I've got a bike; I can ride it if I like
So I bought a road bike yesterday. Off craigslist. It's one of those cool old steel ones with shifters on the downtube and some 3-tone turquoise action going on--i guess the owner is leaving the state to run the Boston Marathon.
It's part of my great Press Toward Sustainability this year of my life, whether in the little things, like compact flourescents and turning off power strips and cutting down some on meat etc, along with some relevant moves for health too, like cutting down some on meat and refined sugars/flours, and making sure there are veggies around, and exercising regularly, and maybe even kick my staying-up-insanely-late-for-no-reason habit.
I have a plan this year, you see, that on top of those things I can change the patterns of my life a little--use my bike for little errands, and in combination with mass transit, for big adventures.
And speaking of this year, I've had another one--one more birthday rolled around, and i'm firmly in the middle third of my twenties now. All I can say is, "not bad!"
The birthday 3-day weekend (my first day off, a rare and precious gift to myself) was fantastic, for one thing. Luck was with me my birthday night hurtling up to L.A. in time to just get an unheard-of easy parking spot and stumble into Fred's 62 and tell the Best Waitress "hi I want THAT homemade apple pop tart ASAP please, because i have 15 minutes left in my birthday and I've done nothing but work for 3 days till just an hour ago" and have some very nice guy nearby anonymously pay my bill.
The next day was my pilgrimage to the Exact Center of L.A. with my acoustic guitar and my hip flask of Glenmorangie Port Wood Finish and my iPod voice recorder for Loopy Wilderness Self-Jams, and i learned i can indeed carry a tune but need to sing louder, and I learned that this stuff is like pizza: even when bad, still pretty good. Or at least way fun. I mangled my way through Belle and Sebastian and NMH and T.Rex like the best of 'em and wrote terrible songs about being told by bouncers that I'm "overage" and the IM AN ORAL HISTORIAN song and about getting soul power from the Watts towers, and somehow it was deeply and richly rewarding to my SOUL.
And then of course the All Public Transportation Day involved missed buses but great walks and tired feet but the lovely experience of hitting ktown downtown chinatown pasadena hollywood on 3 bucks 5 rail trips and 1 bus. Though a bit grueling it taught me so, so much and with my bike i see great potentials for supercool mobility. Plus a whiff of the bradbury building, a wave at vroman's books, a jaunt down Olvera Street for kicks, a munch of Phillippe's original french dip, and a platter of spicy yakisoba, not in that order.
And while i was terrified of then facing the week it seems now to have become a far more livable thing than once expected. The work is seeming good and getting better.
Now it's madly late (but not as mad as it used to get) and i should shower cause I gymed this evening but again, an affirmation for the water of life and the burning tea candleson my shelf which make the dark so very pretty.
Excuse thexhaustion, its bed for me!
It's part of my great Press Toward Sustainability this year of my life, whether in the little things, like compact flourescents and turning off power strips and cutting down some on meat etc, along with some relevant moves for health too, like cutting down some on meat and refined sugars/flours, and making sure there are veggies around, and exercising regularly, and maybe even kick my staying-up-insanely-late-for-no-reason habit.
I have a plan this year, you see, that on top of those things I can change the patterns of my life a little--use my bike for little errands, and in combination with mass transit, for big adventures.
And speaking of this year, I've had another one--one more birthday rolled around, and i'm firmly in the middle third of my twenties now. All I can say is, "not bad!"
The birthday 3-day weekend (my first day off, a rare and precious gift to myself) was fantastic, for one thing. Luck was with me my birthday night hurtling up to L.A. in time to just get an unheard-of easy parking spot and stumble into Fred's 62 and tell the Best Waitress "hi I want THAT homemade apple pop tart ASAP please, because i have 15 minutes left in my birthday and I've done nothing but work for 3 days till just an hour ago" and have some very nice guy nearby anonymously pay my bill.
The next day was my pilgrimage to the Exact Center of L.A. with my acoustic guitar and my hip flask of Glenmorangie Port Wood Finish and my iPod voice recorder for Loopy Wilderness Self-Jams, and i learned i can indeed carry a tune but need to sing louder, and I learned that this stuff is like pizza: even when bad, still pretty good. Or at least way fun. I mangled my way through Belle and Sebastian and NMH and T.Rex like the best of 'em and wrote terrible songs about being told by bouncers that I'm "overage" and the IM AN ORAL HISTORIAN song and about getting soul power from the Watts towers, and somehow it was deeply and richly rewarding to my SOUL.
And then of course the All Public Transportation Day involved missed buses but great walks and tired feet but the lovely experience of hitting ktown downtown chinatown pasadena hollywood on 3 bucks 5 rail trips and 1 bus. Though a bit grueling it taught me so, so much and with my bike i see great potentials for supercool mobility. Plus a whiff of the bradbury building, a wave at vroman's books, a jaunt down Olvera Street for kicks, a munch of Phillippe's original french dip, and a platter of spicy yakisoba, not in that order.
And while i was terrified of then facing the week it seems now to have become a far more livable thing than once expected. The work is seeming good and getting better.
Now it's madly late (but not as mad as it used to get) and i should shower cause I gymed this evening but again, an affirmation for the water of life and the burning tea candleson my shelf which make the dark so very pretty.
Excuse thexhaustion, its bed for me!