wants to hook me up with her friend Paul. So I should expect an invite to a BBQ any day now.
Anyway, the picnic was good, and the ride with Bernie after the picnic was good, and tomorrow I'm meeting a guy that might be renting me a room within a 2 minute walk of school and down the street from Sarah's house. I'm really ridiculously excited about that. I'm sure I will write up a full report about it tomorrow. Oh, and my new roommate finally moved in tonight. I've barely met him, but I'm sure I'll write about him once I get to know him a little more.
Oh! One very exciting development on the landlord front. The oven broke this week, so I emailed Jon about it. He actually called me back the next day to tell me that he would have a new one ordered. This afternoon we got it arranged so that the delivery will be next Wednesday. I'm so impressed with his handling of this after the dryer fiasco. Maybe he's learned that he actually has to hold up his end of the bargain if he doesn't want to lose money. I sure hope so, even though I probably won't be living here beyond the summer.
I think that's all the news of the week. This is going to be a crazy weekend of writing, researching, and cycling. I think that's a perfect way to spend a weekend.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Sexy research
Apparently you guys think I should study either condoms or prostitution... I dunno what that says about me, or you, but I'm sure it's something. I've emailed the coordinator for the condom use study because that one sounds the best to me. I would actually be able to sit in on sessions with participants and do transcription of interviews, which would be fun.
Today was still hot. Katherine ended up being unable to ride with me, but I still went out for about an hour this morning on Paris. It was nice and relaxing, except for the sweat dripping all over me. Everyone at school seemed shocked that I was still riding my bike in this heat, but then they would go sit outside during class breaks. I think they're all insane.
I'm probably not going to race tomorrow night, since the forecast calls for a high of 86 with accompanying thunderstorms and potential large hail. Doesn't that sounds like fun. At least it'll be cooler. The low at night will actually drop to 70ish tonight, which will be a welcome relief. As an example of how brutally awful the heat is, there was a pro bike race in Philadelphia (about 3 hours away) this weekend. 190 men started, less than 50 finished. And these guys get paid for this.
I'm having other problems with the weather. All of my bread is going moldy. Until this past week I'd been keeping everything in the cupboard because fridge space is limited. Well, half a loaf of bread got covered in black fuzzy stuff in just s couple of days, so anything that has survived is now refrigerated. The thing that really puzzles me, though, is that my bagels got moldy. Why is this a puzzlement? They were in the freezer. How does mold grow in the freezer? I know they weren't moldy when I put them in there, but I went to toast one this morning and it was covered in little white spots. I thought maybe it was just from freezing, so I warmed the bagel up a little, and turns out the white spots smelled like mold. And they were on all 10 of the bagels in that bag. Rochester must breed super-molds or something, I just don't get it.
Today was still hot. Katherine ended up being unable to ride with me, but I still went out for about an hour this morning on Paris. It was nice and relaxing, except for the sweat dripping all over me. Everyone at school seemed shocked that I was still riding my bike in this heat, but then they would go sit outside during class breaks. I think they're all insane.
I'm probably not going to race tomorrow night, since the forecast calls for a high of 86 with accompanying thunderstorms and potential large hail. Doesn't that sounds like fun. At least it'll be cooler. The low at night will actually drop to 70ish tonight, which will be a welcome relief. As an example of how brutally awful the heat is, there was a pro bike race in Philadelphia (about 3 hours away) this weekend. 190 men started, less than 50 finished. And these guys get paid for this.
I'm having other problems with the weather. All of my bread is going moldy. Until this past week I'd been keeping everything in the cupboard because fridge space is limited. Well, half a loaf of bread got covered in black fuzzy stuff in just s couple of days, so anything that has survived is now refrigerated. The thing that really puzzles me, though, is that my bagels got moldy. Why is this a puzzlement? They were in the freezer. How does mold grow in the freezer? I know they weren't moldy when I put them in there, but I went to toast one this morning and it was covered in little white spots. I thought maybe it was just from freezing, so I warmed the bagel up a little, and turns out the white spots smelled like mold. And they were on all 10 of the bagels in that bag. Rochester must breed super-molds or something, I just don't get it.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Procrastination
Not really procrastinating, since I don't have a lot of schoolwork to do right now. I had planned to spend my extra free time today shopping for hot weather clothing, since I'm woefully short on that kind of thing. Sadly, all the zipcars were booked so I have to put it off until Wednesday evening.
