Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Monday, January 7, 2008
vaginal
In a quest to live a healthier lifestyle (though I feel I already am pretty damn healthy, when I actually break it down), I have been cooking a lot of meals for Soupie and I. there was the seitan dumpling steak, the vegan cheese, a pumpkin-sweet potato soup, and a fresh spinach salad (w/ apple, tofurky sausage, carrots, and a light spray of pear-asiago dressing). I've been taking pictures which I will post when I have a moment.
Also, I will eventually write a blog on how fucked up it is that I was just offered a free vacation travel package for me and Evan, but he has to be 25 in order for us to go. I am 25, but I could be probably 18 and still go, as long as the man in the family was 25. I make more money (sorry, Sweetheart) and I am the one who hopes to travel as a career! Stupids! VAGINA!
Also, I will eventually write a blog on how fucked up it is that I was just offered a free vacation travel package for me and Evan, but he has to be 25 in order for us to go. I am 25, but I could be probably 18 and still go, as long as the man in the family was 25. I make more money (sorry, Sweetheart) and I am the one who hopes to travel as a career! Stupids! VAGINA!
leaving the city, aka the long ride home
As Soupie's poor little car was stolen from outside my house on the night before new year's eve, We did not ride the 50-mile loop we had planned for lassoing in the new year. Instead, we drank tea, made phone calls, met with police, napped, and tried to assess the situation and think of what exactly was in the car (just like when moving apartments, there is always much more than you think).
To make up for it, on Friday, we rode the first 35 miles of it, then ducked a few miles off track to go to his work, cash in on his Einstein Bagels gift certificate one of his customers gave him for Christmas. It was nice to be on a road ride again, to ride with a route but not a destination; to push myself because I want to, not because I need to get to work or school or my doctor's appointment in less time than I have. It was a nice route, though anything that did not involve my regular routes would have been lovely. I love Pittsburgh in the winter, and it was a beautiful, crisp morning with no snow on the roads.
Riding out of Braddock across the Rankin Bridge, the ghetto hills looked like a black and white rendition of the painted cliffs of Nevada, still as dismal as ever, but with the dirt and the snow and the grey air, there was a stoic majesty that enlightened the view.
Being a non-native also helped me appreciate the ride, I feel, because as we rode through the industrial wastelands outside of the city, rolling through patches of rusted dirt crashing down melting icicles, and grey bum cities stretching factories along the river, it all seemed more appropriate than wasted, and the weather was the only weather fitting for that sort of stenchy environment.
We pasted two deer along the road: one that had been hit maybe three weeks or a month ago, frozen still, flesh rotted underneath and it's furry skin hanging over it's skeleton like an expensive throw. It's face contorted and frightened. The second was more of a skeleton, it's face past remembrance of any accident or incident, there was just bone and peace.
Around the 32nd mile, I could really feel it in my legs. At the last hill, Soupie warned me that it would be a doozie, and it was not so bad at all because he was thinking of it as coming from the other direction (the descent was killer). However, after that there was a long, steady climb and a few short and steep climbs that killed me, and the final push up the drudgerous Rt. 19 by the mall was ended at the parking lot of the bike shop, required pushing ourselves over a heap of ice, and I just got off at the parking lot and walked, wobble-kneed.
After spending a few hours at Evan's work, eating bagels and relaxing my legs and looking at catalogs of sheik sportswear and tiny bike pumps, I took off and tried to take advantage of my new Nuvi. It is a great device, but it doesn't allow me to enter in my own routes. Really, I don't need any device that tells me about where the nearest mall is or how to get to places I already know, or how to drive somewhere (okay, I do need something to help me with that, I am not a very good navigator, but isn't that par of the fun of a road trip?), I need a device where I can look at a map on the internet, something like Gmaps Pedometer, and enter in a long route, and then not have to print it out to figure out where I'm going, just have the GPS thing on my handebars say, "turn Right here." That would be handy and it seems like something that could be made fairly inexpensively, but then again I am not the one designing the things.
Regardless, I followed 19 the entire way, even though the GPS thing told me not to take a turn that broke me off Rt. 19, taking me who knows where. Soupie apparently knew the route, but said it was hilly. So I took 19. Not the Rt. 19 that is short and easy, or the one that we always take to drive there, because that is apparently the Truck Route. I took the regular Route 19 that takes one through a bunch of different small streets, zigzagging, climbing, and descending through the South Hills suburbs of Pittsburgh.
