I felt like improvising today so I made my first raw recipe. I made 'spaghetti' out of raw zucchini and butternut squash. Then in the blender, I made a spinach/basil pesto!
2 Large kale leaves
2 cups of fresh spinach
a handful of basil leaves
3 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup of raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup of raw pumpkin seeds
sea salt to taste
I also added an avocado to the spaghetti to make it more filling, but I made plenty!
Oh man it was so delicious!
Also, one of my friends loaned me his industrial juicer that he used at his old restaurant!
I had my first glass of freshly juiced granny smith apple juice-- the best juice I've ever had! Then (don't gag) I juiced a blood orange, a lemon, a handful of spinach and a couple kale leaves together and sweetened it with agave syrup. It was amazing!
I love all the healthy vitamins and nutrients I'm getting. I feel fantastic!
For the last week now, I've only been eating uncooked organic fruits, vegetables, nuts and some sprouted whole grains (quinoa for instance).
Whenever I write it out like that it seems so extreme. In practice, it hardly feels that way.
I started seven days ago mostly out of curiosity. I like to experiment with nutrition to see what works best for my health and vitality. There's a bajillion books out there that will tell you what you should eat, but really, only you can know what will make you feel the best.
I'd already discovered that a diet devoid of processed and refined sugars as well as starches like pasta and potatoes makes me feel pretty good. I'm fairly certain that I have a genetic predisposition for sugar addiction-- my body does not process them well and tends to balloon. I never really felt good about the volume of meat/dairy I ate on that diet and that's for ethical reasons. In the last couple years, if I bought meat it was organic. The meat industry is nasty and I'd rather not support it with my patronage.
Anyway, I've known many a vegan in my lifetime and none of them were malnourished. Some were even overweight. 
I've set out some rules for myself for the next thirty days:
1. If I feel like crap, or starved, I will stop.
2. No dairy, no meat, no eggs
3. I'll aim to eat at least 1 lb of green leafy vegetables each day.
4. I will not use my stove or microwave.
5. I will work out as usual.
So far so good. No hunger pangs, no sugar rushes from the fruit, no malcontent. I've actually felt fabulous. 
Here's a sample of what I eat in a day:
Breakfast:
Banana, pecan, almond milk smoothie
1 Grapefruit
1 Avocado
OR
1 celery stalk cut up
1 red bell pepper
Fresh raw pesto for dipping
1 banana
Lunch
1/2 pound spinach greens in a salad with tomatoes and green peppers
1 banana
1 green apple
1 pear for afternoon snack
Dinner
3-4 cups purple cabbage chopped
2 carrots grated
1 avocado, all mixed together with olive oil and rice vinegar
Also, lettuce leaf spring rolls with bean sprouts, beet greens, fresh pineapple, fresh basil, carrot, cilantro. Dipped in peanut sauce!
Maybe it's hard to believe I'd be satisfied on that, but the sheer volume of it is quite heavy. Also incredibly nutritious.
Costs. One might predict that it's rather expensive. Some of the things certainly are. Raw nuts? Expensive. You can find them though and you don't need many to supplement your diet. I also got some coconut oil which has the saturated fat necessary to spur natural cholesterol production. Avocados are like 89 cents each and I eat about two per day. I make frequent trips to the store but it's limited to the produce section. a bag of organic carrots, a bunch of beet greens and a cabbage cost me 4 bucks. That's three dinners right there. The lack of meat is really what makes it cheap. Also the lack of dairy. Almond milk is pretty inexpensive and adds some creaminess to the diet, along with the avocados. In some ways, this is really a great poor man's diet.
Let me see what the break down of costs would be for a day:
2 avocados @ .89 each
1/3 purple cabbage @ .75
2 carrots @ .40 cents
2 bananas @ 1.00
1 red bell pepper @ 1.20
1/4 cup of pecans @ 1.00
1 pear @.75
16 oz almond milk @ .75
(I get lunch free at school)
Basil for pesto @ 1.00
1 Celery stalk @ .25
about 8 bucks a day? Sounds about right. It can be expensive if you don't have seasonings yet. But once you have them they last a while.
Anyway, I'm down from 156 to 150.5 as of this morning. That means a 1 month total weight loss of 11.5 lbs. Diet and exercise! Yeah.
Toodles.
I have arrived in Massachusetts, thanks to a miraculous woman at one of the dozens of United Airlines counters in O'Hare. The people at O'Hare remain true to their word. I have no doubts that that place is indeed the busiest airport in the world.
My flight to Manchester was delayed many multiple times before it was finally cancelled. Indeed, I'm not sure how even Boston was able to clear the massive amounts of snow from their runways in time for planes to land. I spoke to a woman at a localized counter in lieu of standing in a customer service line that was quite literally a quarter mile long and two to three people thick. Having observed many harried passengers and employees alike, I decided that good humor and a smile are really the weaponry of the cunning when it comes to getting your way in the airport. I'd watched the poor woman at my chosen United counter get harassed by anxious and irritated travelers with a variety of twangy and lilted voices. I approached her with sympathy and politely explained my situation and my hope that I'd be able to put on stand by for the next flight to Boston. She didn't say much, but tapped on her little computer furiously, ripped my boarding pass to Manchester in half and promptly issued me a new ticket. I'd just witnessed countless people get denied... probably for lack of manners, so I felt pretty special. I called the lady magical, wished her a happy holiday and danced my way over to a seat. There must have been hundreds of people-- maybe thousands with no flight in that concourse.
