this is the way we bike to work. (and then stop)

And now! The long story of how I started bike commuting but will not be doing so until further notice.

First, a long while ago, I switched out wheels on my Raleigh because they were super bent and crappy. This led to better wheels and less choppy braking, but horribly squeaky braking. As a result, I wasn't as inclined to bike because it was super embarrassing at times.

But I still stuck it out from time to time, avoiding stopping as much as possible, or at stopping very slowly when necessary. (How incredibly safe, I know!) I even made a long trek to Minneapolis! And not just west of the river but all the way past Bryn Mawr and back. I finally got to try out the Midtown Greenway and a few other trails, and it was a nice ride overall - but let's face it, squeaky brakes are NOT HIP. So on the way home, I stopped by the Freecycle shop on the Greenway and they switched the brake pads. For a while I was all, oh glorious brakes! I can stop without squeaking! But within a few miles they were still a bit squeaky (only when coming to a complete stop very quickly, though).

I also started biking to work. This was working pretty well, in part because I have my own bathroom in my room (!) and could bring outfits to change into on days that I drive. The route is mostly flat, with either bike lanes or bike paths for most of the way (except for the scary Pennsylvania/35E intersection).

What happened, you say? Well, on Wednesday night I biked downtown quick and was trying to race through a light but had to stop, and fast. And I'm pretty sure this is when the brakes tore through the tire. But since I was only a few blocks away from my destination, I didn't really notice anything. And even when I went home, in the dark, I knew something was wrong but decided I'd rather get home first (since it was less than a mile anyway) than stop on an abandoned street to figure out the problem. Sure enough, flat tire - thus ruining my goal to bike to work the next day.

And since then, I haven't found the time to fix the tire. Sure, I want to fix it, but will that help the squeaky brakes? Is this cold weather going to bring snow soon, rendering any repairs moot? Will this craigslist bike haunt me forever with problems? Should I just get a new bike already? (Probably). Sigh. Stay tuned.

stream of consciousness.

I've really been enjoying my meals this week, much more so than usual. I could attribute it to the fine farmers at the market, the freshness of the fruit, or maybe that I'm just an awesome chef, but I know what the real deal is: it's just that time of month where everything tastes amazing. (Ladies, you feeling me? No? Well, it's cool. Me and my hormones are getting along, for the time being.) It doesn't even matter what it is: cucumber and tomato salad, tortillas filled with black beans, fresh corn kernels and avocado, homemade oatmeal with berries and bananas, or even a small sliver of Parmesan, it's all glorious and I am loving every mouthful.



I biked to my parent's house yesterday, and traded in the lady bike for a new bike, which is actually my old bike, but slightly improved since I last knew it. Meaning, the pedal arm (crank arm?) actually stays on, and it also has a rack and a pannier. And it fits so much better than that damn lady bike, I feel like a decent biker again. Never mind that braking is annoying because I need to get a new wheel or two, when I'm in motion I feel stronger, faster, not unlike a Daft Punk song! (Sorry, I myself am shaking my head at that one.)



Hi, my name is e and I'm addicted to dresses. No, this is not a dress, it's shoes to match a dress that I bought while at Target, intending to buy toilet paper or something. The shoes are surrounded by three dresses (bought in two weeks), plus one from my old bedroom closet that I decided is actually wearable again (after a decade). I try to buy cute tops or, I dunno, nice pants for work but no, dresses and skirts. That's it. So please, if you ever see me out shopping, remind me that I don't need any more dresses.

[Sorry for all these random posts lately.]

on anything and everything.

On Projects

Once upon a time, I got a tapestry type thing from Urban Outfitters. It was perfect for covering up $20 thrift store love seats in my dorm room. Then it was perfect for covering up a dusty bookshelf in my classroom. Then it sat unwanted for a while. Then, it was decidedly perfect to fashion new curtains for my bedroom, since I had been using a beach sarong.


(But now, what to do with the sarong? God knows I don't go to the beach.)

And since I had some fabric leftover, the tapestry also became perfect for a skirt, Maria von Trapp style.



On Biking

I have actual obligations this week (sigh!), and I'm being a good girl and biking to my class, which is just a few blocks away from my old workplace. And the ride there is really not bad at all, which makes me feel silly for having avoided it for so long. (Still working on the sweat factor.)

Also, I'm realizing that while my bike is fine, it's a bit small, so I'm dreaming of bigger and better options. Namely, a bike that is good for all of the following: commuting, dragging in and out of my apartment, not getting stolen, and a triathlon perhaps next summer. (So basically I want an impossible commuter-road bike with convertible handlebars and both clip-in and non-fancy pedals.)

On Motivation

I was talking with an old coworker last week and when I mentioned that I had run a marathon, she said I must have a lot of self-discipline, and that she would always talk herself out of running. I wouldn't say I have that much discipline, it's more that I talk myself into situations where I would feel like a jackass if I don't do something. As in, "You better run 11 miles today like you said you would or you will hate yourself!" I don't know if that's discipline or just well-channeled guilt. Either way, I signed up for a half marathon - it's in a week and a half.

On Travel

Crap, it's almost fricking August and I have no travel plans whatsoever. I need to get out of this state somehow without paying millions of dollars. Not even because I don't have the money (what, I never mentioned my millions?), but because I'm still not accustomed to paying $500 or more for continental flights. I'm also sick of wandering around cities by myself, reading in every possible park, coffee shop, and museum imaginable, and yet travel partners are hard to come by. But maybe I can channel my guilt-motivation into just buying a plane or train ticket to anywhere.

hey frenchies! tell me how to bike in a skirt!