Where I was supposed to pop up in front of the Liberty Tunnels, I found myself approaching the Fort Pitt (or something) tunnels. Not wanting to ride through those during rush hour, especially with no lights (stupid), I instead took route 19/51 up by the West End. Turns out that road is not only pitch black, but also under construction, with cars speeding through the one lane of traffic left available.
This luckily threw me out right by the West End Bridge, at the intersection leading to the highway, a recognizable point on my old ride home from Robinson this past summer when I built bikes for Trek. I took the bridge to the North Side, intending to ride the River Trail bike path back to the city. Not the case, as I got a flat tire riding up the curb onto the bike path and had declined purchasing the new tiny pump I'd been eyeing. Emily rescued me because she is a good friend, and because I had cooked her dinner the night before (homemade seitan steak with homemade vegan meltable cheese, on Flax bread).
The next day, gave Evan a ride to work with the dog and we all hung out for a while, the dog jumping in bubble wrap and Soupie and I trying to build a stupid Giant display that had been shipped there (730 pounds!!). I ordered a pump and bought a tube, and a rear light, just in case.
Last night we discussed future plans or relocation. Where will we go? I have recently come to the conclusion that I will not be truly happy unless I am writing. I will need to work at a job that uses some intellect and pays me well for it. I have considered perhaps teaching English in some obscur far-away country, something we could both do and therefore have money coming in from both directions. I would like a job at a magazine. I hope this non-fiction class I take this coming semester helps me out with certain tightening issues I have currently with my essays. I want a catastrophic change, or to make one.
To make up for it, on Friday, we rode the first 35 miles of it, then ducked a few miles off track to go to his work, cash in on his Einstein Bagels gift certificate one of his customers gave him for Christmas. It was nice to be on a road ride again, to ride with a route but not a destination; to push myself because I want to, not because I need to get to work or school or my doctor's appointment in less time than I have. It was a nice route, though anything that did not involve my regular routes would have been lovely. I love Pittsburgh in the winter, and it was a beautiful, crisp morning with no snow on the roads.
Riding out of Braddock across the Rankin Bridge, the ghetto hills looked like a black and white rendition of the painted cliffs of Nevada, still as dismal as ever, but with the dirt and the snow and the grey air, there was a stoic majesty that enlightened the view.
Being a non-native also helped me appreciate the ride, I feel, because as we rode through the industrial wastelands outside of the city, rolling through patches of rusted dirt crashing down melting icicles, and grey bum cities stretching factories along the river, it all seemed more appropriate than wasted, and the weather was the only weather fitting for that sort of stenchy environment.
We pasted two deer along the road: one that had been hit maybe three weeks or a month ago, frozen still, flesh rotted underneath and it's furry skin hanging over it's skeleton like an expensive throw. It's face contorted and frightened. The second was more of a skeleton, it's face past remembrance of any accident or incident, there was just bone and peace.
Around the 32nd mile, I could really feel it in my legs. At the last hill, Soupie warned me that it would be a doozie, and it was not so bad at all because he was thinking of it as coming from the other direction (the descent was killer). However, after that there was a long, steady climb and a few short and steep climbs that killed me, and the final push up the drudgerous Rt. 19 by the mall was ended at the parking lot of the bike shop, required pushing ourselves over a heap of ice, and I just got off at the parking lot and walked, wobble-kneed.
After spending a few hours at Evan's work, eating bagels and relaxing my legs and looking at catalogs of sheik sportswear and tiny bike pumps, I took off and tried to take advantage of my new Nuvi. It is a great device, but it doesn't allow me to enter in my own routes. Really, I don't need any device that tells me about where the nearest mall is or how to get to places I already know, or how to drive somewhere (okay, I do need something to help me with that, I am not a very good navigator, but isn't that par of the fun of a road trip?), I need a device where I can look at a map on the internet, something like Gmaps Pedometer, and enter in a long route, and then not have to print it out to figure out where I'm going, just have the GPS thing on my handebars say, "turn Right here." That would be handy and it seems like something that could be made fairly inexpensively, but then again I am not the one designing the things.
Regardless, I followed 19 the entire way, even though the GPS thing told me not to take a turn that broke me off Rt. 19, taking me who knows where. Soupie apparently knew the route, but said it was hilly. So I took 19. Not the Rt. 19 that is short and easy, or the one that we always take to drive there, because that is apparently the Truck Route. I took the regular Route 19 that takes one through a bunch of different small streets, zigzagging, climbing, and descending through the South Hills suburbs of Pittsburgh.