Anyway, I made it out of there. I'm not sure how-- I'm sure the winds of Chicago would have blown us all to hell if the plane had been any less stalwart. It was pretty thrilling either way. I'm not sure how I made it, but I did. Driving home (which usually takes 40 minutes) took us an hour and a half... people were driving through the slush like getting where they were going quickly was a matter of life or death haha... how ironic. The difference between here and Saint Louis? When people do it here, there aren't car crashes all over the road. There's something to be said for knowing how to handle in the snow pretty well at high speeds-- but there's also something to be said for the "i've never been in an accident so I probably never will" naïvety.
My brother is schlepping me up to Manchester to collect mes baggages perdues, probably not out of goodwill as much as a strong desire to show off his new method of transportation... 2009 WRX in gunmetal gray. A car well-suited to the perenially insane driver. Afterward, a sibling reunion of sorts will occur over lunch.
I think I'm going to Maine tomorrow to visit my grandmother. I haven't seen her in over a year-- probably more like two years. She's suffering from Alzheimers so I'm not sure she'll remember anything about me. It'll be good to see her regardless.
Anyway, huzzah-- I'm back in New England. Home. Off to collect the baggageses. 8')
The good news! Obama is knocking around names like Earl Blumenauer (congressman from Oregon-- perhaps the friendliest state toward bicycle traffic) and Jim Oberstar (congressman from Minnesota, mountain biking state extraordinaire) for Transportation Director. These bicycle advocates would almost surely make some positive changes in our lagging national transportation network. If you look at Blumenauer's site and transportation priorities, it all looks incredibly positive. I'm hoping that a bipartisan effort will be made to renew and reinvent (sometimes for the second time) our infrastructure. A return to rail and bicycles? It really, really, really wouldn't hurt to gradually abandon our car culture.
Synopsis of that site:
- Street cars and "Smart Starts"
- Amtrak and Rail Freight
- Bicycle and Pedestrian needs
Anyway.
St. Louis proved to be a harrowing bicycling experience, mostly for lack of light and space on Ladue Rd. Now that I'm downtown, I'm more concerned about the kinds of people lurking nearby. There seems to be ample space for bicyclists to assert themselves-- downtown is hardly cramped. The western portion of the city could really benefit from some city street redesign. By that I mean slapping some paint down on the pavement and declaring it bicycle and scooter territory. I can't help but feel anxious as I see scooter drivers in open lanes asserting themselves as cars. They're so very vulnerable.
Is cramping automobile traffic so very bad? They would perhaps be obliged to drive a bit slower, perhaps.
Bike commuting news!
A big no-brainer
New bicycle lanes in Manhattan
Pedal powered cabs in Pensacola now!
The case for separated bike lanes. And how.
While it wasn't too long ago, that my colleague and I were driving to work solo, we have recently joined the seeminly small population of carpoolers in St. Louis city. With highway-40 closed for 5 miles of critical commuting territory, you'd think other people would get a clue as well.
Just this morning Tara observed that most of the east-bound traffic on Forest Park Parkway were cars with just one passenger. Carpool, fools. I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to sit in a car and ride for a week at a time than contend with traffic behind the wheel personally.
Apparently, we're part of something that's developing
On a final note,
Are you kidding me? Metro to make cutbacks in St. Louis.
Roast Goose with gravy
Glazed and roasted carrots
Lobster Bisque with brandy
Arugula and endive salad with a honey vinaigrette
A variety of mashed potatoes
Cabbage cooked with apples
A chocolate bûche de noël
Pastries filled with vanilla cream
Best yet. Thank you, Wes!
Food glorious, food. I've stumbled into something fabulous.
Every week (or two) there's a dinner served at one of two stupendous St. Louis eateries-- The Scottish Arms and The Shaved Duck. The dinners each have a theme. So far I've been lucky enough to attend three-- The British Empire, All the Trimmings and tonight, Mint. I've been fortunate to have ducked Foot and Face and Organ Meats... but I'll bet even that was phenomenal. And really my fear and reluctance is more talk than anything-- I did have the haggis at the Arms the first time I was there.
Tonight we were served several dishes, each containing mint.
Pappardelle with mint pesto
Mashed Parsnips with Mint
Pork with Mustard Mint Sauce
Spinach Salad with Mint and Duck Fat Dressing
Braised Rabbit with Mint and Vegetables
Chicken Curry with Mint
Chocolate Truffles filled with Mint and some kind of nut
Carrot french fries with mint mayonnaise
I think that might just about cover it. As usual, it was phenomenal. I may take pictures of the meal next week. It's a traditional French Christmas complete with a roast goose. The week after that? Lamb. Oh baby.
Additionally! Agave!