The good news is that Alice finally got her wedding dress in and the color has been confirmed for our bridesmaid dresses. Which means that while shopping for tank tops and shorts, I can also pick out a bridesmaid dress. It will almost certainly show off my fabulous tan lines. Should be great.
I really want to do some muffin baking, but it's just too hot to turn on the oven. Ugh. Thankfully it should cool down to high 70s/low 80s by midweek.
Oh, and I'm thinking about doing this. It sounds like the Torture 10,000 of the East. I might just be a little bit insane.
The good news is that Alice finally got her wedding dress in and the color has been confirmed for our bridesmaid dresses. Which means that while shopping for tank tops and shorts, I can also pick out a bridesmaid dress. It will almost certainly show off my fabulous tan lines. Should be great.
I really want to do some muffin baking, but it's just too hot to turn on the oven. Ugh. Thankfully it should cool down to high 70s/low 80s by midweek.
Oh, and I'm thinking about doing this. It sounds like the Torture 10,000 of the East. I might just be a little bit insane.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Movies!
I've been promising video of Rochester and the market for a while, and finally made some. First, a trip to school:
And since that video took a ridiculously long time to upload, and I want to go get some dinner, I'm going to post the second one later.
**EDIT**
It's now later. Here's the market video:
I've uploaded them in slightly different ways. If one works better than the other let me know in the comments and I can stick with that in the future.
Enjoy!
And since that video took a ridiculously long time to upload, and I want to go get some dinner, I'm going to post the second one later.
**EDIT**
It's now later. Here's the market video:
I've uploaded them in slightly different ways. If one works better than the other let me know in the comments and I can stick with that in the future.
Enjoy!
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Improvements
Things are looking up today. I woke up pretty early and went down to the public market for another week's worth of yummy produce. I also ended up getting more flatbread (yay, pizza!) and a tub of hummus. Total cost for everything: $6.75 . I love that market. The only problem with it is the smell of elephant ears/beaver tails/fried dough that permeates the air. Hard to resist. I managed, but only by promising myself a treat from Tim Horton's every time I go out to Wegmans.
After I got home I planned to eat some lunch, chill out for a while, then go do an interval workout on my bike. Well, the weather sort of forced me to chill out for 3 hours. We had about a half hour of torrential rain, and then the sun broke through. I checked at least three weather sites to see if the sun was going to hold. They all disagreed, so I decided to go ride anyway. I got lucky and stayed dry.
When I got home I was incredibly hungry, so I cooked up some dinner (rice, tilapia, salad = yummy) and am now going to rest my legs while watching a movie. I'll probably fall asleep early tonight, that workout has hit me hard.
Classes start on Tuesday. I've had a sneak preview of some of the syllabi and it's going to be intense. I don't think I'm going to want to be going back and forth between school and home, so I'll need to figure out lunches and snacks and things to take with me. I've been doing very well food-wise and I don't want to fall back into bad habits when I get busy. Time to start cooking and freezing things, I think.
After I got home I planned to eat some lunch, chill out for a while, then go do an interval workout on my bike. Well, the weather sort of forced me to chill out for 3 hours. We had about a half hour of torrential rain, and then the sun broke through. I checked at least three weather sites to see if the sun was going to hold. They all disagreed, so I decided to go ride anyway. I got lucky and stayed dry.
When I got home I was incredibly hungry, so I cooked up some dinner (rice, tilapia, salad = yummy) and am now going to rest my legs while watching a movie. I'll probably fall asleep early tonight, that workout has hit me hard.