Where I was supposed to pop up in front of the Liberty Tunnels, I found myself approaching the Fort Pitt (or something) tunnels. Not wanting to ride through those during rush hour, especially with no lights (stupid), I instead took route 19/51 up by the West End. Turns out that road is not only pitch black, but also under construction, with cars speeding through the one lane of traffic left available.
This luckily threw me out right by the West End Bridge, at the intersection leading to the highway, a recognizable point on my old ride home from Robinson this past summer when I built bikes for Trek. I took the bridge to the North Side, intending to ride the River Trail bike path back to the city. Not the case, as I got a flat tire riding up the curb onto the bike path and had declined purchasing the new tiny pump I'd been eyeing. Emily rescued me because she is a good friend, and because I had cooked her dinner the night before (homemade seitan steak with homemade vegan meltable cheese, on Flax bread).
The next day, gave Evan a ride to work with the dog and we all hung out for a while, the dog jumping in bubble wrap and Soupie and I trying to build a stupid Giant display that had been shipped there (730 pounds!!). I ordered a pump and bought a tube, and a rear light, just in case.
Last night we discussed future plans or relocation. Where will we go? I have recently come to the conclusion that I will not be truly happy unless I am writing. I will need to work at a job that uses some intellect and pays me well for it. I have considered perhaps teaching English in some obscur far-away country, something we could both do and therefore have money coming in from both directions. I would like a job at a magazine. I hope this non-fiction class I take this coming semester helps me out with certain tightening issues I have currently with my essays. I want a catastrophic change, or to make one.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
Resolutions
That last resolutions list was a bit half-assed. Here is a better one:
1. Eat healthier. This means not just baked goods, etc, which are of course out, but also prepared vegan foods that are super processed. More cooking in, less food from a box.
2. Take more photos. Of everything. Soupie, Major Tom, roommates, the world, everything.
3. Take more risks, be more adventurous, leave my bubble more often. This year has been very relaxing and stable, which was nice and mainly needed. But now I am ready to go out into the world again. This will be a great excuse to use my new nuvi 350 since I get lost pretty easily and have relied so much on Evan this past year to figure out my physical place in this world, and also to have a reason to go someplace. Very much not my style, and as much as I cherish every moment spent with Soupie, I do also like that I am a bit of a loner, and that I can make it in this world on my own. I want to get back into exploring that.
4. Wear clothes that fit. Almost all my clothes are either too big or too small, or are baggy or tight in weird places. Yes I know that, as one homeless man once told me, I am voluptuous, but there are clothes out there that are meant to look good OFF the coat hanger! I don't have to give up my flamboyant punk style, but perhaps I can look not so frumpy. The days of being homeless to any degree are clearly over, so there's no real reason to continue looking the part.
5. Don't spend money on stupid shit. But don't be afraid to spend on important things.
6. Ride my bike more. I already commute a lot, sure, but I mean like going on really long, hard, esoteric rides that may start and end at 5819 Stanton, but the end point feels completely different from the starting base.
7. Submit my work to more places. I was on a good role this summer, but lost the habit. I got busy and fell out of gear. Now that I have a decent portfolio, I feel, perhaps I can do something more with it. Enter a few contests. Get my work out there.
8. Edit old poems/essays I have put on the back burner, and give a second look to poems/essays that have been deemed as "finished" but don't feel quite polished enough to me.
9. More tea, less coffee. More juice, less soda. Eight glasses of water per day. Eat only when hungry.
10. Overall, just become a better version of who I am now. Which is typically my New Year's resolution, just tidy up the loose ends. Fatally, no matter how much I've been tidying up over the past 25 years, there are always loose ends to tidy. At least it keeps me busy. And this time it is documented. Perhaps I will print it out and hang it above my bed.
1. Eat healthier. This means not just baked goods, etc, which are of course out, but also prepared vegan foods that are super processed. More cooking in, less food from a box.
2. Take more photos. Of everything. Soupie, Major Tom, roommates, the world, everything.
3. Take more risks, be more adventurous, leave my bubble more often. This year has been very relaxing and stable, which was nice and mainly needed. But now I am ready to go out into the world again. This will be a great excuse to use my new nuvi 350 since I get lost pretty easily and have relied so much on Evan this past year to figure out my physical place in this world, and also to have a reason to go someplace. Very much not my style, and as much as I cherish every moment spent with Soupie, I do also like that I am a bit of a loner, and that I can make it in this world on my own. I want to get back into exploring that.
4. Wear clothes that fit. Almost all my clothes are either too big or too small, or are baggy or tight in weird places. Yes I know that, as one homeless man once told me, I am voluptuous, but there are clothes out there that are meant to look good OFF the coat hanger! I don't have to give up my flamboyant punk style, but perhaps I can look not so frumpy. The days of being homeless to any degree are clearly over, so there's no real reason to continue looking the part.