Jim and I went out to a wonderful dinner at Agave on Manchester this weekend. It's safe to say that it was there that I experienced the best Margarita I've ever had. El Mayor Blanco tequila, Gran Gala, Cointreau, fresh lime juice and agave nectar. My god. I also had the snapper with tomatillos and roasted chiles. It was quite phenomenal. It was pricey, but you pay for presentation and atmosphere. Go for the margaritas if nothing else. You will NOT be disappointed. They do a tamarind margarita as well that was pretty stellar.
Toodooloo for now!
Contrary to what the title suggests, I actually really enjoyed this film.
All I'm really mocking are the hordes of teenage girls clawing at their faces as they anticipate the film. It probably includes some of my eighth grade girls, and frankly, back in my teenage years? I'd probably have clawed at my face a little too.
For those who have not read the book or seen the previews, Twilight centers around a girl named Bella. Delightfully ordinary, but with a sharp wit, an isolationist attitude and a serious problem with clumsiness. Bella decides to leave her mother and her new step-dad behind in one of the driest places in the US for one of the wettest to live with her father for a while. In a tiny town named Forks, Bella quickly is navigated through the limited social workings of the local high school. She encounters a strange and inhumanly beautiful guy there who seems about bipolar as they come and they develop a nearly immediate fascination with one another.
Push comes to shove? He's a vampire, he wants to both eat her and spend the rest of his days with her and she could care less of the danger at hand. Cue gratuitous girl-porn love story!
While I enjoyed this movie-- and I'll tell you why momentarily, I would like to get my gripes out of the way.
1. The score. I am a self-described connoisseur of movie scores and soundtracks. This movie had an appealing theme, but I found that most of the music written specifically for the movie was mishandled. While the writing was good the *scoring* was bad. It was not applied to the film as seamlessly as it should have been. I was pretty disappointed. On the other hand, a lot of the songs that were used (mostly inappropriately with a couple of exceptions) were phenomenal and I'm looking forward to actually buying the soundtrack. Go figure.
2. The movie was criminally underfunded and it shows. A lot of its shortcomings probably stem from this low budget, but none more so than in the special effects and camera work. The cinematographer did mostly terrible work. Some of it was directorial, I admit, but it kind of seemed like the camera man couldn't pick a style and stick with it. It went to shaky hand held, to sweeping (but shaky low budget) fly arounds, to another style to yet another style... all within the space of one scene. It was distracting and amplified the cheese. Sad. You could see some of the scenes where they had actually spent a lot of their money, but unfortunately they were often overshadowed by the ones with bad special effects. Let me be clear! By bad, I certainly don't mean old school-- just, obvious CGI or something.
3. The most pivotal love scene in the movie, really a mishmash of a variety of scenes in the book was totally mishandled. Instead of the intense, poignant, sweet and sweeping scene it could have been it came off as sloppy and cheesy. The actors did what they could but this was clearly a directorial mistake. I was sad about that. A combination of bad blocking and bad camerawork really killed it.
4. A lot of stuff was overdone. I mean, did there really need to be a crazy effect when Bella touched Edwards ice-cold skin the first time? Wouldn't a recoil by the actress have been enough? A movie like this needs to achieve a balance of the magic of the Cullen family (the vampires!) and the ordinaryness of the humans. Sometimes that balance was thrown because of the little overdone parts.
Anywayyyy, moving on. Reasons I really, really enjoyed this film.
The obvious ones!
2. Gory, gory, gory love. Oh to be a teenager and to write stuff like this again! There's a purity and an innocence about this love story that few can actually craft once they've experienced the real ins and outs of love. It's this ideal we cling to-- it's written into fairytales and myths. It's no different here. A little grotesque at times... not gross... just fanciful, but oh so good. Like secret stash of Reeses Peanut Butter Cup good. The kind of good that you don't want to let people know that you're secretly enjoying oh so very much.
3. The casting was just terrific, especially with the bit parts which are often forgotten. The team of kids that played the supporting high schoolers played their roles with heart. They may be the most believable group of high schoolers I've seen on film in a while, at least in this kind of teen flick.
4. The handled the suspense well near the end. I wish they spent more time with it in a way, but the book doesn't, so why should they have? I wanted them to linger on the hunt a little longer. Still it was handled well.
5. Kristen Stewart as Bella is a brilliant, brilliant choice. People say the character isn't likeable and perhaps that's because we see a bit too much of what is going on in her head. The sad reality is that teenage girls everywhere think those same thoughts about completely fallible, normal, idiotic teenage boys. Sad really. I don't disqualify her because she has pathetically naive and needy tendencies. Anyway, well done, to her as well.
well, there is a monkeypants asleep in between myself and this laptop and it's getting increasingly awkward to share. Toodles my friends. Toodles.
Jamie Oliver, you can have my heart
Posted by Larissa Labels: chefs, cookbooks, cooking, food, risottoOne of the first cookbooks I ever owned was The Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver. I almost certain that somewhere along the line, I was given a copy of The Return of the Naked Chef, and that later along that same line I lost it.
I ignored it for many years, mostly because I lacked an appropriate kitchen and the necessary budget to create some of his brilliant recipes.
