i have never seen so many rollie suitcases in the loop. today was absurd-rush hour began around 2:30pm with everyone leaving for the thanksgiving weekend. it's a bit unsettling to realize this is the first time i've not headed back to thousand oaks for this specific holiday weekend. i received a text from pudge saying the group was getting together tonight and that we should come by. oops, i'm totally over 3,000 miles away. weird. but, the weirdness is largely mitigated by a number of other friends still being around-morningish brunch plans + a potentially amazing orphan thanksgiving filled with vegan goodies at ruby's. yum.

and since we're in chicago, the weather talk is a necessity. it's still really nice-it's bizarre how you adapt and i have truly been thinking that sunny 40 degree weather is utterly fantastic. a few flurries, but not even many rain days. my seasonless childhood leaves me totally dumbfounded as to the fact that, yes! that is snow. and it is coming out of the sky, now. but i'm sure the novelty will wear off. but all in all, chicago has been doing a great job of easing us in.



this weekend was the cranksgiving race. it a fairly traditional alleycat where the riders visit grocery stores and purchase an item from a list at each one that will, in the end, be donated to a local organization involved in food drives, etc. in all, its a great cause and usually a whole lot of fun. this one was no exception. allison, lara, and i all rode together and just had a blast. had the inevitable "i'm stuck in this line and the woman in front just pulled out coupons, shit" experience, but it's all part of why this race is so great. the after party happened at adam's garage, home of the cuttin' cruiser, a big art/warehouse space. super awesome although i think i need to begin keeping chris and his whiskey wielding ways an arms distance away at these events. a lot of good people though, good hangouts.

ben vc was gracious enough to drive allison and i all over north chicago to garage sales, etc. so we could better furnish our apartment on saturday. we found some really nice chairs, bookshelves, lamps, at this cafe's going out of business sale. on monday, jake drove me to finally get a mattress too, it's like we have a real home. yes!

for our indoor league, we lost our second soccer game too, and i have the gnarliest bruise on my inner thigh from all the ridiculous shots the boys on the other team were taking, but it's just so damn fun to play soccer again. our team plays hard, but no one takes it too seriously, its kind of a great balance. we've been getting after-game drinks at a nearby bar who is sponsoring our team, so its a really awesomely tiring and complete sunday night outing.

my bikes are both in working order now too. i've been at west town a lot recently since i seem to be breaking everything. even though it's no bike church, it's really great. i was talking to alex (the guy who started it-west town isn't a co-op, it's really still alex's shop, which is a primary difference. but he's super knowledgable and friendly, so it works well) on tuesday night, and he said we would help me weld together trash parts to make a front rack. ah, i'm so excited to do more welding, not spend so much $$, AND just plop canon boxes on the rack instead of the awkward balance procedures. good winter project plans!

work has been really good too. i'm finally learning all the messenger centers and docks and feel like i can really get into the groove of it all. plus, i abuse the use of my nextel and really enjoy the random chitchat with casey and grey and who ever else will give me their dc. the other night, i got paged at 4:15 to do two car runs in under an hour, one of which was a round trip. i really hustled and got it done in 45 minutes (and got to play with the cutest pomeranian in the chase bank) and my dispatcher told me i was wonder woman. it ruled. i also interviewed the other day with intercept. while they had just hired one on, the dispatcher told me to call back in a week. he told me i was exactly what they were looking for and that one of their current riders might be leaving soon. we'll see--they're still an IC company, but have a smaller staff, little turn over, and seem to have a better grasp on what you as an employee expect out of the job. so this could be really nice-keep your fingers crossed for me!

but yeah, happy thanksgiving to all! if only i could be in 4 different places at once...

its really winter

it snowed tonight! so not completely, since it wasn't really sticking to the ground, but it was all over the cars and allison + jeff both concluded it was something like riding in a snow globe. indeed. still totally weirds me out. i honestly think these next five months are going to be incredibly bizarre, honestly behind some comprehension for me.

in other good news, we just got back from playing our first official indoor soccer league game. emily and jeff organized a team of cyclists for a long time co-ed league. 6 v 6 and 45 minute games, all real fast moving. we unfortunately lost, but for once my competitive nature didn't ruin that i had a total blast. i'm excited for an indoor exercise with the imminent frigidness and its really awesome just to play soccer again.

in other other news: our freezer isn't working, so we can't buy tater tots or keep ice cream solid. i keep breaking things on my bikes: who knew a campy cone could cost $16. i sure didn't, but WHO really cracks them in the first place? freehubs don't usually seize after rain. *sigh* i also got stuck in an elevator for an hour on thursday. for realz. the company i was delivering to, felt so bad one guy offered to buy me lunch. i insisted i had to leave since i had to "orientate" the new girl. he instead slipped $20 into my hand and told me to buy myself a nice lunch. ha, or cheap pizza and a couple beers that night. augie wanted to know which building this was so he could get himself stuck in the same elevator. i don't know if it would work the same for round two though.

does anyone actually read this thing? as soon as it really snows, i'll get some pictures up.

a note to chicago runners...

don't do it. i'm serious. alright, well if you're on the lakefront path, or something equally sanctioned for running, fine. if you're downtown, you are asking to be hit. i'm even more serious on this point. there is a flow to traffic. even if you're a fast walker at 8:30am or 4:30pm (when everyone turns into a total speedster), you can mesh. it's always the fucking runners that think they can slip across four lanes, four giant lanes on madison and wacker while only looking the opposite direction. yeah, traffic is traveling east buddy, so when i yell at you, don't give me that ugly look. and besides if you were walking, i could've slipped behind you, but when you halt dead mid-run, it's a tiny bit more difficult to predict your antelope reflexes.

