Waterlogged

i don't like this rain. i also don't like this cold. i don't like it when spring behaves like spring. i like it when spring behaves like early summer. however, the weather did motivate me to run art loeb/north slope and that was cool. and painful. dirty wes d probably has it right..."running's for poor folks."

i also don't like it when the boyfriend is gone all day servicing rich people. then he comes home at like 9:30 with armloads of cts shirts and sram stickers and super delicious pro bars. it's not fair. the only service i can give to rich people is a perfect hazelnut mocha. and chances are they'll refuse it because it's not skim. oh, i can also babysit neurotic children and take care of pools. which reminds me, i really want to post pictures of the house where i'm pool-sitting. it's epic.

i do like beets. a lot. i bought some at ingles last night for my AMAZING roasted vegetable salad and i felt like i was totally pulling the wool over their eyes! i paid a dollar for this ugly dirty piece of rubble, took it home, peeled it, and got a ruby! wow!

today was cool because i showed a segment of 'earthed 5' to my clase de espanol and they all oohed and ahhed appropriately. now they associate that with collegiate racing. which is so, so, wrong. but good for our image.

Stellar

this has been a fabulous week. lots of good mtb rides, including adventure village--how could i have forgotten about the slalom course and increasingly decrepit but still cool xc trails we built last summer!? the town of brevard also had the pleasure of hosting the effervescent emily, who will be rocking out with bc (and rooming with me! yeeahh boi, as she would say) in the coming mtb season. i don't think i need to tell anyone how awesome she is.
the hobby park race was this weekend and it was sooperdooper good times. a huge b-town caravan rolled in and proceeded to dominate the podiums(four brevardians in the top fifteen of the pro field!) i got third behind two pros, anina and philicia. the climbs were awesome but not frequent enough and the descents were great fun but not my forte...piedmont style twists and turns and nothing super technical. philicia had ze skillz and i did not.
i spent a lot of time during the race composing odes to my bike. i love it passionately and it's so reliable and beautiful and comfortable.
and so demure.

also, for the first time i have some legit sponsors and they're being so generous i think i should say something! specialized is helping out a lot and the fast tracks were PERFECT and FAST for the course this weekend. cane creek and tifosi are also showing the love, and i can never forget sycamore cycles, i.e. the best local bike shop EVER. yay! onward, in the quest for endorphins and adrenaline!
i am not as pinned as i should be. story of my life.

I Get Excited About Boring Stuff

now, i'm not a particularly creative or hard-working student but i do like learning. so i've been complaining about BC classes a lot and sometimes even lamenting the decision to transfer because this semester my classes are never stimulating (except the environmental one. yay, recycling!) and full of people who don't give a damn. but!
i just got back from the humanities department dinner and it was exciting! it combined two of my most favorite things: free food and liberal arts worthless-in-a-post-apocalyptic-world people. the trinity of religion professors (tee hee, get it?) did little presentations on what they do in their spare time and it was so interesting...downright stimulating. i learned all about hymnology vs. hymnody...apparently one of the faculty is a preeminent hymnodist AND hymnologist. i love it when people are preeminent anythings. it reminds me of steve carell in little miss sunshine:

Richard: Who's Larry Sugarman?
Frank: Probably the second highest regarded Proust scholar in the US.
Richard: Who's number one?
Frank: That would be me, Rich.
Richard: Really?

why do i love that scene? maybe because richard is a meanie jerkface and frank is a sad but urbane academic.
sorry. anyway. another professor (who taught my fab world religions class) talked about his nascent project on religion and food and i was all like omg! i love food! it is like my religion! so i talked to him about it afterward and i got that tingly mentally-stimulated feeling. i like new ideas and people who think a lot.

also, in a similar vein, shout-out goes to the teaching company for their aMAZING courses on tape. i wish they gave out cycling sponsorships because i would promote them SO hard. alas, i fear those two paths shall never meet.

also not in a similar vein i like coaching soccer, especially when the weather is so delightful. i get to yell at middle school girls and while it may sound like i'm yelling at them about soccer, i'm actually yelling at them to have high self-esteems, not pick on other girls, and survive until high school. really. but i don't think they're listening very well.
terrifying.


geez. sorry. all that was so boring.
race report!: rainy saturday. rainy sunday. gritty mouth, soaking butt, numb toes. a better showing from b-town than the last two weekends, thanks to some domination by jami and joh and tristan's very roadie-esque finish. just kidding...you'll never be a roadie, i promise. i actually did something exciting-ish on sunday--i attacked on a hill and got away! it's not nearly as good as it sounds but it was worth a 2nd place so i'm content i suppose. now, no more silly collegiate for awhile: up next are hobby park and THE ASSAULT, i.e. the most important "race" of the season. bring it.

Divine By Design

i'm terribly distracted by top gear. i feel like i should do a race report or four...but that's not really why i started a blog.
actually i can't really remember why i started a blog. i'd much rather creepily read other people's blogs* than write my own.

*like, people i don't know and have never met or even seen. but because of the interwebs i know details about their life and if i do meet them i could potentially make them very uncomfortable. i am really creepy sometimes.

speaking of nothing, if you're ever in newnan, GA, overwhelmed by the great concrete jungle and looking for some grub that's decidedly not golden corral, go eat some sweet potato wedges and fried PB&Js at divine by design jamaican and soul food. omg mouth orgasm.

oh yes, and also, i don't know how this whole sponsorship thing works really, but tifosi glasses are sooperdooper awesome even in pouring GA rain, which is obv the worst kind of rain. duh.

New Study Reveals...

wicksophilia: a common disease among female cyclists...syptoms include uncontrollable outbursts at national races, unexplainable preoccupation with youtube videos, and dangerously rapid heartbeat whenever the name "barry wicks" pops up on cyclingnews. there is no known cure.
side note: experts have found a startling correlation between wicksophilia and boonenamorosity.


so i'm definitely maybe possibly going to chapel hill on monday...unfortunately i won't see 75% of the people i miss sososo much. however, i will see the beautiful campus, drink coffee at the eight different shops that i lurve, ride the same boring loop i once rode four awful times a week, and get out of b-town for a little while!
and there's a race in south cack this weekend. which is better than north GA, but not really. and there's a speedway race, which is better than no criterium at all, but not really.

Yeah!

The Bakery from Kung-Fu Penguin on Vimeo.

"We Used To Be Dumb"

this weekend was two parts awesome and one part shitshow...or maybe one and three quarters parts awesome and one and one quarter part shitshow. for example:

bad: no crit
good: no real reason to excell

bad: malfunctioning derailleur
good: wonderful excuse to drop out

bad: hours of hang out time, exposure to SARS
good: good folks to hang out with, cowie cookies

bad: chaput's clapped truck
good: starbucks stop

bad: heinous winter nonsense
good: squirrel's ability to weather the storm and get us home safely

bad: no gravity riders present
good: plenty of triathletes present...wait...

see, you just have to see the good side of everything! i had a lot of fun. however, i've decided once and for all that north georgia is a really shitty place. sorry residents, but it's the truth.