Inspired by my friend Todd's amazing Saffron Porcini Risotto I'd had December 2007. I decided... it is time. Time to make risotto. Time to try my hand. I'd remembered that The Naked Chef had some risotto recipes, so I went at it. I made a Cranberry Bean, Rosemary and Bacon risotto. Those who ate it told me it could have been from a five star restaurant. Yessss! Success! I mean-- with enough butter, bacon fat and parmesan anything could be a success, but success nonetheless! Jamie, you served me well.
This Thanksgiving I'll be making a roast chicken a l'Oliver. I'm giving you my heart, Jamie Oliver. Clog it if you will. I expect you'll make every meal a little sweeter from now on.
Also, on a separate note, Monkey really enjoys cotton balls.
Three months in brief, details to come:
2. Bicycling to school? To damn dark and as a result, dangerous. No longer bicycling to school.
3. New apartment downtown!
Some have argued that I've been criminally negligent about this blog. Rather than post tasty little stories about the day to day experiences, my negligence has relegated my blogs to sweeping updates over many months which must, then, omit any interesting little details.
Schoolio
I'm not going to carry on about school very long, other than the fact that the kids are amusing, my job is interesting, my co-teacher rules and the other co-workers are all an incredible nice bunch. I feel fortunate to have stumbled upon this position. If I thought I could get away with it, I'd post the entertaining bits from my students papers that I've been stockpiling. Tara (co-teacher) and I shared many a laugh over the gross leaps and assumptions the students made in their papers. Sadly, though, I don't think I could get away with it.
Bike Abandonment
It goes without saying that I had a hard time hitting the saddle again after that crash. There were a couple things that happened that led to the decision to quit commuting by bike. I will only really dwell on the major issue, darkness. When I first started to commute, I would begin my route in darkness in south Saint Louis. Thankfully there were street lights wherever I needed them and they guided me safely until the sun came up around 6 am. I did not, however, take into consideration the gradual shortening of the days and I soon found myself navigating streets without street lights in total darkness. Wydown was manageable, save dodging the packs of stay-at-home wives that jog down the street toward Forest Park. Ladue Road however was terrifying. Even in the light, Ladue had its share of problems. The "pedestrian and bike only" shoulder that is reserved was commonly littered with sticks and pebbles, dangerous to anybody riding a roadbike. The solution was to then ride the white stripe, which I did knowing that morning commuters could see me in the wan light. Once it got dark though, I was doomed. I went out and spent an unacceptable amount of money on a super bright headlight and tail light only to give into my anxieties about riding in the morning. In short, I gave it up.
Fear not, however! I am now carpooling to school, effectively elimating one car from the highways each morning. Why don't more people do it? It's lovely.
The New, Not-So-Humble Abode
Interestingly enough, the new apartment has many fishbowl like qualities. Not as many as Glass House once had, but I do have a set of four 8 foot tall windows. The view from within? A derelict building. The massive kitchen makes up for that though.
Anyway, I'll write more later and I'll try to get some pictures up. Business calls!
The joys, terrors and frustrations of bicycle commuting
Posted by Larissa Labels: agony, bikes, injury, St. LouisSo my friends, I've been commuting to work for two weeks now. Not every day mind you and that has to do with some of the more frustrating moments. I ride 12 miles to school at 5:30 AM and 12 miles home whenever I finish up there. Aside from the woes of it all, riding to school in the morning is joy. There are no cars on the road, I can move swiftly through empty intersections and arrive at school within one hour. The ride home is admittedly hairier, requiring maneuvers through shoulderless streets in a one mile stretch at rush hour. Cars typically heed me, mostly because I have a fluorescent yellow jacket, a bright orange messenger bag and two blinky LED lights tail and front. They do their best to accommodate me in narrow conditions.
The woes!
1. Getting a flat tire at 5:50 in the morning 5 miles from home with no cell phone, patch kit, pump or spare. That was a treat.
2. Purchasing new tires and tubes the next day only to have some kind of pinch flat during the school day. The new tires are snazzy puncture resistant ones that are an upgrade from my Bontrager Race x-Lites that just aren't built for the stresses of city streets.
3. Taking my new, shiny, unused tires home after changing said flat and completely slipping as I corner at 10 mph or so onto the next street.
4. The effects of a good bike crash! I missed the first two days of classes, spent one of them in the ER getting cat scanned, x-rayed, urine sampled and pregnancy tested. All manner of tests. Only for the doctor to go... "Yep, you've got a big bruise on your hip, a wrist sprain etc. Here's a script for some fancy drugs, off you go!" (I didn't even see the doc actually, he just wrote me some nice paperwork.) My boss made me stay home the next day and rest and I relaxed all weekend, my muscles recovering from the trauma gradually.
5. Today another rear tire flat that happened *during* the school day. I'm starting to wonder if trouble is afoot and if I shouldn't park my bike elsewhere. Literally I took my bike over to a coworker who also rides to repair my crooked handlebars with an allen wrench, put it back and then an hour later the rear tire is flat! What? Suspicion! I will have to stash my bike somewhere more secret I think, my god. I was near crazed with frustration, yelling like a mad woman.