Classes start on Tuesday. I've had a sneak preview of some of the syllabi and it's going to be intense. I don't think I'm going to want to be going back and forth between school and home, so I'll need to figure out lunches and snacks and things to take with me. I've been doing very well food-wise and I don't want to fall back into bad habits when I get busy. Time to start cooking and freezing things, I think.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Rough day
Everything went wrong, starting last night. I was on my way to the swing dance when I got a flat tire. It was dark, wet, and I was about 3 miles from home in one direction or the dance in the other. I was stupid and didn't have a flat-fixing kit with me for Johnny. So, I walked home. At least I got to chat with Lauren and my mom during the 45 minute walk.
When I got home there was only a half hour left of the dance. I knew they'd be going out to the Dinosaur for blues afterward, and really wanted to go see didgeridoo guy, but just didn't have the energy to change the flat in the dark and ride out for only an hour or so of dancing. So I left the flat for the next morning.
Fast forward to the next morning. I get up in plenty of time to change the flat before I'm supposed to pick up my Zipcar to go shoe shopping. I change the flat, it takes me a full 40 minutes because the tire is so damn hard to get on and off. I'm panting and sweating and covered in grease, but ready to go shopping anyway. I get on Johnny, roll halfway down the driveway, and hear an awful hissing noise coming from my rear wheel. Turns out I had missed a piece of glass is the tire and it was now flat again. The really bad news is that I'm out of tubes that will fit those tires. I'm beginning to get upset at this point.
So I go back inside and look up the bus schedule. There's a bus that'll get me there just after my zipcar reservation starts, so I decide to go with that. While waiting for the bus I completely forget that I wanted to bring my iPod charger to the Apple Store to get replaced and I don't actually know how to get to the mall that has an Apple Store in it. I get on the bus, get to campus, realize what I'd forgotten, get even more frustrated with myself, and get in the car to go to the other mall that I do know how to get to so I can at least buy shoes.
As I'm turning right from the offramp toward the mall, I somehow fail to check the intersection or realize that I have a red light or something. I pull into the intersection, almost make it through, but there was a van coming and he clips the bumper of my zipcar. Now I'm having a really bad day. I pull off to the side, get his information, somehow manage to both write and not be crying yet. His van was already pretty beat up and he couldn't even tell if there was damage to his car. He really didn't seem upset at all, once he was sure that no one got hurt, which was comforting. Anyway, after I got his info, he drove off and I called Zipcar, expecting the worst. The lady on the phone was very nice and helpful, she made me give her all the details of what had happened and the other guy's information. She ketp trying to calm me down too, because at this point I was crying and shaking.
Turns out I'm liable for $500 worth of damage. The panel around the gas tank on that car (a Mazda 3) is dented and will have to be replaced, so it might reach that $500. The rear bumper has some pretty bad scratches on it too, but I'm guessing it's not that expensive to replace a bumper. Zipcar will do a thorough investigation and get the car fixed and will tell me what the repairs cost. Until then, my account is suspended so I can't use any more zipcars for at least a week. But, I do get to keep the Mazda until the end of my reservation, thankfully.
At this point I'm hungry, shaking, trying not to start crying again, and parked on the side of a busy road. Things begin to look up when I see that there's a Wendy's directly in front of me, so I go park there and order myself a burger and a frosty. That helped a lot. I figure I might as well go buy some shoes, so I go into the mall and look at every shoe store there and finally come out with a pair of pure white Nikes that should keep me standing for a 12 hour shift. They'll work for at the gym too.
Since I've still got the car for an hour I head out to Full Moon Vista and get Johnny-sized tubes and a couple of kevlar tires so that he'll be pretty much puncture-proof. I figure it's money well spent if it makes my transportation more reliable.
Now I'm wondering how I'm going to get home after I return the car, so I decide to go pick up Paris, stick him in the trunk, Mental Note: take both wheels off and a road bike can fit in the trunk of a Mazda 3, and drive back to campus to drop off the car. In my still shaken up state, I'd forgotten that Paris has Speedplay pedals. Second Mental Note: It is possible to ride relatively comfortably on Speedplays while wearing clogs.