thursday was the first day i messengered downtown when it began raining. it was sunny in the morning, so i think most people simply weren't prepared. when it began raining around 3pm, 25% more pedestrians began running. 25% times a 3x slower stopping ability on freshly wet, oily pavement=uh, bad. luckily there was no actual contact, but i can just see it coming. speaking of stopping power, i really need to build a winter bike as soon as i have any disposable income which might be feasible sans NICA. ugh, i have to figure that one out, and soon. still messengering has been a lot of fun and figuring out the downtown (i know, its an insanely straight forward grid, but it has its quirks) is super awesome. for a city with such inclement weather, there sure is A LOT of metal in the streets. plate, grates, pothole covers, you name it. i will be a pro sidewalk rider by the end of winter, mark my words.

in other news, the sadie hawkins race was last night. a bunch of out of towners showed up, making for 60 or so teams. although there was a lot more warm/rain gear rather than fancy costumes, it was great to see the people who took the spirit of the style race too. while it was quite cold (35 or so, with especially gnarly wind while coming south on the last bit on ogden) it never rained/snowed as predicted, which was a really welcome surprise. the routing was pretty straight forward (its also geared to be a great first race, which is awesome) so there wasn't too much planning involved. coyote and i rocked it (well coyote more than me, but i hung onto his wheel the best i could). we were super close to the first place team for the first 5 checkpoints, but misrouted to goose island and lost some time. we still ended up second (!) to an awesome loft space in little village. allison and ben had a flat mishap toward the end and had to *patiently* wait for a tube delivery, but still arrived at the part in style. there were iro sprints, dance party, lots of happily tired kids, prizes and cheep beer, OH!&walking proximity to burritos. genius. kids that lived there also dumpstered a gallon of odwalla oj for me, winning night, really.



alright, well i am off to try and play some soccer in this 30 weather. whew. and maybe some more thrifting for wool, need more wool...

election day!

it's the big day. the day the chicago police department has been intensively preparing for and the whole town has been discussing with fevor and excitment. lines of voters extending for blocks from schools, libraries and churches began early this morning and will continue on until 7pm tonight. there's an excitement in the air and i know we'll definitely be downtown tonight for the rally, crossing our finger none of the riots get too crazy... right? haha.

election day aside, the last week has been very pleasant, both in weather and activites. the wesley willis documentary last saturday ruled, as did the impromtu 'batman tour' we did with ben and coyote afterwards. we rode around lower wacker, checking out the underground mini-marts and parking garages, taking a short field trip to the swings and to the pier where it looked like 'family matters.' we did some bar hopping that night, met some new faces and went out for a bit in logan square.


the second to last 'classics' race with the namesake of 'fakenger' took place the following day with crazy winds, fedex boxes and lots of tofu. we followed up the race with a large brunch at pick me up and it was then decided our malort virginity must be broken, with haste! the 3:00 tasting quickly turned into an all day endeavor at adam and megan's place. andrew somehow got dressed up like santa and coyote was wearing a belly jersey. yeah.


weeks have been interesting with christina working during the day (she'll have to fill in that update for you) i've been entertaining myself with lots of al burian, computer time and a few cooking experiments. we went to see 'the shining' play at the clipper on tuesday, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite bars in chicago, and visited myopic on wednesday so christina could read more of the ender series :)

halloween dawned, sunny and 70 degrees outside, with crunchy leaves on the ground and a dry breeze in the air. sometimes i still feel as if i'm in a movie, experiencing seasons i've only ever viewed from afar. i never found a real costume and chose to simply settle on a ridiculous halloween sweater i discovered at the village discount outlet, giving christina the tiny teenage mutant ninja turtles costume. the final race of the series began at adam and megan's house again, consisting of check points such as the rosehill cemetery, searching through "the forest" to find the girls with sippy cups of malort or vodka (surprise!) and riding through the insanity of the halsted street fair to get to 666 w roscoe. the "suprise" ended up being forced to do goldsprints once reaching the finish. at least i didn't feel like vomiting after. the party that ensued has some interesting results: coyote with a second nose piercing courtesy of rudy, chris bought even more bottles of knob creek at jewel with me in my bare feet (man, i got so much shit for that, all aimed at me being from california) and andrew got a broken arms from the dog pile started at kessler's instigation. phew.


saturday i had to work while christina and coyote watched a movie about st. bernards. we ended up going to a party out on california with the most insane decorations i've ever seen, a dj in his underwear that played the smiths and rocked out really hard and lots of silly conversations. we were the only ones not in costume and felt like super lame party poopers, especially in comparison to the oompa loompas and christmas fairies.

the next morning i dragged myself to whole foods by 9 while christina got to go out to the cross race with ben, jeff and adrian. i totally missed out on getting lost in the 'burbs and donuts in the gravel! adam and megan had us over for dinner: vegan stirfry and pumpkin pie! yum! then we threw glowsticks and seal pelts at the fan. easily amused? check yes. (we were sober, too!) haha.

yeah. so i hope some people are still reading this? maybe that'll bring you up to speed. sadie's is coming up this weekend which should be awesome (even though the weather says rain/snow... ugh) and you know what else is awesome? real mail!! do it!!