Needless to say I'll be going to the bike shop to do some sleuthwork with them tonight. Figure out if some little bastard is popping my tire because "it's fun" or whether I'm just getting pinch flats or something... during the school day. (Which makes no sense whatsoever)
For now, I am determined to keep riding. It's keeping me in good shape and it's fun for the most part. There's a lot of joy in feeling the breeze on my face and the strain of my muscles before and after a work day.
Toodles for now.
I have arrived! In this great land of beer, giant rivers, conservative minded folk, unnecessarily large arches and uh... thunderstorms? Truthfully, I've been here for a week and a half and I've been handily avoiding posting a blog, much to my mother's chagrin. She decreed that I should write a new one yesterday (I believe anyway... all the days blend together when you essentially have nothing to do). I'm not quite settled in because my motivation to settle in declined exponentially after the first week. It's also a function of my lack of storage units. Lots of closets and space, not nearly enough shelving!
Anyway, this might be more interesting if I were equipped with a Star Trek tricorder. I could tell you about the air quality schematics, local carbon density and whether it can sustain a New Englander like myself. Alas, I must rely on more primitive methods like trying stuff first hand.
I will organize this all for your benefit! You can thank me later
The Crib/Pad/Homestead/Base of Operations/Lair
My roommate, Dana, is an interior designer so naturally it is impeccably decorated. I imagine that one day if I own it will be a chaos of color and flea market finds and hardly as sophisticated as this. 
I like the kitchen. I hesitate to call the stove "vintage" but it looks vintage to me. It's probably from the 80s or something. I like that it's gas though. Electric stoves can eat my human waste products. Also I have several basil plants growing in the kitchen window that isn't pictured as well as a thyme plant. I've been line drying my clothes, out of conservation as much as necessity (we don't have a dryer) and stepping around the minefield of the house dog's doo in the back yard. We should totally look into a pet poop composter for his crap!
Sightseeing with Reesh
I will post pictures of the Mushroom Kingdom, which is my new, fond name for the back yard. I woke up yesterday morning and was delighted to find a veritable trail of large white mushrooms growing in the back yard. It's like they found the fungal version of the Northwest Passage and are all jumping on the bandwagon. I'm an odd person and I like mushrooms (and not just in my Marsala). Also, please note the attack against the kingdom by the fearsome monster Berrin.
So that wasn't really sight seeing, and maybe I'm not very good at compartmentalizing my blog. Let's try again.
Sightseeing with Reesh!
Saint Louis is a city unlike any I've ever visited. Quick observations:
- It's a driving city-- public transit is much more limited, everything is spread out and linked by more than a few major highways. Even taxis are expensive and less common.
- People routinely ask each other what high school you went to. I was told about this phenomenon and joked about being asked that question before I ever experienced it first hand. Sure enough, it's the first test you'll need to pass if you're a native Saint Louisan out and about.
- Nobody stops for four-way stop signs. Rolling stops all around. In fact I was told I'd be rear-ended if I stopped fully. I haven't been rear-ended yet, but maybe people cut me a break because I still have my NY plates?
- The Cardinals and Budlight are king. Don't mess with them.
- Don't ask about where you can find organic food, odds are if it's not Whole Foods or Trader Joe's you won't find it.
- All the museums are free! Weeeee! I've already been to the zoo... for free.
- Saint Louisans are otherwise pretty good, polite drivers. I have seen very little auto-aggression so far.
Anyway, in spite of the love for Anheuser-Busch and that sadness over its recent sale to InBev, there are a lot of really, really good beer stores. People like beer here! Yay! Just a mile up the road is a great beer/wine store cleverly disguised as a deli. Haha, Deli, I'm on to you. They make good pastrami sandwiches, but I like being overwhelmed by uncommon beer brands. There's a bar I've been to twice now that only sells beer in cans. It's been around long enough that it's actually called the "Tin Can" but tonight I went and sampled some of Milwaukees finest libations. I think there will be a forthcoming blog entry about that actually.St. Louis Folk
I could really use a copy editor here, because I'm almost certain that I'm not organizing this blog well. An observation: there are definitely men here that have a distinct "midwestern" look to them. Not all men, but definitely some. I'm not talking about clothes or attitudes, I'm talking about their faces. I can't define what it is that makes them look "Midwestern". All I know is that we don't have guys that look like that in the Northeast and that I know them when I see them. Maybe I'll steal a picture some time of said "Midwestern-faced man"? If I ever snag one, I will know without a shadow of a doubt that this man is from the Midwest and he's not lying to me about it.
The people are *really* friendly. Even when they're ultra conservative and cannot possibly find a way to agree with me! However, Dana mentioned that a lot of guys who are from Saint Louis are often pretty miserable. This is because they've lived here their whole lives, have had the same group of friends their entire lives and secretly yearn for a change but stay right here. Thus they become embittered and angry men. I would argue that they become unnecessarily staunch about their conservative values. The dating scene is probably a minefield of self-righteous Republicans. I gotta watch out for those. We'd bicker til we're finished.
Anyway, I suppose this is enough for now. This is MY decree, take that, Mom. I will regale you with my beer observation tomorrow, maybe even at dawn's first light if you're lucky.
Cheerios!
I went with Mandy's hair. I love, love how it came out. Big tip for the hair dresser, yay!