Now it's about 3pm, and I've still got to print up an accident report form to send to zipcar and a membership application for GVCC. My roommates probably have printers, but they were both gone. So I walk the mile down to the public library and use their printers (for 20 cents a page) and walk back. I would've gotten a library card but they needed some ID with a Rochester address on it. Next time.
I spend the next hour making dinner and filling out forms. I make one of the most bizarre but oddly delicious pizzas I've ever had, managing to get very little sauce on the paperwork. I then mail off the envelopes, eat the rest of my pizza and get ready to meet Todd, the guy that runs GVCC. We go for a ride and suddenly things don't seem so bad. I'm sure I'll take that back as soon as the Zipcar bill arrives.
When I got home there was only a half hour left of the dance. I knew they'd be going out to the Dinosaur for blues afterward, and really wanted to go see didgeridoo guy, but just didn't have the energy to change the flat in the dark and ride out for only an hour or so of dancing. So I left the flat for the next morning.
Fast forward to the next morning. I get up in plenty of time to change the flat before I'm supposed to pick up my Zipcar to go shoe shopping. I change the flat, it takes me a full 40 minutes because the tire is so damn hard to get on and off. I'm panting and sweating and covered in grease, but ready to go shopping anyway. I get on Johnny, roll halfway down the driveway, and hear an awful hissing noise coming from my rear wheel. Turns out I had missed a piece of glass is the tire and it was now flat again. The really bad news is that I'm out of tubes that will fit those tires. I'm beginning to get upset at this point.
So I go back inside and look up the bus schedule. There's a bus that'll get me there just after my zipcar reservation starts, so I decide to go with that. While waiting for the bus I completely forget that I wanted to bring my iPod charger to the Apple Store to get replaced and I don't actually know how to get to the mall that has an Apple Store in it. I get on the bus, get to campus, realize what I'd forgotten, get even more frustrated with myself, and get in the car to go to the other mall that I do know how to get to so I can at least buy shoes.
As I'm turning right from the offramp toward the mall, I somehow fail to check the intersection or realize that I have a red light or something. I pull into the intersection, almost make it through, but there was a van coming and he clips the bumper of my zipcar. Now I'm having a really bad day. I pull off to the side, get his information, somehow manage to both write and not be crying yet. His van was already pretty beat up and he couldn't even tell if there was damage to his car. He really didn't seem upset at all, once he was sure that no one got hurt, which was comforting. Anyway, after I got his info, he drove off and I called Zipcar, expecting the worst. The lady on the phone was very nice and helpful, she made me give her all the details of what had happened and the other guy's information. She ketp trying to calm me down too, because at this point I was crying and shaking.
Turns out I'm liable for $500 worth of damage. The panel around the gas tank on that car (a Mazda 3) is dented and will have to be replaced, so it might reach that $500. The rear bumper has some pretty bad scratches on it too, but I'm guessing it's not that expensive to replace a bumper. Zipcar will do a thorough investigation and get the car fixed and will tell me what the repairs cost. Until then, my account is suspended so I can't use any more zipcars for at least a week. But, I do get to keep the Mazda until the end of my reservation, thankfully.
At this point I'm hungry, shaking, trying not to start crying again, and parked on the side of a busy road. Things begin to look up when I see that there's a Wendy's directly in front of me, so I go park there and order myself a burger and a frosty. That helped a lot. I figure I might as well go buy some shoes, so I go into the mall and look at every shoe store there and finally come out with a pair of pure white Nikes that should keep me standing for a 12 hour shift. They'll work for at the gym too.
Since I've still got the car for an hour I head out to Full Moon Vista and get Johnny-sized tubes and a couple of kevlar tires so that he'll be pretty much puncture-proof. I figure it's money well spent if it makes my transportation more reliable.
