Courteous Mass, College Station, TX

Friday’s Courteous Mass Group Bike Ride (5/7/11)

75 cyclists sharing the road with the massive trucks of Texas cowboy country: it must be Courteous Mass.

This group cycling event was the most fun I’ve had in a long time.  We gathered behind the bars at Northgate, where I took photos of the bikes and sexy legs, and from Northgate, we rode off into Texas A & M’s campus.  We wound our way around College Station for a while, carefully staying in our traffic lane, and eventually headed north into downtown Bryan for the First Friday festivities.

It was my first Courteous Mass, and I had a blast.  I spend so much time on my bike riding by myself that it was weird and fun to ride with a group.  I had to pay very careful attention to the ride to make sure I didn’t crash into anyone, and we rode much slower than I do on my own.  Still, the fun of being able to ride in the street down George Bush Drive and the pleasure of biking from College Station to Bryan more than made up for the lack of speed.

I’d never ridden my bike to Bryan because I was convinced that there wasn’t a good bike path to connect the two cities.  Our route was circuitous, so I’m not sure I could recreate it easily on my own.  It also involved riding on some roads that might feel less safe to me if I were by myself—safety in numbers, you know—but now I feel like I want to try it.  I like downtown Bryan a lot and would like to visit it more often, but not having a car here makes that trip more challenging.

Courteous Mass was amazing for more personal reasons too.  It was more than just a bike ride.  In the last few months, my world feels like it’s been shrinking.  When I lived in Chicago, I always felt like my world was enormous.  That city offered a dazzling array of opportunities just a train ride away from my home.  And when I needed to escape the urban life, vacation was just a plane ride away.  And that plane ride?  Also just a train ride away.  In certain ways, life in Chicago was easier, bigger, and more exciting than life in College Station, Texas.  It was also more overwhelming, and I spent plenty of time burrowing into my kitchen for comfort.

My life in Texas is different.  In the almost two years since I moved here, I have been growing and changing.  In some ways, life is better.  I feel more calm and centered about my relationship with Matt.  I’m becoming a more independent scientist (but still keeping my fingers crossed about that).  I have a little more money to spend, and I’m thinking about buying my first home(!).  I have a dishwasher and a bike and a digital camera and two blogs.  I have friends.  I am happy here.

But I miss the city, and I think the thing I miss most of all is that sense of expansiveness.  Chicago has an energy that I just love—it’s a dynamic city, a fun city, a city that was perfect for twenty-something, graduate student me.  Texas can feel a little stagnant with its masses of confused undergraduates and old white men.  I’m not sure yet where I fit in here.  Nor do I know how long I’ll stay in this town or whether I’ll stay in Texas.  But for an evening, I felt surrounded by kindred spirits during Courteous Mass.  I felt my world opening up, spatially and socially.  I met some cool people who were about my age and who were kind enough to let me tag along with them for part of the evening.

I think your world is as big as you imagine it to be.  Courteous Mass tugged at my imagination.  It gave me a peak at a larger world right here, in my own town.  I can’t wait for our next ride.  My bike and I are ready to have some more fun.

Momentum, or Lack Thereof

Yoga Update (5/2-5/8/11)

At the beginning of the week, I had completed 29 days of yoga, which means there are just 11 days left in my 40 Days of Yoga project.  Hurray!  This project has taken way longer to complete than I imagined, so as I see the end approaching, I feel a sense of relief.

Apparently, my sense of relief was so great that this week, I skipped yoga more often than I practiced it.  I’m finding it hard to keep up the momentum with this project when I’m spending so much time on the bike and I want to get back into my running shoes.  Before this project, yoga was my way of staying strong and flexible.  It wasn’t my focus so much as something that I enjoyed and did regularly because it felt good and I knew it was good for me.

This project has taught me that I’m not interested in making yoga a bigger part of my life.  Doing 2-3 sessions a week and some stretching before bedtime is perfect for me, but now that I’ve turned it into a Project (capital P Project!), it’s not as much fun.  I think I would enjoy trying yoga with others in a group class, but on my own, I just don’t enjoy feeling like I have to do yoga.

