Gettin' There!

Peep the oh-so-beautiful Sugino (AT) crankset I salvaged from the Bike Church (pick-n-pull) today! It cleaned up nicely- a lot nicer than the damaged set on my own bike :(

Zoogeal Mat

The other day I was going to mention how I tried kombucha, which sounds like the last beverage you'd ever wanna drink, let alone pay $3.75 for. A "raw" tea, fermented by a mat of microorganisms (bacteria, yeast) that looks like a big mushroom. Its health benefits are exalted by hippies/musicians/celbrities, though not the FDA (yet), making it unfortunately hip/gimmicky and expensive. I say "unfortunately" because it's good.

Also, maybe it's not actually very good for you because I'm currently getting sick. Though I swear this started before the tea.

This Must Be The Place

This past week saw me getting all kinds of upset about being in Davis, lamenting my boredom while staying incredibly unproductive, and being meaner than I had any right to be. Saturday saved me with a night to remember-- the best night of the (school) year to this point-- involving costumes, parties, altogether too much drinking, and friends. It was a flashback to last year, when this much fun seemed to take place pretty often.

vin et fromage

The Bike Church

Not quite six months late, I've begun to give Mel her birthday present:



I'm pretty excited to build it (single speed!), she's excited to ride it, win-win!

NV / CA

Looking west to CA from a peak at Incandescent Rocks, NV

Pumpkin patch in Dixon

You start to figure it out

Minutes before my birthday party is set to begin, as I slice tomatoes and set out wine bottles, I realize that it might not work. I have invited too few people, it starts too early, and just who is actually coming? I don't know.


It's not the party I expected; it's not even half the party I expected. It's exactly one-fifth the party I expected. I want to take it all back: return the tomatoes and wine, the new shirt, the red lights and the invitations. How embarrassing.

It's nobody's fault, really. I go through it: I let them down? They let me down? Please. I say I won't try again, this was the last time.


Today I get home from work and put on the dance mix I had made for the party. Maybe it's assumed, I don't know, but I put a lot of thought into that mix. I do not dance, I do my homework.

Ryan comes home when the mix is building, song after song harder better faster stronger. He says that we're gonna do this again, that we're gonna do it right; we're gonna throw that party. And this isn't a condolence, and I believe him and I believe myself when I agree.

I get a late package from the UPS man, it's a 7" vinyl record I ordered, All My Friends by LCD Soundsystem. It ends with this refrain, sung with a yearning which, I realize, I have begun to understand.

Where are your friends tonight?/ Where are your friends tonight?/ If I could see all my friends tonight/ If I could see all my friends tonight.

They are in New York, they are in Los Angeles and Santa Rosa and Michigan and Portland. I am not using this as an excuse, because they are here too. Mostly, they are here and I can't complain. I see them every week, every day, every day.

Excerpt

I was unofficially welcomed to the ANDRILL team as an assistant paleomagnetist. This would be the first step toward the vast Antarctic life I've often dreamt of.

Completely unrelated:

"Too bad, he said. This little vacuum comes equipped with a sixty-foot extension cord. If you had a car, you could wheel this little vacuum right up to your car door and vacuum the plush carpeting and the luxurious reclining seats as well. You would be surprised how much of us gets lost, how much of us gathers, in those fine seats over the years."

from Raymond Carver's "Collectors"