I'm getting my hair cut on June 4th, so I'm looking for everyone's advice on how I should do it.
Here's its current look... it's been growing out for a while but there are no layers and extra long bangs that I've intentionally gone without trimming for two months maybe.
Now here's what I'm looking at:
or
I have successfully completed my first 110 mile bike ride. It was the Placid Planet Century ride. Why 110, then, you ask? I'll explain later.
Sunday did not start out well. In a moment of brilliance the night before I'd decided to have two Caribbean Cowboy painkillers, paint my fingernails a striking magenta color and not stretch out for a good thirty minutes. Or ride my warm-up 15 miles on my periwinkle blue (admittedly it's a little girlier than periwinkle, but that's marketing for you).
I woke up at 5 am and thought to myself, well... I could just do the fifty. Get some more sleep in... feel more refreshed. My stomach was unhappy about the various kinds of rum I'd put in my body the night before and I was almost certain it would reject food if I tried to choke some down. 7:15 am, T-45 minutes before the ride, a friend convinced me that I really out to get my ass out of bed and do the 100. I did pay $35 bucks and it would be quite the feat. I pulled myself out of bed, threw on my shorts, my favorite bike jersey-- a bright pink Louis Garneau, ate an energy for a quick pre-breakfast and sped off to Lake Placid Health and Fitness for the start.
I felt like the lone amateur in a crowd of Ironman and racing vets, clad in their fanciful team jersey/shorts combos. I might have been one of the few with a mismatched jersey and shorts but you know what? My fingernails were painted magenta to match my jersey, which is more than I can say for them. Suck on that Team Placid Planet. So I was a bit self-conscious riding with a bunch of hammerheads who will ultimately bike 100 miles in five hours. "Pacing yourself" to them means 20 mph average speed. Christ.
Still apprehensive amongst the leagues of team jerseys I moved toward the back of the pack as we set out both intentionally and unintentionally. A. I'm not as fast as those guys and B. I didn't want to push it too hard at the start.
The weather was gorgeous-- cool to start and warmed up to a sultry 72 degrees by mid day. We started off going downhill toward Wilmington and it's really nice to get a tailwind on the gradual slope. I mowed on some peanut butter fluff sandwiches on Wonderbread at the first aid station 20 miles in. It's hard to believe the first 1/4 of the century took a little more than an hour. I made it to the second feed station in Peru by noontime, feeling good. The route had taken me on some rolling back roads with a good ratio of climbs/decents. Decents got the edge. Peru was the lowest part of the trip and naturally the second half of the day involved climbing.
I met a nice older guy named Dan who wanted to take it easy as well at the second feed station and we hung in with each other through the next twenty or so miles. After a while he just dusted me. I guess a former racer like himself might get a little annoyed/bored with a slow rider like me.
The last 30 miles were total agony. Between the pressure on my cooch for an extended amount of time, my decreasing abdominal strength and subsequent back/arm/neck pain from resting my weight on the handlebars, I was done. I was alone on the long sweeping climbs between Hawkeye and Blackbrook but climbed them steadily stopping a few times to call someone for moral support. I suppressed whimpers and sobs of pain and exhaustion. I routinely tried to shake my arms and shoulders loose, mostly failing.
By the time I arrived at the last feed station the sag-wagon guy was packing up to go look for me. I was moving slowly but steadily between 7 and 15 miles per hour depending on the terrain. I pulled over and was so overwhelmed by relief/other mixed emotions/trauma that I could barely pull together the will to speak. They gave me cookies and a banana to eat and lots of water. He promised he'd stop at pull offs and wait for me to pass before moving on to the next.
I pressed onward. Lots more elevation to go riding through the notch. I prayed for a tailwind. Much of it is gradual from Whiteface to Riverside Drive and if you have a strong enough wind on your side it's pretty much a coast. Somehow, I mustered some extra energy and ignored my ailing back and shoulders and carried my ass all the way into Lake Placid.
Once I reached Northwoods Road, the last of the mega-climbs I knew I'd make it. I patiently ascended the last of the hills toward the gym and rolled in at exactly 6 pm, streaked with grit, sunblock and bike grease. My cheeks were encrusted with salt where my sunglasses had collected sweat over the last ten hours. I'd failed to put sunblock on my fingers so I had a lovely bike glove sunburn. I rode straight by the last aid guys packing up. I sat in my car and mumbled to myself "I did it," over and over like I just might be partially schizophrenic. Then I made some phone calls, put away my bike and drove home, achey and shakey and unsure how to treat my body.
I may have been last but I feel good about that. I made my peace with the concept last year during the mini-triathlons. Most of those guys out there weren't pushing themselves or challenging themselves. They were just going out for a fun ride to keep them in their peak professional conditions. I, on the other hand, set out to finish in ten hours and that's just what I did, rest of the pack be damned. If you subtract my breaks at feed stations and other places probably 9 hours of riding all together. Considering I began road riding last June and just started this year a month or so ago, I am really thrilled with my accomplishment. Most of the people I told called me 'sick' or 'crazy', but they also said they were proud of me.