Now I'm wondering how I'm going to get home after I return the car, so I decide to go pick up Paris, stick him in the trunk, Mental Note: take both wheels off and a road bike can fit in the trunk of a Mazda 3, and drive back to campus to drop off the car. In my still shaken up state, I'd forgotten that Paris has Speedplay pedals. Second Mental Note: It is possible to ride relatively comfortably on Speedplays while wearing clogs.
Now it's about 3pm, and I've still got to print up an accident report form to send to zipcar and a membership application for GVCC. My roommates probably have printers, but they were both gone. So I walk the mile down to the public library and use their printers (for 20 cents a page) and walk back. I would've gotten a library card but they needed some ID with a Rochester address on it. Next time.
I spend the next hour making dinner and filling out forms. I make one of the most bizarre but oddly delicious pizzas I've ever had, managing to get very little sauce on the paperwork. I then mail off the envelopes, eat the rest of my pizza and get ready to meet Todd, the guy that runs GVCC. We go for a ride and suddenly things don't seem so bad. I'm sure I'll take that back as soon as the Zipcar bill arrives.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Bike breakdown
I tried to buy shoes today. I failed miserably, but in the process my bike tried to kill me. Johnny lost his chain while I was riding in the middle of traffic on a relatively busy street. I managed to get over to the side without being run over, but it shook me up a lot. When I got home, I was in tears. Not just from being scared, that was just the trigger, I was crying about being stuck here by myself, missing my friends, the disappointment of my house, whether I can even pay for school, all the things that have been stuck on repeat in my brain and I've been trying to ignore. Eventually I got a hold of myself and, with a mental slap in the face, convinced myself that I at least needed to get my bike fixed.
I rode on very low traffic streets and bike paths to get to Full Moon Vista, the bike shop with the funny name that reminds me of River City Bikes. They even have espresso! The mechanic was great and tensioned my chain and tightened my headset for $5 while I tried not to drool on the Campagnolo wool jerseys. I also picked up a calendar of bike events in the state, including races. I've decided that I like this shop. It'll probably be my main bike shop while I'm here.
On the ride home I felt great. I could actually accelerate without worrying about my chain failing on me, so I was flying down beside the beautiful river with a big grin on my face. I then spent a long time looking at the info on all the races and putting them in my calendar. I made an awesome stir fry for dinner with all my fresh veggies from the public market (carrots and broccoli and zucchini, oh my!). There will be leftovers for tomorrow too. I'm doing my best to eat healthy, and to that end have started tracking what I eat. It's interesting, and I've had a few surprises as to what's actually in my favorite foods. Granola is a sneaky little bugger.
Anyway, I think I've rallied well from my little breakdown this morning, and while I wish I had gotten more accomplished today (I still need those white sneakers!), I've got time. One week, in fact, before classes start and life gets much more interesting. Oh, and my road bike should be here tomorrow. I think that'll warrant a ride to Lake Ontario, don't you?
I rode on very low traffic streets and bike paths to get to Full Moon Vista, the bike shop with the funny name that reminds me of River City Bikes. They even have espresso! The mechanic was great and tensioned my chain and tightened my headset for $5 while I tried not to drool on the Campagnolo wool jerseys. I also picked up a calendar of bike events in the state, including races. I've decided that I like this shop. It'll probably be my main bike shop while I'm here.
On the ride home I felt great. I could actually accelerate without worrying about my chain failing on me, so I was flying down beside the beautiful river with a big grin on my face. I then spent a long time looking at the info on all the races and putting them in my calendar. I made an awesome stir fry for dinner with all my fresh veggies from the public market (carrots and broccoli and zucchini, oh my!). There will be leftovers for tomorrow too. I'm doing my best to eat healthy, and to that end have started tracking what I eat. It's interesting, and I've had a few surprises as to what's actually in my favorite foods. Granola is a sneaky little bugger.
Anyway, I think I've rallied well from my little breakdown this morning, and while I wish I had gotten more accomplished today (I still need those white sneakers!), I've got time. One week, in fact, before classes start and life gets much more interesting. Oh, and my road bike should be here tomorrow. I think that'll warrant a ride to Lake Ontario, don't you?