The other thing I’ve learned is that my life, as it is, feels balanced to me.  I work, I play, I rest, and I’m happy with the amount of time I can spend on those activities.  The reality is that my job takes up a lot of my time and on a day-to-day basis, it is my highest priority.  That’s not to say that my job is more important than my family or my health, but again, I feel that I’ve achieved a balance that works for me.  Yoga is part of my balance.

This week I didn’t take very good notes about when I practiced yoga and what I did during yoga.  So the following may be incomplete, but it’s not with the intention of lying.

A slacker’s yoga week, in a very short list:

Wednesday (5/4): I do some DIY yoga on my mat, and I even get myself into wheel pose again!  I still feel so strong and accomplished in that pose—it hasn’t lost its charm yet.

Saturday (5/7): I look at the calendar and see that I’ve done yoga once in the past five days.  I feel guilty.  I do some pajama yoga before bed and still feel guilty.

As for all the other days of this week, I did not practice yoga.  I just wasn’t in the mood for it, which is perhaps the worst excuse, but sometimes, that’s the way it goes.  Tonight I’m hoping to do some Morning Flow to kick-start a better yoga week.  9 days left in my yoga project!  I can do this.

The Best-Laid Plans…

…sometimes evaporate in a two-hour conversation with my parents!  I called my mother this evening to wish her a happy Mother’s Day, and I ended up on the phone with my dad for over an hour.  So instead of writing about Courteous Mass, I was talking about all manner of math and science.  I don’t talk to my dad too often, so I decided to indulge his enthusiasm.  But now…now I am tired and it’s getting late, so I’m not going to write about Courteous Mass tonight.  I will write later this week, but for now, I’m going to leave you with a few sexy leg shots from Friday.  For once, I’m posting pictures of people other than myself on Feels Like Flying!  Hopefully I don’t get in trouble for this.

(Hi, handsome.)

(Nice legs, lady!  I love that skirt.)

Catch you later, gators!  Have a good week.

On Bike-Riding, Profanity, and Not Getting Killed

Bike-Riding Extravaganza!  Wednesday-Friday Bike Ride Commutes (5/4-5/6/11)

It’s been two wheels, all the time around here, at least when it comes to my daily commute.  It’s finals time for the undergrads, so the bus service is on some funky reduced schedule, and I’m feeling too impatient to tailor my schedule to the bus schedule.  So bike commuting it is!  It’s been nice to be on the bike this week, as the crazy winds have died down and it’s been much cooler this week.  On Friday, I even participated in my first Courteous Mass, a group bike-riding event, which I’ll tell you more about tomorrow. 

On a somewhat related note, I was almost killed twice today.  Twice!  The first scary moment happened this afternoon when I was waiting for the light to change so I could cross Wellborn.  Some asshole completely ran the red light, and I don’t mean that sly maneuver where you speed up to slip through a yellow light before it changes.  The light was RED, everyone else was stopped, and this truck comes flying—FLYING!—through the red light.  It was really lucky for me that while waiting for the light to change, I had ducked back into the shade.  The sun was pretty fierce today, and it was hot, so the shade was inviting.  The shady spot was a few feet back from the road, so when the light changed, it took me a few moments to go from the sidewalk into the street, during which time the asshole ran the red light.  I am not above flipping drivers the bird when they do such dangerously stupid things, though I realize that in a state like Texas, it’s also dangerous to flip people off (concealed weapons, you know).  I try to keep my middle finger to myself, but sometimes it slips out.  I still can’t believe that guy.  What could possibly be so important that you have to put lives in danger so that you won’t be late?

The second time was not quite as scary, but I am still appalled by this driver.  It happened just a few minutes ago.  I stepped outside to check my mail, and as I was walking back through the parking lot to my apartment, this truck (it’s always guys driving trucks!) is flying into the lot.  Now, I’m generally afraid of the parking lot because I see how fast people drive, but this guy still took me by surprise.  I get myself out of his way by walking over to the left, and all of a sudden he makes a sharp turn and drives his truck hard in the same direction that I am walking.  He pulls into a parking spot and kind of stares at me, as I stare at him, dumbstruck by his driving.  Still stunned, I shake my head a little and keep walking home, cursing to myself about what a dumbfuck he is.