Today I feel pretty good. Sore, but not as sore as I'd been after climbing Street and Nye. I feel like I could actually run a few miles or god forbid it-- bike a few. Tomorrow I'm planning on riding in Keene Valley so that should be good, hopefully my poor, bruised rear hiney is up for it.
I also plotted an approximate profile for the ride based on actual elevations of the towns I rode through and the major climbs in between that I could remember and estimate elevations for. The last 40 miles are nutso.
I want to take a moment to appreciate quaking aspens, easily my favorite tree. I walked to the school building this morning and was overwhelmed by the beauty of the aspens which tend to burst into a crown of April green earlier than any other tree around here. I love their pristine silver tree trunks and the way the leaves jitter and spring alive at the slightest breeze. I love how they're the largest single organisms on the planet, several trees sharing the same root system over hundreds of square kilometers. Behold the beauty!
First movement. Well, I've found someplace to live! (Huzzah!) I'll be living on Finkman St. in the Princeton Heights neighborhood of St. Louis in a beautiful brick bungalow with a very cool lady (who also happens to have red hair). I'll be a whopping 12 miles away from school, which is a lengthy bike commute, but I think I can shave it down to 11 using my awesome powers of google map manipulation. I guess I'll just have to spend some time once I get down there learning
I mean... are biofuels really a sustainable alternative? Take powering cars with leftover vegetable oils, animal fats. Or cellulose based ethanol from corn. Or fuel derived from sugar cane. Do we really want to be using our food supply to power our cars when the earth's population is growing exponentially? Check this out.
Before I leap into this conversation about conservation (I did smirk a bit as I wrote that), I can't deny the growing need for fuel alternatives. Wind power, solar power, biofuel, etc... the research is necessary. Watching our desperation for petroleum shape our suffering foreign policy is vomitous. But finding fuel alternatives is not enough.
Conservation is a broad term and we all know what it means in terms of environmental issues. But you just don't hear the term thrown around anymore. I did a search on CNN.com and found just one result that actually had the word "conservation" in the title on the first page when sorted by relevance. It appears that nobody in this country is interested in hearing about ways to save on energy. Obviously things are being done about it. Technology is improving to improve heat efficiency, electrical efficiency, etc. Rather than depend on technology to save our precious lifestyles, what ever happened to plain old saving?
Heat/cold efficiency?
People are working to make their homes more energy efficient with heat efficient windows.
Transportation
Firstly...
look what Paris has done!
The solutions are pretty simple, but it requires commitment and dedication on everyone's part. Walking! Biking! Heck even little Vespa motorbikes. Using public transportation. It makes me crazy that we as a nation don't invest more into our rail systems. Anybody who has been to Europe and even Asia has experienced the ease and efficiency of their train systems. When I lived in Belgium, I'd ride my bike to the station, hop a train to Brussels and then hop out and walk or use Brussels' local transit system. It was brilliant. It was a way of life. What will it take for people to realize that rail is a more fuel efficient way to move goods (rather than semis), people and their pets?
Another interesting article about the future of rail in the U.S.
It would be so very simple if cities would just paint bike lines. More people would be willing to take to the streets on bike if the city as a whole was more aware of cyclists and bike commuters. Apparently St. Louis is in the process of making itself more bike friendly, but in my opinion, it should be every major road, not just the major major ones (short of highway). I always loved coming to a red light in Bruges with a pack of twenty or so cyclists on their way to work/school in the morning. We were expected. It was lovely.
Anyway, I'm losing grip on my focus here, so I suppose I'll cut it out for now. More later perhaps!
With a new job on the horizon that isn't
If the reasons aren't immediately obvious to you, I'll spell them out.
*Gas is up to nearly $4.00 a gallon. As is, I live at work and have no commute and filling up my tank on occasion cuts me deep. If I lived 8 miles away, I'd be spending a lot of money on gas. I'm just not interested.
*Instant work out! If I lived just 8 miles from school I'd be putting in 16 miles a day... that's about an hour or so of cardio built into my schedule.
*None of the headaches of waiting in a car at traffic lights. The thrill of zipping by long lines of frustrated drivers.
*Extending the life of my beloved purpley-blue Toyota Corolla. The longer that things lasts and looks nice the happier I'll be. It's at 70k miles right now, I'd love to have it many more years. Not driving it every day will make it last!
Anyway, those are the main reasons. I haven't thought as far as winter yet, but I could always drive during those times of the year. Or outfit my bike to handle it! I want a bike I can go pick up groceries with.
Here's a really interesting article about bike commuting
I wish bike commuting was better supported, frankly. Bike lanes in more cities and towns. Places to stash your bike. More share the road signs. If more people commuted by bike our nation would be healthier, less congested and polluted.
Once upon a time I lived in northern Belgium where traveling by bike was a way of life. Even in the rainy, icy winters, I would bike about 14 or 15 miles round trip to school. I'd bike to meet up with friends. I'd bike to the train station. That's just the way of things over there. You'd see crazy mofos riding holding umbrellas or coffees. It was so very awesome.
In another life I biked to all my summer jobs. The hotel housekeeping job at Tory Pines. The ice cream scooping job at Kimball Farm. At the very least it offset the calories consumed at the ice cream place.
Anyway, I love bikes and this is clearly no secret.
