Biking biking biking... what's a girl to do?

First - sick season... my awesome homemade soup to combat! Hiya!

Did a lot of riding this week... as most weeks end up being. Legs tired. Wiped is maybe more the word. Funny, I don't feel like I'm getting as much out of biking as I do running or rollerskiing but man, riding home from work today, my legs were shot. Granted, I've been racing Mitchell "Fast Legs Fixie" Bowman at all hours of the night SOMA vs. a 69 gear ratio up hills down hills all over the city all week so that may have something to do with it buuuut... I've also been falling asleep for powernaps soon after coming home from school so I figured I was okay. Apparently not. Any remedies for quick recovery for legs beyond warm baths and reverse wall sits, are greatly appreciated.

Thursday was Midnight Mass - a ride that starts at midnight, doesn't have a ton of people (I think they've topped out at 30 once...), and a potentially chill night ride without having to deal with cars, you get to meet interesting people, and is a pretty rockin' time for a girl who loves a good night ride... It starts over in East Vancouver at Grandview Park and this time the choice was made to ride over to Jericho Park. There is a sweet hill down First Ave. where when you're at the top and it's green, you chill down the hill. If it's red, you hammer because by the time you get down there, it'll be green. So awesome.

Friday was Critical Mass. My first CM. It was alright. Not what I thought it was, really. Caught up with it a bit late and we ended up in the back. They had a radio station playing some hopping tunes and all through the group, people had radios in backpacks, on back racks all playing the same music. Pretty cool. We made it up to the Lion's Gate Bridge and I was surprised that we only stuck around for a little while before taking off... I really thought we'd stay there for awhile. I had visions of a big long party. But I guess people have to go back and forth so that doesn't really make sense. That would be sweet though. A bridge party. Although logistically probably not a good idea to have drunk people on a bridge. Hmm...

Lion's Gate Bridge - awesome. haha.

After CM, we bombed it out to Richmond for the Night Market, which is so much fun. The ride is pretty much the new Canada Line route, which is nice because then when the night is over and you're tired and full of bubble tea and potatoes on sticks, you can just take it home. I appreciated my gears though. Raced the guys down Cambie St. to the river and I love love love having the big gear back. Ownage. Haha.

Am still not in school mode. Sort of sucks as this is supposed to be what I want to do, right? I dunno. The biggest problem I'm having with it is the same one I've been having for the past forever in university. There's too much. Yeah, sure, the focus keeps going down as you narrow your specialization (Arts, English, Journalism, etc.) but it doesn't seem narrow enough for me. I guess, sure, you're supposed to do everything as it will broaden your horizons and you may end up with something that you may or may not have realized that you love to do.

But.

But, there's too much. Right now I feel I can't even give the courses I have the focus they deserve as well as train and have a life and sleep and eat. And yeah, maybe it's time management (as we all know I'm sort of suck at that... night before deadline? No prob whipping off a 10 page essay... which may or may not be perfect for journalism...) but at the same time, it's always the problem. It always seems to be the biggest problem. This is supposed to be the time of your life. Well, alright, maybe undergrad but I would stretch it all through your 20s almost. Where you will be spending a majority of it fretting as to whether you can do all the

assignments in a class, to the teacher's specification, do well enough that you'll be a shining star (just like everyone else is looking to be...), have something unique that you can do better than anyone else to be that stand out, meet and interact with your fellow students both in

school and outside of school, and have the money to do so. I work once a week. That is more than enough for spending fun money but what if I don't get OSAP? What if I don't want to burden my parents with the cost of my studies? A job? So, when I'm not in school, I'll be spending the rest of my time working in order to stay IN school. I'm sure it's the age-old debate...

This is the time of your life but you just can't tell?

The sweet life? If only I could spend it in a bag of Sour Patch Kids... hang on... that's usually how I get through the days...

Aaaanyway, that is a hard question for someone more in charge than I... I am off to bed. Man, I need to do more running... I'm getting bike legs. Ugh. haha.

Picture du jour:

Construction companies with some creativity?

Quote du Jour:

"Have courage for the great sorrows of life and patience for the small ones; and when you have laboriously accomplished your daily task, go to sleep in peace..." - Victor Hugo

The Further Adventures Of...

So, Camille came into town Thursday... really cool ski guy living up at Whistler and on the XC training centre up there... I wanted to take him over to the Night Market in Richmond - so much fun, kinda carnivalesque. Instead, got a text from my friend Mitchell saying there was going to be a Midnight Ride so we planned to show up to that... James was nice enough to lend Camille his bike so we geared up and headed over. The night was almost cut short just before passing the Bike Dr. ironically, when Camille tells me that his back tire feels a little funny. We pull over to the side and just as we come up to the curb, there's a big bang and his back tire blows out. Of course, all I have is a tube and no tire, no wrench, no pump. Call up Mitchell, who doesn't have anything on him, call up Nik to see if he's in the area because he has keys to the store and we could just go in and set Camille back up, but he doesn't answer, call up James, who's at his bike friend Kevin's place and has everything we need and then we wait. James and Tristan show up, whistle at the damage, and fix it up. Continue on to Commercial and meet up with a rag tag bunch of people for a sweet night ride. Rode towards downtown then cut up the huge Main St. hill and up to Queen Elizabeth Park. Camille was a champ in that he's on a single speed (no gears). Of course the skiers came out on top as everyone hammered up Main. Awesome. Queen Elizabeth Park is gorgeous, especially at night. They have gorgeous pavement in their parking lot at the top so I did a few laps while the guys sprawled around and chattering about bikes.