I realize there have been a lot of obscenities in my posts this week.  I’m sorry about that.  I hate crickets and selfish drivers—they bring out the sailor in me!  My mother especially hates it when people curse.  She thinks it reflects a lack of eloquent communication skills.  I’m not sure about that.  The most eloquent person I know drops f-bombs quite happily and loves it when I do the same.  (Men!)  I’m not quite as liberal as he is, but cursing under my breath is a daily activity for me.  I feel like if your cursing isn’t bothering anyone else, then what’s the harm?  What’s your take on profanity, dear reader?  (I would never use vulgar terms for you!  You are awesome!)

Does That Count?

Monday’s Short Run (5/02/11)

Today is off to a rockin’ start.  So far I have escorted a gigantic roach and a horny cricket out of my apartment, broken one of my lab tools, and burned my finger trying to repair my lab tool.  On the plus side, I managed to eat lunch without spilling it on myself.  Does that count as an accomplishment?

Oh heavens, I need Friday.  Wait, no.  Friday’s to-do list is too long.  I need Saturday.  Where is Saturday?

This week has been so long and exhausting.  I have no good reason for it, other than that I think I’m fighting a cold or an infection.  Last night I was so tired that I felt compelled to take a two-hour nap after dinner.  Today I feel okay, other than my burnt finger and general feelings of inadequacy.  Also, I’m still feeling creeped out by the cricket in my dining room this morning.  I hate crickets—they’re so jumpy and loud.  The roaches that come inside tend to be kinda mellow, but the crickets are scary as fuck.  I think it’s a sign I’ve been living in Texas too long that I can describe to you the differences in behavior between disgusting insects that like to wander into apartments.

On the plus side, I’ve been easing back into my running, and it feels good.  The weather has been so pleasantly cool this week that I just want to enjoy as much time outside before the heat becomes unbearable again.  On Monday, I did another ten-minute run after work, despite the sprinkles of rain and ominous-looking clouds.  It’s so easy to do these short runs after all the hours I spent training for the half-marathon!  When the scheduled run is only ten minutes long, I really have no excuse for not running.  It’s nice to know that I can be finished with my work-out in twenty minutes (five minutes each for a walking warm-up and cool-down, ten minutes of running in between)—it makes me feel very efficient.  Which is the exact opposite of how I’m feeling in my life in general these days.

PS  The photos above are more shots from the “woods.”  I ran through the dog part as part of my work-out on Monday, so here you get to see a few glimpses of my running route.

A Windy Weekend, with Woods and Walking

A Windy Weekend: Saturday and Sunday Bike Commutes + Sunday’s Walk in the “Woods” (4/30-5/1/11)

Today is the first day in a long time that the wind has died down.  It feels so peaceful out there after days and days of knock-you-over winds blowing every which way.  Over the weekend, after biking all over town in that wind, my legs felt like rocks.  At one point, I was biking uphill and into the wind, and I just wanted to sob, “No fair!  No fair!  What did I do to deserve this?!”

Wow, I’m such a whiner.  I’m sorry about that.

In addition to the unbelievable winds, we’ve also had really hot weather.  Seriously hot.  In addition to making my legs feel like rocks, the heat has left me sweaty and parched.  But on Sunday evening, a cold front rolled into town and gave us a 40-degree drop in temperature.  We went from 90-something degrees to 50-something degrees in just a few hours…and it was awesome.  I was so relieved to feel cool air when I stepped outside to take an evening photo walk!  It was cool enough that I had to add another layer, my blue fleece jacket, so that I wouldn’t be too chilly on my walk.

All the photos above were taken in the “woods,” a little wooded area within the dog park in my neighborhood.  I love the woods and these days, I find myself pulled to them.  There’s something about the light and the tall trees that reminds me of Michigan.  Michigan will always feel like home to me, and the woods make me feel nostalgic for simpler times.  I love my life now, but I am easily overwhelmed by this whole grown-up thing that is my life now.  It’s wonderful to have a place that, at least for a few moments, lets me shed my grown-up self and makes me feel small and protected in that grove of tall trees.

