(no subject)
i've been incredibly busy over the last few weeks. i'm working, taking three classes, bowling(!) on my work league, and somehow trying to have a home life and a social life. and finding a place to park! that seems to be the worst part so far. i worked the air force marathon and then ran the 5K, my first one, and did pretty well! ran a 35:06, which works out to just over an 11-minute mile, which is great for me. and i ran the whole thing! that was my only goal. i didn't even know my time until a few days later. i just didn't want to break down and walk. boy was i sore sunday and monday, and boy was i sunburned, but the experience was immensely gratifying. i grinned like a dumbass the whole time. running with people is definitely different from running along and was a lot more fun that i'd expected. (also, i'd link to the website, but i maintain it and it's sort of halfway broken in mozilla/firefox right now, which sucks because i can't put them on my work computer to fix the problem. so i have to futz with it at work, check it out at home, and then make adjustments at work the next day. and that doesn't work for me at all. also, i'm just generally mortified with my own websites because i know i'm not really any good at it. so yeah, you get to use the power of google.) :p
bowling is fun! i suck. but that's fun too! and i'm getting less sucky by the week. i also have the highest handicap known to man! you tell me if *you've* ever had a 148.
weekends have even been taken up with the indulgences of the last few months. i've been to chicago twice, cleveland, nashville, mid-ohio raceway, and columbus, and that's just in august. that doesn't even count the july 4 trip to north carolina and tennessee. that doesn't even take into account the random concerting in my own backyard that i chronicled recently. oh, you want to hear about some of that stuff? okay!
independence day weekend found us on a romantic anniversary trip to the mountains of north carolina for some rafting. i'd made the rafting reservations, but i'd neglected campsite reservations totally, despite promising to take care of it on several occasions. yeah, i'm good like that. we were hoping to stay in bryson city but ended up driving all the way up to cherokee and staying within the qualla boundary, in a roadside campground across from a church of god. tangent: i was happy to see most street signs and a lot of billboards in two languages. i grew up pretty acutely aware that the cherokee nation has perhaps the best-known history of subjugation and removal of indigenous populations in the u.s., so this sort of governmental push (cherokee government, i'm sure the u.s. gov't could give a shit, unfortunately) for literacy and fluency in cherokee is definitely heartening from a linguistic and political standpoint. on the other hand, a lot of the billboards had to do with diabetes and with domestic violence. obviously we're (humanity) a long way from leaving behind the mark of the violence we (white people) committed.
back to the vacation. we got up the next morning and took a noon-ish paddle down the nantahala river. the guide gave me a shot at manning the rudder, as it were, and i have to say i didn't totally suck. it's way harder than i anticipated, though. i mean, the nantahala is not a particularly tough river - class II's and III's - and i was still exhausted. but so much fun! i'd always wanted to be a river guide growing up; a lot of my friends, including a couple of ex-boyfriends, were guides on the ocoee at various points. so i got the chance to try out my ambition and i liked what i was doing. maybe someday later on i'll take a summer and do just that.
we did get to drive through deal's gap and the cherohola skyway, both meccas for motorcyclists. driving, i think, must be vastly different from biking; but still tons of fun and dazzling views on the skyway (did you know it climbs to 6000 feet? i didn't!). took the skyway over to tellico plains and then trekked through etowah and athens to cleveland, where i drove past my old house and school and visited with my old friend holly, which was truly lovely. (holly's not old. you know what i mean.) so strange to stay in a hotel in a town i used to live in. stranger still that the hotel should be located just next to the waffle house where my friend jess would go for breakfast every morning and do the pee-wee herman dance to "tequila" for the waitresses.
started off august with a trip to mid ohio for the AMA motorcycle races. we're going back in two weeks for the series finale. we rode up on the bike, three hours of friday morning backroads through tiny towns and cornfields, listening to knuckle down through the headphones of my ipod. (note to self: get different headphones for inside the helmet. these hurt after an hour.) the sun filtering through the clouds made the perfect complement to my introspective soundtrack and the vibration of the bike.