5. Don't spend money on stupid shit. But don't be afraid to spend on important things.
6. Ride my bike more. I already commute a lot, sure, but I mean like going on really long, hard, esoteric rides that may start and end at 5819 Stanton, but the end point feels completely different from the starting base.
7. Submit my work to more places. I was on a good role this summer, but lost the habit. I got busy and fell out of gear. Now that I have a decent portfolio, I feel, perhaps I can do something more with it. Enter a few contests. Get my work out there.
8. Edit old poems/essays I have put on the back burner, and give a second look to poems/essays that have been deemed as "finished" but don't feel quite polished enough to me.
9. More tea, less coffee. More juice, less soda. Eight glasses of water per day. Eat only when hungry.
10. Overall, just become a better version of who I am now. Which is typically my New Year's resolution, just tidy up the loose ends. Fatally, no matter how much I've been tidying up over the past 25 years, there are always loose ends to tidy. At least it keeps me busy. And this time it is documented. Perhaps I will print it out and hang it above my bed.
New Years Review
Taking after Soupie's blog style, here's my 2007 in review...and then some other stuff if I don't get bored with myself, like I usually do before I get a chance to click the "publish post" button.....
JANUARY: I move to Pittsburgh right as the year begins, and live in a lovely 2 story apartment with Rob Wierzbowski, which for the first two weeks has either no heat or no electricity or both. Meet Jon right about when those kick on, January 16th I believe. Start grad school and am wacked quickly back into gear in order to keep up. Start work at Tazza d'Oro. Fall down my stairs a few times. Kill trees for school.
FEBRUARY: Fall down the stairs some more, still hanging out with Jon, though by his birthday on the 28th we are "fighting" aka he's m.i.a. and Soupie and I have been hanging out for a week or two, waking up early to ride bikes together before he has to go to school or work. Continue killing trees. Love school. Hang out with Ted, and with Jessie quite a bit.
MARCH: Jon won't give me back my wallet for a week and causes me to not be able to purchase a book necessary for a class, or get into the gym at my school. Soupie starts courting me and we are cute and goofy and disgusting. I find out I can write pretty decent fiction. Start feeling like I have a few friends in Pittsburgh.
APRIL: Still don't know my way around this city. Soupie and I hang out all the time and it rules. Weather starts warming up in a big way. Lots of Wall-sits and bike rides and french fries. Semester ends.
MAY: Soupie graduates college and we both start relaxing after an intense first/last semester. My parents come to visit for my birthday on their way back from Florida, headed to MA. I start up summer classes at the end of the month.
JUNE: Travel writing class goes well. Quit my job at Tazza D'oro, car breaks down, start building bikes in Robinson, car breaks down again. Take a road trip to Boston to visit friends and family. Take a road trip to Athens and Asheville to visit friends and see the cities.
JULY: Go to Trinidad and Tobago for two weeks and have a great time for the most part. Learn a lot about myself, learn more about the world and my place in it. Isis, Laura, and Mister Butch pass away while I am gone. I have a sort of breakdown.
AUGUST: Move into new house in Highland Park with Adam, Courtney, and Joe. Begin talking with Soupie about dogs. Quit job as bike builder. Start fall classes.
SEPTEMBER: Start job as legal secretary and it rules. Classes are very inspiring and I can find poetry in me again, which is a great feeling.
OCTOBER: We adopt a dog at the beginning of the month, then promptly go camping with him. Major Tom brings upon an intense feeling of family which is weird but nice. He is a handful but we work hard on him.
NOVEMBER: Parents come to visit again, on their way back to Florida. We go hiking and I take them to Ritter's. They meet the puppy. Evan is on tour with the band. Kyle and Metro come to visit and it feels to great to see them. Jimmy pretends to have died and we all go a little nuts until we realize it was a hoax pulled by him. Spend Thanksgiving with Soupie's family. Soupie turns 23, thus shortening our age gap to a meager two years. His mom and aunt give me Christmas gifts and solidify my feeling at home in PA.
DECEMBER: Classes end, I get all A's despite working so much, living at two houses, and taking care of the dog. Have a successful reading and am proud of the semester's output. Go to fancy Christmas party at a huge mansion. Go to Florida to visit family. Go parasailing, eat delicious food. Decide to drink on New Years, even though I am essentially allergic to alcohol. Soupie and I are laid up and my stomach is cramped so much I feel like I am having a baby AND passing a kidney stone, and I cannot move for moments at a time.