“Prayer without action is no prayer at all.”

Yoga Update (4/25-5/01/11)

This is another one of those days when current events are overshadowing any sense of self-importance I carry around with me.  Osama bin Laden is dead.  Ten years after the hunt began, we have found him, and now he’s God’s problem.  Or Satan’s.  Or maybe he’s just gone now, gone to the sea and the oblivion that is death.  I don’t know.  I’m an agnostic, so I really don’t know.

I’m not sure how to feel about this piece of news.  I won’t argue that it’s a tragedy that bin Laden is dead.  He used his time on earth to do atrocious things, so the rest of us are probably better off without him hiding in a cave somewhere.  But I can’t embrace the idea that a death is something to celebrate.  Maybe it’s my Buddhist tendencies, but revenge is not something I embrace, and neither is murder.  We Americans murdered a man in the name of national security, and while I can accept that people feel relief, I will not be celebrating this murder.  Perhaps it was justified, perhaps it was necessary, but I reserve my joy for things that affirm my belief in life and peace and mercy.  Neither bin Laden’s life nor his death is worth celebrating.

I was reading this piece by Bill McKibben, and when I bumped into a quote from Mother Teresa, its simple wisdom struck me as profound.  She said, “Prayer without action is no prayer at all. You have to work as if everything depended on you, and leave the rest to God.”  Now, I know that Mother Teresa was a religious person, so she prayed to God.  I’m a little more on the fence about God, but what I do believe in is human goodness.  Maybe it sounds trite, or cliché, or like a bad Disney movie, but as much as I can see that humans have the potential for egregious acts of violence, I also believe in humanity’s ability to do good, to help others, and to make heartbreaking sacrifices so that others may live.  I want to live my life with Mother Teresa’s words in mind: work hard, be devoted, be dedicated, hope that I’ve helped someone, and leave the rest to humanity.

It’s all I can really do anyway.

I like to think that yoga gives me the strength and peace of mind to stay dedicated to the things that matter most to me.  Even on the days when I can only do five minutes of yoga before bed, those five minutes calm me down and remind me that if I take care of myself, I have so much more to give.  I might do yoga sometimes in pursuit of a flatter stomach or something equally vain, but I am devoted to it because of the way it makes me feel: more like the person I want to be, well-fed belly and all.

Here’s what I did this week on the mat:

Monday (4/25): I want an easy, low-effort yoga class for tonight.  I choose Lunar Flow, which is easy peasy!  Perfect for my lazy evening.

Tuesday (4/26): On yogadownload.com, I look for their “Yoga for Cramps” class, but I come away empty-handed.  So it’s pajama yoga again!  The forward bends and back bends help to soothe my achy back.

Wednesday (4/27): I take the evening off of yoga and spend it in domestic goddess mode.  I make a new soup (a lentil-filled riff on this one—delicious!).  I do a thorough clean-up job in the kitchen, and I spend some time ironing wrinkled but clean clothes to get my closet into shape.  I feel I don’t have these sorts of evenings often enough, the ones that are both soothing in their simplicity as well as satisfying in the way that they make me feel ready for whatever’s next.

Thursday (4/28): I have a DIY yoga evening, including some time in wheel pose.  Whee!

Friday (4/29): I skip yoga tonight and go for a run instead.  Running, I missed you!

Saturday (4/30): Whoa, baby, my legs are hurting today.  Between running on Friday and biking into the crazy winds, my quads are feeling the burn.  I don’t do yoga today because the idea of more exercise is almost enough to make me weep.  Texas winds, 1.  Rose-Anne, 0.

Sunday (5/1):  My legs and back are still sore, and today’s bike session didn’t help matters.  I do a long pajama yoga session because I desperately need to stretch my legs.  By the time I go to bed, I’m feeling much better.  Yoga, you’re the best!

May you have a peaceful and productive week, my dear readers.