i just spent the afternoon blogging instead of thesising like i'd planned...

i keep starting blog entries and then i lose interest in what i'm writing part-way through, stop, save the drafts to finish later, and then just delete them instead. let's see how far this post makes it...

a list of misc. things to share:

1. bike riding. riding my bike is going very well, thank you very much. i love facing my fears. i started biking to work this past week. i got some fellow east bay coworkers to bike to work with me on thursday, which was the official bike to work day. becky, kate and i cycled our way to point richmond and then hitched a ride across the rsr bridge (where no bikes are allowed) with boss tom.



22 miles round trip. flat, easy riding along the bay trail. i know btwd is just one day, but it gave me a goal to work towards (get comfortable enough riding my bike in traffic to participate in btwd) and a desire to bike to work regularly. so for me, it became more than just a one-day community event, which of course is the whole point. oh and i'm a big fan of the "energizer stations" on btwd: free food, canvas bags, stickers, drawings to win more free stuff, high-fives for being on a bike, etc. i'm totally in favor of anything that supports, encourages and/or rewards me for anything i do.

i ended up biking to work 3 days last week. and i rode with la ladies back out to point richmond for brunch yesterday, not to mention kenz, ash and i rode up through the steep roads of the berkeley hills to sara's bridal shower last weekend. i'm actually finding my bike more convenient than my car at the moment as my car has starting doing this thing where it suddenly dies while i'm driving it. i'm not stoked on taking it to the mechanic so i'm ignoring the car trouble and trying to bike more instead.

all in all i biked 89.2 miles this week. not bad for a non-bike rider. i may soon get to elevate my status to actual bike rider.

2. free food at crossroads. thanks to ben and his surplus of meal points, i got to have the whole college dining hall experience today-something i missed out on entirely during my college days. waffle bar???!!! excellent.

3. gar aka the onion is achieving world fame. check out the june issue of backpacker magazine in a magazine isle near you. garret's only 1 of 2 people to yo-yo the cdt and it's super cool that he's getting recognized for it. i would like to share the following story in honor of garret: one time we went out for sushi. i am not good with chopsticks. i said as much to gar as i was awkwardly trying to pick up an unraveling roll of some sort. garret looked at me, annoyed, and said, "it's so EASY" and proceeded to pluck up enormous sushi rolls with his chopsticks and pop them in his mouth as if to show that it was in fact easy and i was an idiot. that was the first time we hung out. i decided then it would also be the last. that was several years ago. i'm glad to say we're still friends. i believe this story beautifully illustrates the quote by his mother.

4. thesis. yep, still dealing with old mr. thesis. when will this thing end?? edits, edits. they're not too bad but the whole revision process is going much slower than i would like. i'm a bit worried about not making the summer deadline.

5. i was reminded again this weekend how much i love the movie bandits. (sorry for the dubbing. it's the best clip i can find.)