the race itself was a scene. tons of people on bikes, people on golf carts, people walking around looking at new bikes, vendor tents everywhere, drunk people everywhere, mullets. people doing burnouts, people popping wheelies. racers hurtling themselves down a track at maybe 180 miles an hour, identifiable by brief snatches of orange on green - hey, that's tommy hayden! - or a glimpse of number 11 - ben spies! there was a meet 'n greet with a number of racers, including the whole of team suzuki. so i got the chance to tell mat mladin how exciting his riding is to watch. (and it is - he's in a totally different class from most of the rest of the riders.) he was gracious about that, more so than i expected, actually. we didn't camp this time, but for the one at the end of the month, i think we are camping. we'd better stake out a spot pretty early, because everyone will be there for the season championship. also i will have to figure out how to fend off loud drunk people. not a situation i come up against so much now that i'm rarely one of them.
after mid-ohio, we figured out that since i'll be doing a lot more riding, we're running up against a weight limit if we want to take trips anywhere. so we went to the chicago suburbs to test-ride a honda st1300, a touring bike, much better for packing camping gear for two people. i fell asleep on the back during the test ride. we totally bought it. :D went back the following weekend to pick up the bike and hand over the check. then while my sweetie rode the bike back home, i drove into chicago proper to see my friend nuri. hi, nurispark! we hadn't seen each other since the u.s. aids conference of '98, in dallas, and it was so good to see him again. we'd bonded from the beginning. he was witty, urbane, charming, and deeply caring, as i'd remembered him. i white-knuckled my way through the streets of boystown while he gave me a crash course on parking in chicago (first tip: try not to crash!). i have to say, driving in chicago is not bad at all, but i don't ever want to park there again. i already have figured out what i'm doing next month, when aliyaskie and i go there for the ani show: park and ride! but anyway. we went to a great mongolian grill and then headed back to his place for tivo'd daily show, tivo'd will and grace, and sleep.
next morning, i got up and drove to cleveland to stay with my mom for the weekend. that is one exhausting drive if you're doing it by yourself. this part of the world is so *flat*! flat flat flat flat flat. hanging out with my mom was fun, and going to the zoo with my sister and her boyfriend rocked. she has the same hair as the colobus monkeys! (not an insult. she rocks the best fauxhawk EVAR.) boyfriends that like lewis black are very good boyfriends, so my sister has a very good boyfriend. the only sucky thing about the weekend was that i got sick about the time i was supposed to be leaving, so i couldn't leave and had to call in sick to work. argh. then drove home the next day, still sick but not hurling anymore. i detest driving, or indeed doing much of anything, when i'm sick. the suckiness is beyond words. i'm a total wuss when it comes to that sort of thing. so if you ever happen to be around me when i am sick, truly i say ye shall inherit the earth.
aaaaaand i got down to nashville for labor day weekend, on which my dad's birthday happens to fall, which is why i was in nashville in the first place. golfing didn't end up happening, but we did take dad out to dinner and helped him strip wallpaper. i also got to see beerfest and debate politics with my friend john from high school, a truly brilliant individual. (wondering about the movie? super troopers was better, but there's a truly ramis-worthy couple of opening sequences, so see it anyway.) and then! the weekend after that! we took friday night for a date night, dressed to the nines, and went to ruth's chris steakhouse in columbus. what a feast! i had hollandaise and didn't have to make it myself! i had creme brulee and also didn't have to make it myself! (i love making both, but talk about dirtying every dish in the house to do it.) my filet was fantastic, and m's kobe beef sirloin was an astonishing new taste. let me tell you, you carnivores out there, kobe beef is so worth the money. get it if you can. the sake massage really comes through.
then on saturday, we went to ann arbor for my brother's group's performance. great performance, plus we had time to take him out for lunch the next day. i love hanging out with my siblings and i don't get to see either one of them nearly enough, particularly my brother, who's always traveling. i have to say, ann arbor is a kickass little town. i think i'd enjoy going somewhere like michigan these days. i'd never seen such a huge frat presence, though. some of the frat houses were old and distinguished-looking, obviously very moneyed. and then some had couches and volleyball pits on the front lawn. those are my kind of greeks. we camped at a koa in ypsilanti, watched canadian geese land in the morning mist on the tranquil little lake adjoining the property. listened to football on the radio during the drive home.