I was reading this article about those rentable bikes in Paris, and they mentioned how the bikes have an accompanying blog, with a recent post about biking in skirts. I immediately clicked, hoping to learn some very sophisticated advice, but of course, it's in French. So I google translated it, and the results were...funny.

Especially that, as we swallow meters bikeways, our skirts have an unfortunate tendency to go back… The red light has become an opportunity to readjust, air worthy, ignoring our male neighbors, pedestrians, motorists and other vélibeurs… Knowing that these gentlemen are always looking to "see under the skirts of girls" (even when one is fagotée as a bag potatoes!) I arrived at this conclusion: length knees ie mid-thigh after 100 meters…

So, wait. Potatoes are gay?

Anyway, my only advice is as such: wear bike shorts or cut off tights underneath the skirt. (You know you have some old tights that got a hole or a run in them but you just can't bear to throw them away, hoping that someday there will be magic robots to fix them. Face it - there will be no magic robots, but you can put them to other uses!) When you get going, you can tuck the end of the skirt into the tights or shorts and ride along without worries (for the most part).

dreamy.

I love biking on any bridge over the Mississippi. The bars on the guard railing start to blur together and disappear as I bike past, making it look as if I could go a few feet to the right and plunge right into the shimmering water. And while normally this should scare me, it actually sounds quite thrilling - flying through the air to land happily in a pool of cool water, washing off the sweat I've accumulated while biking under the sun.


(What is it about biking that makes me completely forgot that a fall into the river would hurt, a LOT, and that the Mississippi is totally gross? I feel bad even putting that here as it completely ruins my idyllic fantasy.)

Long ago, back in the winter of my discontent, I foolishly made some resolutions. [Summary: Run a half marathon in under 2 hours, bike more.] It's easy to make warm weather exercise resolutions when it's too cold to do anything outside and you're horribly out of shape. Now, six months later, I'm wondering what the hell I was thinking. Today I could barely run 3 miles and I'm trying to run 13.1 at a 9 minute pace as early as August? I can try for the half, but the time goal is clearly not going to happen.

So my one quantifiable goal is out (for now), that leads to the next one: biking! Well, I did acquire a working bike - here it is!



Isn't it pretty? It's sitting in Minnehaha Park on a beautiful Sunday. It's about seven miles to get there from my place, though the route is pretty much perfect. [Although complicated today by Grand Old Day.] Even though seven miles on a bike really isn't that far, I felt so out of shape after the run that I really thought I would die. But it went quite well, even on the way home (which is more uphill). And it made that Heath Blizzard totally warranted.

Now I only need to figure out a few things: install these bike lights, get some panniers, and figure out how to arrive at my destination without being a pile of sweat.

bike!

Yesterday I went to Express Bike Shop (which I totally recommend, by the way) and was pleased to find at least a couple of suitable used bikes at reasonable prices. Riding around the block made me super excited, but I knew I had to exercise restraint and not buy the first pretty thing I see. Last year I was so driven to just get a bike that I made a foolish mistake and bought a crappy one from craigslist. It was such a disaster that I pledged to myself: never again. [Fine, I'm exaggerating, but it really wasn't a good bike. I have learned.] So, I called my dad the bike expert to give me a second opinion today.

But as luck would have it, my dear old dad took a walk this morning and found two vintage bikes about to be thrown away. He saved them from a horribly mangled landfill death and called me up. One is a super nice, really light Raleigh racing bike. It was a little too big for me and also just a little too racy. (No, not in that way! I mean...ah, forget it. You know.] The other one is a lady Schwinn, which my dad described as "dorky" over the phone - but dorky to him is RETRO and AWESOME to me. While I've joked before that I'm usually too much lady for a lady bike, with some adjustments, it worked.

It makes sense, really. Last year I got burned by a loser bike, and this year I come across a free one. I consider it good bike karma.

[And there will be pictures at some point, but this bike deserves to be photographed against a good backdrop with sunlight, which my apartment cannot provide at this time.]

aimless day.

The last day of summer, by my measurement, calls for bike rides to get brunch. It calls for biking fast down to the river. It calls for getting a mimosa with eggs even though that's a bit ridiculous. It does not call for my pedal falling off my bike on the way home. I could blame the situation on the less than stellar craigslist bike, but whatever, the story I'm sticking to is like this: DUDES. I biked so hard I broke my bike.

Other tidbits:
- I'm addicted to Scrabble on facebook.
- Running is sucking, and I miss it.
- Work, dear god. Goodbye, daytime internetting.

on biking.

I have classes at the U this week and next, and after perusing my many options of getting there, I decided to try out biking. Well, it's been two days and I am exhausted. It's kind of hilarious, I'm training for a marathon and a 7 mile, relatively flat bike ride makes me feel as though I'm going to die? I feel rather pathetic slooooowly climbing a rather meager hill in the lowest gear possible while the smug spandex boys glide past me effortlessly. Hey, I know I look like I'm out of shape but I'm NOT! It's just these unformed biking muscles! You want to feel my rock hard quads? HUH?? ...My craigslist bike also leaves something to be desired, but it gets the job done. I'm thinking about a shiny new bike with more gears...but not now. Later, perhaps.

Class and biking have definitely ruined my training a bit, so tomorrow I'm taking the bus. The bus is expensive and slow but at least I can get some reading done. Hooray for transport adventures!