Which leads us to this year's resolutions. No more junk food, even if someone brings it into the office. Nothing with butter in it, or partially hydrogenated oils. Fresh vegetables, or fresh steamed vegetables. Make our own seitan, eat less breads, and eat more sprouted breads. Also, no more alcohol. I personally am hereby allergic, as all it takes is two drinks to get me not very drunk at all, but completely wrecked for the following 24 hours, and still ill for the 24 hours or more after that. Soupie can make his own calls in that regards, as he does not drink very much at all as it is. I also want to put together another zine. It's time, anyway. Oh, and drink the recommended 8 glasses per day.
JANUARY: I move to Pittsburgh right as the year begins, and live in a lovely 2 story apartment with Rob Wierzbowski, which for the first two weeks has either no heat or no electricity or both. Meet Jon right about when those kick on, January 16th I believe. Start grad school and am wacked quickly back into gear in order to keep up. Start work at Tazza d'Oro. Fall down my stairs a few times. Kill trees for school.
FEBRUARY: Fall down the stairs some more, still hanging out with Jon, though by his birthday on the 28th we are "fighting" aka he's m.i.a. and Soupie and I have been hanging out for a week or two, waking up early to ride bikes together before he has to go to school or work. Continue killing trees. Love school. Hang out with Ted, and with Jessie quite a bit.
MARCH: Jon won't give me back my wallet for a week and causes me to not be able to purchase a book necessary for a class, or get into the gym at my school. Soupie starts courting me and we are cute and goofy and disgusting. I find out I can write pretty decent fiction. Start feeling like I have a few friends in Pittsburgh.
APRIL: Still don't know my way around this city. Soupie and I hang out all the time and it rules. Weather starts warming up in a big way. Lots of Wall-sits and bike rides and french fries. Semester ends.
MAY: Soupie graduates college and we both start relaxing after an intense first/last semester. My parents come to visit for my birthday on their way back from Florida, headed to MA. I start up summer classes at the end of the month.
JUNE: Travel writing class goes well. Quit my job at Tazza D'oro, car breaks down, start building bikes in Robinson, car breaks down again. Take a road trip to Boston to visit friends and family. Take a road trip to Athens and Asheville to visit friends and see the cities.
JULY: Go to Trinidad and Tobago for two weeks and have a great time for the most part. Learn a lot about myself, learn more about the world and my place in it. Isis, Laura, and Mister Butch pass away while I am gone. I have a sort of breakdown.
AUGUST: Move into new house in Highland Park with Adam, Courtney, and Joe. Begin talking with Soupie about dogs. Quit job as bike builder. Start fall classes.
SEPTEMBER: Start job as legal secretary and it rules. Classes are very inspiring and I can find poetry in me again, which is a great feeling.
OCTOBER: We adopt a dog at the beginning of the month, then promptly go camping with him. Major Tom brings upon an intense feeling of family which is weird but nice. He is a handful but we work hard on him.
NOVEMBER: Parents come to visit again, on their way back to Florida. We go hiking and I take them to Ritter's. They meet the puppy. Evan is on tour with the band. Kyle and Metro come to visit and it feels to great to see them. Jimmy pretends to have died and we all go a little nuts until we realize it was a hoax pulled by him. Spend Thanksgiving with Soupie's family. Soupie turns 23, thus shortening our age gap to a meager two years. His mom and aunt give me Christmas gifts and solidify my feeling at home in PA.
DECEMBER: Classes end, I get all A's despite working so much, living at two houses, and taking care of the dog. Have a successful reading and am proud of the semester's output. Go to fancy Christmas party at a huge mansion. Go to Florida to visit family. Go parasailing, eat delicious food. Decide to drink on New Years, even though I am essentially allergic to alcohol. Soupie and I are laid up and my stomach is cramped so much I feel like I am having a baby AND passing a kidney stone, and I cannot move for moments at a time.
Which leads us to this year's resolutions. No more junk food, even if someone brings it into the office. Nothing with butter in it, or partially hydrogenated oils. Fresh vegetables, or fresh steamed vegetables. Make our own seitan, eat less breads, and eat more sprouted breads. Also, no more alcohol. I personally am hereby allergic, as all it takes is two drinks to get me not very drunk at all, but completely wrecked for the following 24 hours, and still ill for the 24 hours or more after that. Soupie can make his own calls in that regards, as he does not drink very much at all as it is. I also want to put together another zine. It's time, anyway. Oh, and drink the recommended 8 glasses per day.
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