ah, but to finally have the time to relax and complete the "boring" and routine things i haven't been able to indulge in...while i love visitors--AND have serious karma debt to reconcile after so much traveling and staying on other people's floors--for the past month, i've had people visiting, or have been out of town myself. after tori left, james stayed on until noah also came into town. mca monday's, drinks at the hancock and ginger limeade and rosemary lemonade were all done. oh yeah, and velo city at kenosha happened in there too.
allison and i left for portland the thursday before memorial day. after a long day of traveling and time changes, dave so nicely came to pick us up from the airport. we built up our bikes and met up with matty at the food carts downtown. dreaming of indian food, oh boy. art fair, meeting up with kelly and elaina, photo booth pictures and getting drinks at beluah. we stayed at damian's for the weekend. he was an amazing host and even let us take over his bed, while sleeping on the couch himself with roxanne and baxter (cutest dogs ever). lots of rain and gloom in portland, but we explored damnit! and ate some of the best vegan food ever! on friday after breakfast at vita, we met up with crossett and his chickens.
emily and matt came into town from vancouver so we all convened for drinks. onward to the ash st saloon for registration. headed to b-side tavern with an interlude for vegan japanese food.
coffee cat saturday morning departed from sweet pea (again. more yummy vegan food) with late starts and closed checkpoints, and afterwards none of us wanted to hang out in a rainy park. onward! the bartender employed our professional skills to messenger him some tomato juice for bloody marys and we spent hours at the bye and bye.
lots of time was spent on the bluffs as our group grew and the sun broke out. once the sun started to disappear, we moved on to the florida room for some pool, and finally made it to migration for gold sprints. matty reminded me of the punch show at food fight! but by the time we made it over there, punch had already finished their set. i took the chance to chat with keith and megan since it had been quite a while, but headed back to gold sprints before too long, after all the free beer disappeared and the "free drink tickets" weren't actually applicable, we headed to voodoo for lots of vegan donuts at voodoo, yumm.
sunday was kicked off at brunch with wendy and domonique, accompanied by wendy's dog, tuesday, running alongside our bikes for 2 miles, impressive. after, headed to the park for the start of the main race. it was organized differently than i expected--begin with one manifest and slowly pick up the remaining 4. the manifest were primarily composed of questions you had to answer by visiting a location, and most of us only realized after we finished that correct answers would determine the outcome of the race. dave and i rode together--two out of towners--and since the questions were mostly obscure, old knowledge of portland and past west sides, i assumed we were doing terribly despite feeling as if we had routed ourselves pretty well, plotting out most of the points on the map post-manifest 3. but i guess most people were coping similarly, with wrong answers, botched routing or just overwhelmed by the spread of questions and locations. we rolled in 7th and 8th and were given a 6th manifest that took us to the top of black butte. definitely the most climbing i have done in probably a year, phew. finally ACTUALLY finished back to the rose garden, we hung out for free bbq while the remaining racers trickled in. after dinner, we made it over to the someday lounge for prizes. drama-rama put a bit of a damper on the night. yes, one answer was given to us from another racer. yes, it was also wrong and we received no points for it. i also heard some other portland locals knew the answer and didn't go to that checkpoint either. i concede that i may well have been upset had i been on the other side of the situation, but at the time, i honestly thought we weren't in contention and just wanted to finish. ugh. we talked to the organizers about it though, and they similarly dismissed it. i was more bummed at the idea of disappointing people i like and respect. but maybe this is my indicator to step up my involvement in other (sanctioned) racing cause my motive for this weekend really had little to do with the actual alleycat and more just to spent time in portland and with people i've missed. (this too shall pass) wrapped up the night at the standard, but by that point i was exhausted and ready to turn in.
monday: brunch at junior's before allison left to get her flight. after, the rest of us spent the day watching polo and playing on seesaws with 9 year olds.
watched the hawks/flyers game at two different hockey bars. matt and i ate at blossoming lotus for dinner-all raw, vegan and super tasty. apparently date night since matt paid with a credit card. even though i paid my part in cash, oh boy. headed up to bye& bye again since zak was working the door. dave joined us for a drink and i headed back to chris' to turn in.
tuesday was early breakfast and a long drive back to san francisco in a large orange van with limited shocks, interesting after not driving for months. the 5 out of south oregon and through shasta is arguably one of the more scenic and beautiful i've done though. arrived in san francisco late, and tara made me tea while we caught up. i had a great wednesday and thursday morning in sf--most of my hang outs were with only one other people, which i feel i've become worse at initiating now, but it was just what i needed. saw chassy, coffee with derek, lunch with caitlin, visiting marcello, bookstores and dolores park, met up with jason to shop at rainbow and make dinner with him + rosie and ilya at their new place and met up with a whole crew over at bender's for whiskey wednesdays-mouton, sean, rob, matt, dave, noah, and randomly jen and diego. so many good friends that i've missed a ton. moving around is great and totally debilitating simultaneously. as soon as i think i've become set on the idea i will move back to the bay area in a year or so, i think about all the amazing people i know i will miss like crazy in chicago as soon as i'm able to stop missing all my bay area friends... deal when it comes i suppose.