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Dancers are my favorite people
Yesterday was my first real test of biking around town. I rode down to Rite-Aid to pick up some bandaids and an extension cord. No problems there, except people kept giving me funny looks. Girls on bikes aren't exactly common around here. At one point I hit a big pothole and my chain dropped, which is somewhat annoying because on a single speed there's no derailleur to make it easy to get a chain back on. I managed just fine, partially due to the fact that Johnny's (that's my bike) chain was pretty loose. I might have somebody look at that and see if it should be tightened, especially since I lost my chain twice more yesterday. Anyway, while I was fixing my chain, a little boy noticed me:
"Mommy, what's that?"
"That's a bike."
"Can I have one of those?"
"You already have one, you just don't know how to ride it yet."
I was having a hard time getting the chain fixed and not giggling too loudly at the same time.
After my great shopping trip, which was mostly successful, the weather took a turn for the worse. I had planned to go exploring a little bit, but didn't really want to explore in the rain and wind. So I hung around the house reading about FDA regulations for human research subjects and watching movies on my laptop. There was a swing dance that night that I didn't want to miss, so I kept checking the weather report hoping to see some sign of it clearing up.
Around 8pm it was still raining and nasty out, but I had been inside all day and didn't want to miss the dance. So I pulled out my rain pants and fluorescent yellow jacket, packed up a change of clothes, double checked my route on the map, and rode off to the dance. The ride was quite pleasant, actually. I got to try out a pedestrian/bike bridge over the Genesee River, which was very nice. I'll be using that bridge every day to get to campus. I then followed a road that runs beside the river, which was also quite nice. It was about a 20 minute ride to the Tango Cafe Dance Studio, not as long as I had anticipated, so I had time to grab a cup of coffee and a wonderfully fresh chocolate chip cookie from The Mez which was downstairs from the dance studio.
After my coffee I was ready to go meet the dancers. When I first walked in there were only about 10 people there, which made me a little nervous. But it filled up fast and everyone was very friendly. The first person I really talked to was a guy named Matt, a student at RIT originally from Seattle, and he sort of took me in hand for the night. He introduced me to people and helped me get my bearings. I danced a fair amount and chatted a bit and had a very good time. The most interesting dance of the night was definitely the one with the deaf man. He managed to keep perfect time, probably using cues from me as much as anything to stay with the music.
After the dance, Matt invited me to join them at a place called "The Dinosaur". I was skeptical, but decided to give it a try. Apparently there is usually live blues music there on Wednesday nights and they go hang out and dance. Well, last night there was a one man band that somehow ended up beatboxing his way through a rendition of Kashmir. I'm not kidding. It was painful. But there was good beer and it smelled like fantastic barbeque, so I'll give it another try. According to the dancers, next week will be a guy with a didgeridoo, but he's actually good. I don't think I can miss my chance to hear a blues didgeridoo.
At some point during the evening I got an invite to a blues party on Saturday night, which is great. For those that read this and haven't been to one, blues parties are when a dancer invites a bunch of other dancers to their house and just plays good danceable blues music all night long. It's very fun. There's also a live big band dance on Friday that I may go to if I can get myself some shoes by then.
So after all of this excitement I rode home and got back around 1am. It was nice to go out for a night and get welcomed by a good crowd of people. I'm definitely making progress in the friends department.
"Mommy, what's that?"
"That's a bike."
"Can I have one of those?"
"You already have one, you just don't know how to ride it yet."
I was having a hard time getting the chain fixed and not giggling too loudly at the same time.
After my great shopping trip, which was mostly successful, the weather took a turn for the worse. I had planned to go exploring a little bit, but didn't really want to explore in the rain and wind. So I hung around the house reading about FDA regulations for human research subjects and watching movies on my laptop. There was a swing dance that night that I didn't want to miss, so I kept checking the weather report hoping to see some sign of it clearing up.