that brings me to this past weekend and the marathon. those were all pretty much weekends in a row, so the last time i had an actual weekend to do nothing was...i don't know...maybe july, maybe june. so this weekend we are doing NOTHING! do you hear me? nothing! i even got an invitation to renfest this weekend and i begged off in support of the do-nothing weekend. we'll watch motegi (is motegi this weekend? i haven't even watched phillip island yet...), eat pizza, scratch our asses, lie around in bed, maybe cruise around on the bike a little before the frost sets in. i'm so primed for this do-nothing weekend. mid-ohio is the weekend after that, and then there's columbus day weekend (with a possible visit to my mother), and then ani extravaganza 2006: the road trip! so decompression is urgently needed.
bowling is fun! i suck. but that's fun too! and i'm getting less sucky by the week. i also have the highest handicap known to man! you tell me if *you've* ever had a 148.
weekends have even been taken up with the indulgences of the last few months. i've been to chicago twice, cleveland, nashville, mid-ohio raceway, and columbus, and that's just in august. that doesn't even count the july 4 trip to north carolina and tennessee. that doesn't even take into account the random concerting in my own backyard that i chronicled recently. oh, you want to hear about some of that stuff? okay!
independence day weekend found us on a romantic anniversary trip to the mountains of north carolina for some rafting. i'd made the rafting reservations, but i'd neglected campsite reservations totally, despite promising to take care of it on several occasions. yeah, i'm good like that. we were hoping to stay in bryson city but ended up driving all the way up to cherokee and staying within the qualla boundary, in a roadside campground across from a church of god. tangent: i was happy to see most street signs and a lot of billboards in two languages. i grew up pretty acutely aware that the cherokee nation has perhaps the best-known history of subjugation and removal of indigenous populations in the u.s., so this sort of governmental push (cherokee government, i'm sure the u.s. gov't could give a shit, unfortunately) for literacy and fluency in cherokee is definitely heartening from a linguistic and political standpoint. on the other hand, a lot of the billboards had to do with diabetes and with domestic violence. obviously we're (humanity) a long way from leaving behind the mark of the violence we (white people) committed.
back to the vacation. we got up the next morning and took a noon-ish paddle down the nantahala river. the guide gave me a shot at manning the rudder, as it were, and i have to say i didn't totally suck. it's way harder than i anticipated, though. i mean, the nantahala is not a particularly tough river - class II's and III's - and i was still exhausted. but so much fun! i'd always wanted to be a river guide growing up; a lot of my friends, including a couple of ex-boyfriends, were guides on the ocoee at various points. so i got the chance to try out my ambition and i liked what i was doing. maybe someday later on i'll take a summer and do just that.
we did get to drive through deal's gap and the cherohola skyway, both meccas for motorcyclists. driving, i think, must be vastly different from biking; but still tons of fun and dazzling views on the skyway (did you know it climbs to 6000 feet? i didn't!). took the skyway over to tellico plains and then trekked through etowah and athens to cleveland, where i drove past my old house and school and visited with my old friend holly, which was truly lovely. (holly's not old. you know what i mean.) so strange to stay in a hotel in a town i used to live in. stranger still that the hotel should be located just next to the waffle house where my friend jess would go for breakfast every morning and do the pee-wee herman dance to "tequila" for the waitresses.
started off august with a trip to mid ohio for the AMA motorcycle races. we're going back in two weeks for the series finale. we rode up on the bike, three hours of friday morning backroads through tiny towns and cornfields, listening to knuckle down through the headphones of my ipod. (note to self: get different headphones for inside the helmet. these hurt after an hour.) the sun filtering through the clouds made the perfect complement to my introspective soundtrack and the vibration of the bike.
the race itself was a scene. tons of people on bikes, people on golf carts, people walking around looking at new bikes, vendor tents everywhere, drunk people everywhere, mullets. people doing burnouts, people popping wheelies. racers hurtling themselves down a track at maybe 180 miles an hour, identifiable by brief snatches of orange on green - hey, that's tommy hayden! - or a glimpse of number 11 - ben spies! there was a meet 'n greet with a number of racers, including the whole of team suzuki. so i got the chance to tell mat mladin how exciting his riding is to watch. (and it is - he's in a totally different class from most of the rest of the riders.) he was gracious about that, more so than i expected, actually. we didn't camp this time, but for the one at the end of the month, i think we are camping. we'd better stake out a spot pretty early, because everyone will be there for the season championship. also i will have to figure out how to fend off loud drunk people. not a situation i come up against so much now that i'm rarely one of them.