met up with mario for coffee and visited mike aranda at trader joe's before grabbing the train to santa cruz with marcello. what a fantastic traveling buddy! plus, neither of us had been to santa cruz in about a year, so casually walking in places together was pretty hilarious. visited all the haunts--pergolesi, the bike church, seabright beach, running into familiar faces all the while. and the beach, perfect weather the whole time i was in santa cruz. but sitting on the beach wednesday night was pretty breath taking, particularly considering that prior to living in chicago, i've always been less than 20 minutes from the beach and totally taken it for granted. spent the evening catching up with kelly and hanging on her porch.
woke up to kelly making me breakfast. rode out with quentin and embarked on our 60 miles bike ride of joy. up empire grade, down a crazy steep fire road, where we met up with thad and rob and rode into big basin. climbed out on gazos creek through the forest. stopped for a beer that thad had carried along (!) down by the river
then rode the 30 miles back into santa cruz along highway one. headed to the santa cruz mountain brewery, and hit happy hour along with some la cabana burritos. showered and met up with lindsay and rachel for first friday art openings and some time at pergolesi. took a long walk with seth to a party that had just been broken up. college towns. but then had a really pleasant walk back too.
awoke to a band sleeping around me who had showed up at 3am apparently, so i escaped to coffee with asher. hit up the bargain barn and hung out with becca while fixing up some brake cables. grabbed lunch at a new indian restaurant with mike, then headed up to rigg st for some quality porch time at my old house with george. met up with kelly and her roommates at seabright. crossword puzzles, sun and sea salt! the bike church hosted a show saturday evening: age of dissent, intergalactic smugglers, dementia, and physiological waste. oh the new scene--bizarre after being so involved in putting on shows, etc. but to then feel so removed. i'm not old, but i certainly see it differently when around 18 year olds. regeneration i suppose, and just more apparent since i extricated myself immediately upon graduating. it was a good show though, and nice to see the faces i did still know. becca and i headed to the big yellow for the end of their bbq potluck and was able to see all the bike church mechanics i hadn't yet run into and snack on the remainder of the cobbler.
sunday i finally wrapped up my affair with santa cruz, after coffee in kelly's lush backyard and meeting up with kevin for brunch at crepe place, where lindsay is managing now and was able to hook us up with bloody marys. finally to rigg st so i could box up my bike, and have george so generously drive me to the airport.
phew, it was a non-stop week but just really pleasant and overall mellow. being in santa cruz after a couple years of distance put it and chicago and my moving around in perspective. allison and jake picked me up from the airport on the chicago end at 1am. with the time change and sleeping on the plane, i was up until 3am and a total zombie at work on monday. after vacation though, my job always seems so much more amazing, and i love getting back into routine.
routine was never really established since wednesday my mom and dad came in to stay with us. lots more eating out, but fantastic when you're being treated to it! handlebar, piece, and manna. they even came to hang out at tastee freeze with me and claire. &drove up in the cuttin' cruiser to the track on thursday night. plus, they drove me out to ikea on saturday--and bought me a new bed frame! interesting to be jealous of the awesome adventures your parent are having, i only hope i can be so rad when i'm older.
friday was hell at work--the parade with the actual stanley cup shut down washington st, then north on michigan. an estimated 2 million people were out and now in hindsight, i can believe it. trying to cut through the crowd, phil and i were yelled at by some weird old man complaining about how entitled bike messengers think they are. oh boo. beginning of world cup, hockey parade, blues fest, and we were busy busy busy, taking 20 minutes to travel 2 blocks is less than appealing.
sunday mom and dad left, and i went to actually play soccer--we won 2-0 and wrapped up the league in first, go magnum! headed over to ali's for bbq and bocci before the rain came. shakespeare night at cait's turned into popcorn and movie night, which worked well for me.
yesterday some older man ran into me and knocked me off my bike in the middle of lasalle st. his words? "oh my. i totally didn't see you because of the rain." bad weather drops everyone's iq, apparently. no excuses.
registered for riverwest 24 today. milwaukee at the end of july, hell yeah.
my plants grew like crazy while i was away! mom brought me basil and i transplanted some mint from ali's house. hopefully my tomato and zucchini plants will produce, but even if not, it's been enjoyable to have green around the house. and it's just nice to be home.
