Actually, it’s the people… Check out this series of “what I’m doing now” statements… When yer giving birth - will you be updating your fb friends EVERY step of the way?
P.S. This is my first post written on my phone… With a screenshot from the phone to boot. Perhaps this Sorta access will inspire me to post more often and even more importantly - during those moments when I turn to a friend and say… I can’t wait to blog about this!
*** I wrote this on Monday - and forgot to post it, Ooops - absent mindedness strikes again!***
To be honest, I didn’t even know that moose existed in Colorado. I was driving down a 4WD road looking for some good camping west of Boulder when I spotted the sucker about 20 yards ahead of me.
“Oh, look Kristen - a moose.” I said…
He heard us, and galloped away. He was taller than my ford explorer for sure and definitely an intimidating figure. A minute later I was wondering out loud how I even knew the animal was a moose. It’s not like I’ve ever seen a moose at the zoo, taken any zoology classes or seen more than 5 pictures of one. And yes, I was too slow on the camera draw too, so no evidence - sorry.
Anyhow, like some sorta moron, I thought I could drive fifteen miles west of bTown and find a campsite at 7pm, Saturday night, 4th of July weekend. Was I surprised that every site taken? Not really. But was I bewildered that I hadn’t thought of the circumstances and likely results before the cooking, packing, and making the drive? Yes.
It has something to do with my current state of mind. Right now I’d call it “Lost”. I just finished the first term of summer school and it took some unordinary effort to prepare and finish well. My last week felt a lot like the last 2000 foot climb in the Pikes Peak ascent. I walked out of the final, absolutely spent. I was absent of both words and plans. And so my four day break went… straight from the hip, which admittedly wasn’t all that exciting. But it sure was relaxing, hopefully my brains pick up tomorrow AM, or semester 2 will be a doozy.
Last night I woke up with the hiccups. That sucked. Then, literally fifteen minutes ago - I bit my tongue. Then ten minutes ago, I bit the other side of my tongue. Who’s after me? I mean, how the hell do you get hiccups while sleeping? And seriously - I can’t even count how many times I’ve taken a bite without biting my tongue. Why now? Twice? Such is the life of this here me.
After a glorious week in NYC I’m back to hammering out my future. This summer that means organic chemistry 1 & 2. I’m two days in and sorta dig it thus far. Except we haven’t started lab yet, which I’m sure will introduce to me to the hell that is so fondly spoken of amongst organic chemistry alumni.
For the record, my father loved organic chemistry and has offered me help numerous times.
Anywho - l probably won’t be posting very often on this her blog for the next 10 weeks. And I probably won’t be return many calls or emails. Don’t be offended. I still want to be your friend. Days later when you’re silently calling me an a**hole in your head, imagine me stuck in my desk chair trying to memorize a 1000 page textbook. When I’m done, I’ll get back to you.
Yer definitely not cool unless you have one of these…
Some tips for your own:
1. Make sure your mirror is clean
2. You either need a creepy smile or lots of skin. I clearly chose the former.
3. Post your pic on myspace. You’ll make all sorts of new friends.
Please, please, please take an all time classic interweb picture like this and send it to me at rothryan [at] gmail dot com. I would like to make a collage for this here website.
1. I have a three week break until school starts again
2. I’m trying desperately to get back into shape
3. I’m running out of dinero
Needless to say, I have ridiculous amounts of time at my fingertips and I’m certainly not used to such a luxury. I’m trying desperately hard to get back into shape so I can do a few races this summer, but that at most is taking up two hours weekdays and four on the weekend. I’m sleeping around 10 hours a night. So what in the hell am I supposed to do with the rest of my time?
I certainly don’t have the answer yet so in the meantime I’m, oh you know, sitting in my chair or laying in my bed listening to my brain go absolutely nuts. I can sit still but my brain won’t, like it didn’t get enough activity the last four months.
Take today for example, I woke up at 10, had breakfast, cruised the internet. I then decided to read more of the Django Book so I can finally build the gps mapping tool I’ve been dreaming about during every run/bike ride. As usual I found it downright boring, so I hopped in bed for some pleasure reading - “How Doctors Think” by Jerome Groopman. Apparently doctors use a lot bigger words than I’m used to because before I know it, I’m trying to figure out how to learn latin. I go back to reading the book. Ooops daydreaming about learning organic chemistry trying to figure out how I can learn it easier. How about a new web application?!?
And it just keeps going and going. So in 4.5 hours I’ve drawn out the database design for two web apps read 50 pages of a book, drawn a diagram of the steps it took to get my hip diagnosed, made a cup of tea and ate cereal while reading the news. Mmmmm, vacation (read: sarcasm | satisfaction | frustration | etc).