The history of my bikes:
The Spoiler
Now this is a modern version of a bike I used to have which was white with white knobby tires. It was a BMX styled sucker that came with training wheels when I first had it. I would ride that bike up Crotched Mountain or down our dirt road full tilt only to skid into our drive way. Lots of scrapes from crashing too. It has those velcro things that went around the handlebars that had the name of the bike. No streamers though. I was more hardcore than that. Here I am riding it on the right! Ha, the years before helmets.
The Raleigh Venture I don't know where we got them but we were given some heavy duty steel street bikes. I got the silver one! I rode this sucker to town or to work wherever I wanted. Sometimes to my best friend's house. I can't seem to find an old school picture. It was probably a late 80's model. We still have it hanging in the basement of my mom's house. They should probably consider selling it.
The Mountain Technium At some point my uncle decided that my Raleigh wasn't cutting it anymore and loaned me his Raleigh Mountain Technium that he'd raced on many years earlier. I used it to make it to the ice cream shop mostly as I didn't transition into recreational riding very well. It was a very utilitarian habit for me. I didn't really know how to take care of it though and was soon lured away from it by fast twitch shifters and shiny new parts.
2005: The Gary Fisher Marlin GS!
One summer day my friend Eli and I made a pact. "I'll get a guitar if you get yourself a new bike." And so we went shopping. Within a few hours he had a new Taylor guitar and I had this shiny new Gary Fisher. He sat on the trunk of my car and played songs while I cruised around the bike shop parking lot. I named my bike Super Taylor and covered it with DC Comics hero stickers. This was my first real recreational bike since the Spoiler I had as a kid. I took it off the road. I learned to mountain bike properly. It transported me to work. It still gets me to the school building and back!
2007: Trek Pilot 5.0
The big investment. A carbon frame road bike designed for distance and climbing. Damn do I love this bike. I've had it tailored to my body geometry. I have put hundreds and hundreds of miles on it. On May 25th, I'll ride it 100 miles as part of the Placid Planet century ride. I love this bike. I love it.
The next bike?
Undoubtedly something designed for commuting and lugging stuff. I'm considering the Kona Ute, but ultimately I'll have to test ride a bunch when I get to St. Louis. Woo!
I'm going to arrange this by FAQ, I think just so it's clear.
You're not going to Korea anymore?
True. Korea is no longer my destination of choice.
Why not? What changed?
Some time ago, really about a month, I made the decision. My sister announced that she was engaged and I decided that that was the perfect excuse to stay close to home. I didn't want to be 8,000 miles from my family when she was planning her wedding nor did I want to be in a place where your employer makes it near impossible for you to get away for a vacation. Or you know, I didn't want to drop the $2,000 on a plane ticket to go home for a brief time.
Upon further deliberation, however, I realized that I had been feeling less and less excited about the prospect of living there. Not because it's not a terribly cool place, but because the change I desired did not have to be quite so earth-shatteringly drastic. I could move somewhere in the U.S. and feel the same euphoric effects.
Did you want to come back to your current school?
Initially, I went to my administrative team at school and informed them of my sudden change of heart. Their response was obvious elation, although subsequent meetings left me less hopeful. I wanted to teach more science, or perhaps even geography, but it became rapidly evident that those positions were not available to me. Geography had shifted toward history and that made me less qualified. No science positions were opening up aside from the one I already held.
Math was offered to me but you know what? I hate math. Well, I don't mind it. But I certainly don't love it enough to make a career of it. Kids deserve a teacher who can make it exciting for them. I simply can't. There was a moment's excitement between two of my former houseparenting team that we might be able to live together and houseparent together. But ultimately that's only part of the whole package.
If NCS doesn't have anything, then what?
So I began my search. I reactivated my Carney Sandoe & Associates account, as this firm had provided me with a referral for my current and last job. Within a week they'd sent me 40 or so schools looking for someone just like me. A middle school teacher with 2-5 years teaching experience gets a lot more referrals than a wannabe middle school teacher with no regular classroom experience. Yay! But I entered late in the game so I wasn't feeling particularly confident about it all. Some schools piqued my interest and I sent out what felt like eleventy-billion cover letters.
Did you interview anywhere else?
I did. I interviewed at a school on the North Shore in Massachusetts. It was a great interview! Nice school... great people. I was very impressed when I left.
Well what happened?
Shortly afterward I went to Saint Louis and I fell in love. Every single person I met was warm and made me feel completely at ease. The city was beautiful and tree-covered, filled with adorable restaurants with umbrellas and terraces. The middle school head welcomed me into his home just hours after meeting me. I ate dinner with science teachers. They were incredibly hospitable.
My interview went remarkably well, so well that when I finally met with the head of all three divisions of the school, she extended me a job offer and a salary that is astoundingly high for a city that is so very affordable. Understanding what an amazing opportunity this was, I seized it.
THUS, that brings me to the present. I am planning to move to Saint Louis around August 1st. If anyone wants to come on a roadtrip with me... PLEASE... let me know! It would be fun. I figure I'll get a trailer hitch and a mini u-haul trailer and drive 55 all the way there.
And if you want to come and party let me know!