Around 8pm it was still raining and nasty out, but I had been inside all day and didn't want to miss the dance. So I pulled out my rain pants and fluorescent yellow jacket, packed up a change of clothes, double checked my route on the map, and rode off to the dance. The ride was quite pleasant, actually. I got to try out a pedestrian/bike bridge over the Genesee River, which was very nice. I'll be using that bridge every day to get to campus. I then followed a road that runs beside the river, which was also quite nice. It was about a 20 minute ride to the Tango Cafe Dance Studio, not as long as I had anticipated, so I had time to grab a cup of coffee and a wonderfully fresh chocolate chip cookie from The Mez which was downstairs from the dance studio.
After my coffee I was ready to go meet the dancers. When I first walked in there were only about 10 people there, which made me a little nervous. But it filled up fast and everyone was very friendly. The first person I really talked to was a guy named Matt, a student at RIT originally from Seattle, and he sort of took me in hand for the night. He introduced me to people and helped me get my bearings. I danced a fair amount and chatted a bit and had a very good time. The most interesting dance of the night was definitely the one with the deaf man. He managed to keep perfect time, probably using cues from me as much as anything to stay with the music.
After the dance, Matt invited me to join them at a place called "The Dinosaur". I was skeptical, but decided to give it a try. Apparently there is usually live blues music there on Wednesday nights and they go hang out and dance. Well, last night there was a one man band that somehow ended up beatboxing his way through a rendition of Kashmir. I'm not kidding. It was painful. But there was good beer and it smelled like fantastic barbeque, so I'll give it another try. According to the dancers, next week will be a guy with a didgeridoo, but he's actually good. I don't think I can miss my chance to hear a blues didgeridoo.
At some point during the evening I got an invite to a blues party on Saturday night, which is great. For those that read this and haven't been to one, blues parties are when a dancer invites a bunch of other dancers to their house and just plays good danceable blues music all night long. It's very fun. There's also a live big band dance on Friday that I may go to if I can get myself some shoes by then.
So after all of this excitement I rode home and got back around 1am. It was nice to go out for a night and get welcomed by a good crowd of people. I'm definitely making progress in the friends department.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Bike!
I slept in until about 11:30 today. I didn't realize that I was that tired. I decided to forgo to Public Market, since it closes a 1pm on T/Th. Instead I puttered around online while eating breakfast, took a nice long shower, puttered around online some more and finally made an exciting discovery. Ups.com said that my bike had been delivered! Yesterday it said "Estimated Delivery: 5/9/2008" so I was skeptical, but sure enough, there was a gigantic box on the porch! They must have snuck it on there while I was showering.
So, I drop all potential plans for the day and get to work on my bike. The bike stuff goes on the other blog. But, I made a potential friend at the bike shop. We exchanged phone numbers and will hopefully meet for food sometime in the near future. He seems like a nice guy, probably 30-something, and patiently explained that the road near my house is not pronounced the way any sane person would pronounce it. Seriously, it's "Chili." But, if you're in Rochester, the "i" sounds like "eye." I swear, that's way worse than Aloha or Couch St. Apparently there are many words like that around here and I should expect to be laughed at frequently. Can't wait.
So, despite the late start, I consider today a success. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to the coffee shop. Or get an extension cord with an adapter so I can plug my computer in in my bedroom. That would be nice.
So, I drop all potential plans for the day and get to work on my bike. The bike stuff goes on the other blog. But, I made a potential friend at the bike shop. We exchanged phone numbers and will hopefully meet for food sometime in the near future. He seems like a nice guy, probably 30-something, and patiently explained that the road near my house is not pronounced the way any sane person would pronounce it. Seriously, it's "Chili." But, if you're in Rochester, the "i" sounds like "eye." I swear, that's way worse than Aloha or Couch St. Apparently there are many words like that around here and I should expect to be laughed at frequently. Can't wait.
So, despite the late start, I consider today a success. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to the coffee shop. Or get an extension cord with an adapter so I can plug my computer in in my bedroom. That would be nice.
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