I found that on my computer a little while ago. I think I was testing how well my webcam tracked motion. I look pretty sweet huh? Anywho, I just finished semester 2 and my rad sister got married in the midst of my finals. My brother is back in spain and I’m trying to teach myself django, again. I’m trying to get back into shape, as I’m not fond of losing races to twelve year olds. My calves are sore, I’m hungry, and hopeful. My O Chem book is in the mail and I’m reading “How Doctors Think” right now. My room is clean, because I lost a check for $400. I found it. Game night is tonight, I plan on winning. I recently realized I wear my glasses more than my contacts, and that I’m desperately poor. I have three weeks off, call me if you want to play.
To be honest, from Tuesday when I found out about the race all the way to Sunday morning I had some serious trouble sleeping. I couldn’t take a nap without thinking of the race, and I couldn’t take a ride because I had midterms that l considered far more important. A nasty catch-22, but somehow I get myself into the damnedest of situations. On Friday night, my buddy Pat reminded me of the time a random guy at 24-hour fitness challenged me to a mountain bike race (he didn’t show). We laughed about my nervousness and more so about my propensity to end up in the oddest of endurance challenges.
The race would be from Lyons to Boulder, and naturally on Friday I found myself attempting the first ride of the year on the course route. A doozy 10.7 miles - hilly for the first half and then a slight incline to the finish. I made it, but that was never really a question in my mind. The question was, how fast? There was a decent headwind so I didn’t quite know if I could compare my time or not, but I was definitely slower than I would have liked.
I showed up a half hour before the race and popped on the bike for a brief warm up. I got a few miles in, stretched and felt as ready as I’d ever be. I rolled on over to meet MIchael and his parents. Yep, that was a bit awkward. “Hi, I’m the 26 year-old who challenged your 12 year-old son to a bike race.”
His parents were downright cool and we chatted a bit - mostly about my qualifications for such a hare brained adventure - since it was very clear that I’ve won approximately zero national championships. His dad, Professor Dan Dessau pointed out Michael had a bit of an equipment advantage. Sure enough, I looked a little closer and saw that he had aerobars, a racing helmet, and covered rear wheel. Hmmm.
The race started without much commotion. Michael sprinted off, and I hopped on his tail. We settled on a nice smooth pace through the hills. There was zero passing, both of us were simply pedaling away, sucking down the cool mountain air.
We exited the hills together and Michael began to pull away. Simple as that. I couldn’t cut the headwind nearly as well as him. I kept him in my sights the entire way, but in the end - I LOST.
I couldn’t help but laugh as I crossed the finish line 37.9 seconds later. I was greeted by Kristen, Professor Franklin, my buddy Nick and his friends, and of course Michael and his parents. I think Nick was in awe, not quite digesting the fact that I had lost the race. Soon thereafter he was indeed laughing. And believe me, many people got their laughs in on Monday afternoon as my noble effort was announced in front my physics class on Monday. All I could do was sit there and shake my head.
That’s professor Allan Franklin. He is a downright nutty cycling fan. On exams he names planets after the likes of Pantini, Armstrong, and Merckx. I don’t always get his teaching style or support his erasing skills, but the guy is funny and smart. But then again, he’s also the professor who refused to let me vote in the primaries because we had an exam scheduled at the same time. That’s a story I’ll tell another time, but you can imagine that event alone left me a little irritated with him despite his affinity for cycling.
…
A few weeks ago he was lecturing on angular velocity and momentum, when out of nowhere he made a strange statement that went something like this: “I have a friend who’s son is the national time trial champion for cycling”. “In the twelve year old category”. No one really oohed or aahed, so he felt compelled to tag on this statement: “And I bet he could beat anyone in this room in a race”.
Before my hand could shoot up, my voice shouted.
“I’ll race him!”
This is in front of my class of 165 people, 162 of which I do not know. Professor Franklin turns to me with a look of surprise, clearly not expecting a challenger. “What?”. “I’ll race him”, I said. I couldn’t let him get away with such a statement in the cycling capital of the country…
We bantered back and forth for a bit in front of the class until he determined I was actually serious and then went back to physics. About ten minutes later he turned to me and said - “Are you willing to put something on the line? I’ve got to motivate this kid somehow.” To which I replied, “How about twenty bucks?” He looked at me kind of confused so I offered up, “Is that not enough? I’ll bet more”. “No, no that’s plenty”.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the back of my mind I was trying to do some calculations…
1. Clearly I can wrestle three of my circa 12 year old cousins to the ground at one time.
2. I used to bike like a crazy man in the mountains of Colorado.
3. But oh yea, I had hip surgery one year ago and have ridden my bike about 30 times since.
4. I have ridden ZERO times since October 2007.
That’s not looking so good for me is it? Well the race is potentially going down on Sunday. Better get that flat tire fixed eh?
As I’m about to embark on a strange and potentially embarrassing journey, which i’ll detail in my next post, this is something to keep in mind (context: bicycling).