after mid-ohio, we figured out that since i'll be doing a lot more riding, we're running up against a weight limit if we want to take trips anywhere. so we went to the chicago suburbs to test-ride a honda st1300, a touring bike, much better for packing camping gear for two people. i fell asleep on the back during the test ride. we totally bought it. :D went back the following weekend to pick up the bike and hand over the check. then while my sweetie rode the bike back home, i drove into chicago proper to see my friend nuri. hi, nurispark! we hadn't seen each other since the u.s. aids conference of '98, in dallas, and it was so good to see him again. we'd bonded from the beginning. he was witty, urbane, charming, and deeply caring, as i'd remembered him. i white-knuckled my way through the streets of boystown while he gave me a crash course on parking in chicago (first tip: try not to crash!). i have to say, driving in chicago is not bad at all, but i don't ever want to park there again. i already have figured out what i'm doing next month, when aliyaskie and i go there for the ani show: park and ride! but anyway. we went to a great mongolian grill and then headed back to his place for tivo'd daily show, tivo'd will and grace, and sleep.
next morning, i got up and drove to cleveland to stay with my mom for the weekend. that is one exhausting drive if you're doing it by yourself. this part of the world is so *flat*! flat flat flat flat flat. hanging out with my mom was fun, and going to the zoo with my sister and her boyfriend rocked. she has the same hair as the colobus monkeys! (not an insult. she rocks the best fauxhawk EVAR.) boyfriends that like lewis black are very good boyfriends, so my sister has a very good boyfriend. the only sucky thing about the weekend was that i got sick about the time i was supposed to be leaving, so i couldn't leave and had to call in sick to work. argh. then drove home the next day, still sick but not hurling anymore. i detest driving, or indeed doing much of anything, when i'm sick. the suckiness is beyond words. i'm a total wuss when it comes to that sort of thing. so if you ever happen to be around me when i am sick, truly i say ye shall inherit the earth.
aaaaaand i got down to nashville for labor day weekend, on which my dad's birthday happens to fall, which is why i was in nashville in the first place. golfing didn't end up happening, but we did take dad out to dinner and helped him strip wallpaper. i also got to see beerfest and debate politics with my friend john from high school, a truly brilliant individual. (wondering about the movie? super troopers was better, but there's a truly ramis-worthy couple of opening sequences, so see it anyway.) and then! the weekend after that! we took friday night for a date night, dressed to the nines, and went to ruth's chris steakhouse in columbus. what a feast! i had hollandaise and didn't have to make it myself! i had creme brulee and also didn't have to make it myself! (i love making both, but talk about dirtying every dish in the house to do it.) my filet was fantastic, and m's kobe beef sirloin was an astonishing new taste. let me tell you, you carnivores out there, kobe beef is so worth the money. get it if you can. the sake massage really comes through.
then on saturday, we went to ann arbor for my brother's group's performance. great performance, plus we had time to take him out for lunch the next day. i love hanging out with my siblings and i don't get to see either one of them nearly enough, particularly my brother, who's always traveling. i have to say, ann arbor is a kickass little town. i think i'd enjoy going somewhere like michigan these days. i'd never seen such a huge frat presence, though. some of the frat houses were old and distinguished-looking, obviously very moneyed. and then some had couches and volleyball pits on the front lawn. those are my kind of greeks. we camped at a koa in ypsilanti, watched canadian geese land in the morning mist on the tranquil little lake adjoining the property. listened to football on the radio during the drive home.
that brings me to this past weekend and the marathon. those were all pretty much weekends in a row, so the last time i had an actual weekend to do nothing was...i don't know...maybe july, maybe june. so this weekend we are doing NOTHING! do you hear me? nothing! i even got an invitation to renfest this weekend and i begged off in support of the do-nothing weekend. we'll watch motegi (is motegi this weekend? i haven't even watched phillip island yet...), eat pizza, scratch our asses, lie around in bed, maybe cruise around on the bike a little before the frost sets in. i'm so primed for this do-nothing weekend. mid-ohio is the weekend after that, and then there's columbus day weekend (with a possible visit to my mother), and then ani extravaganza 2006: the road trip! so decompression is urgently needed.