Friday was interesting. I had two three-hour classes and was not impressed when, at 9:30 (start of Broadcasting class), our prof gave us a cheery smile and said, "Okay guys! Let's interview each other! Yeah!" Ugh.

Friday night was supposed to be Bad Party but I came home from school then work and crashed out hard for a two hour nap and by the time we got up and got ourselves together, it was too late. Which I'm kinda glad about because I had to work Saturday morning 10 am and it would've really sucked to do that tired... Saturday night was pretty low-key. Movie. Candy. Awww, yeah...

Last night was hilarious. Started when we were supposed to go to the beach but when Camille and I got to English Bay, it was madness busy. Learned through the networks (okay, called Moses...haha) that there was a block party going down in Gastown. On the way, ran into Carl, who I work with and convinced him to come with. We all trundled down to Abbott St. where there was a block cordoned off, a DJ spinning music, a skate halfpipe, tents set up, and people everywhere. Carl's ADD brought us to a bar called the Cambie for drinks and food. Got in touch with Mitchell who was still at the block party and ended up heading back there to watch a breakdancing comp. Too bad we were a bit late as we couldn't see anything in the crush of people. Mitchell, being Mitchell, climbed up on a speaker and so I handed him my camera. Got some sweet shots...

After we tired of being jostled around, we headed back to the Chill Winston to meet up with Moses and ended up in the middle of Science Sundays where he, one of the bartenders, and his friend Campy were going to chuck a pack of Mentos into a bottle of Diet Coke. Not going to lie, it was a bit of a letdown. One of them brought an umbrella, they were all edgy as they dropped them in... and they just fizzled and overflowed. Hmm.

From there, we headed home with the promise of cheesecake and found Becky back from pink-skinned and grinning, fresh from Tofino and surfing. Chilled on the back deck and ate cheesecake and tarts. Mitchell scrambled up to an upper ledge to eat his and then used the building as a personal playground... The funniest thing was that a couple weeks ago I was talking to someone about locking the back deck door... I'm pretty sure my comment was "Why bother locking it? Who is going to be able to get up on our back deck? Ninjas?" Yes, apparently, Ninja Mitchell can get up on our deck. Twice. And then can get up onto the second deck where the bbq lives. So now if I come down and he's passed out on the back couch, I'll know he had a good night downtown and couldn't make it home. haha.

Next was adventuring to Granville Island. It was too early for Dumpster Bread when we got there so Mitchell just went up to the bakery and asked them for bread. We sat at the top of the East corner pyramid and ate 14 dollars of organic bread. Yum. The boys decided that they wanted a better view so first they tried to climb the flagpole at the top of the pyramid, which didn't work - too slippery. So, we moved on to the kids' play park where we were playing around. They climbed up to a deck... cool. I climbed up stairs and got to about the same level... I look away for what I swear is like, 30 seconds and this is what I'm confronted with when I look back:

"Just cool. Casual. We climbed poles... no big deal."

Next brilliant idea was to get the best view of the island and climb the Emily Carr Institute. Of course, right? Why not? So, there we were... two almost 6 foot tall people and me at a touch over 5, urban climbing. Oh, and I didn't get the memo about it so I was wearing my cycling shoes. Or, no, wait, I was barefoot as I felt more comfortable climbing barefoot than in those shoes. The climb kinda went like this...

Mitchell, already halfway up as I'm locking the bikes, whistles, "You coming, chief? Toss our stuff up and get up here already!"

Camille, "This is so cool guys!"

Me, "Guys, I don't think I'm going to be able to get up there."

M, "C'mon, just jump."

L, "I'm a head shorter than you. And that's a 10 m drop."

M, "Oh."

C: "Here, grab my hand and pull yourself up."

M: "Nah, let her try first."

L: "Sigh. I'm going to die tonight, aren't I..."

I end up in swampy edges of the roof (I know, barefoot, kinda gross.) in order to avoid a potential drop to my death but made it up all the same with a little help from the boys. The view was beautiful, I've got to admit. Camille started doing handstands, Mitchell suggested doing headstands on the edge (No, that didn't go down... :p) and then we scaled back down. As we were making our quiet getaway, we passed two security guards just leaving the building facing the building we climbed and getting in their car. And we laughed. Perfect timing, as usual.

Headed down to the docks to chill and play around with the bikes... The boys switch - Camille tries out the fixie, Mitchell tries to get air on James bike. At first Camille has trouble getting his second foot into the toe clips as they are a little tight so we just watch him ride along, comically going up and down like a Three Stooges sketch as the pedals are not stopping. Mitchell comes towards where I am on the old dock and starts to say, "Hey, let's see how fast your camera is... think you can catch me in the ai- oh god!" The front wheel sinks in between two of the boards as they are old and gapped...

After I stop laughing and picked myself up off the ground, the wheel was checked out and declared sound, we moved over to the pavement and got some sweet shots of air.

Good times... Next week? Birthday Weekend. How're we going to top this one?

Quote du Jour:

"Tongue - a variety of meat, rarely served because it clearly crosses the line between a cut of beef and a piece of a dead cow..."

Ha ha.

Next post will be school, I promise!