How did that happen?

I've been so busy reading other peoples' blogs, that I haven't been maintaining my own at all! Curse you, Google Reader! I taught chemistry again this semester and again it was AWESOME. Today was the last day of class before the final and I'm already sitting here feeling sad that I'm losing this class. They are some good people and for the most part they try really hard. I guess that's one of the problems with being a teacher.

Other than that, life is pretty fucking sweet. I just bought cross country skis which blows my mind. I still don't know why anyone would go outside on purpose in the winter but here I am, trying to make my peace with the cold and snow. El senor B is a cunt-hair away from graduating. Roomie D has been consistently cooking and eating with us, although gummi bears are still a staple of his diet. Gained new roomies J and R (did I mention that before) and that's cool. Other peeps are on their way out of my life but that happens, and mostly it's because they're moving on to bigger and better things. And I hear that Ms. B-alicious is coming to town for New Year's which will be suh-weet.

Well, I'll try not to be such a blog-stranger. Really.

Good enough for a poke

The weekend a few back was spent navigating the deceivingly swift currents of the Wisconsin river with RBC-er's and RBC hangers-on. It was pretty much awesome. I'm not going to tell the whole story because, really, you had to be there. Instead, I'm going to show you some pictures of our flags. They are: The RBC official mascot flag (by J), The River Rats flag (by me), the N/B Fancy Time flag (by N & B, I think mostly B), the Tough Titties flag (by M) and R's golden eagle with AK47's, which , unfortunately, did not survive long enough for me to get a good pic. My River Rats flag was doomed from the start. First, I sewed through my finger - ALL THE WAY THROUGH - the night before whilst constructing it. Then at the very end of the trip, the flag got caught be a "death line" and sunk to the murky depths below. It seemed fitting.

Time to get back to it

Man, I have been a seriously infrequent blogger this summer. Just how it goes, I guess. I also haven't been able to fall into a good workout routine because my work/social schedule has been pretty hectic as well as variable. So I'm trying to come up with something that will stick for the fall. The task is complicated by teaching an all-evening chemistry course on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This may take some tweaking but that's okay.

Monday: climbing
Tuesday: 7am yoga (har) or lunch-time swimming.
Wednesday: powerflow (yoga/pilates) evening class or swimming
Thursday: lunch-time lifting
Friday: off or whatever I feel like

That gets in all of my desired activities (yoga, climbing, swimming, lifting) at least once per week. I'd like to bump up the frequency on the climbing and lifting at some point, and it's probably the swimming that'll have to go as swimming in February in Wisconsin is pretty redonk, even if it is indoors. I'd like to try the Tuesday morning yoga class, but I've got a feeling that leaving my house by 6:15am is a pipe dream. I am not a morning person at all. More of a morning ogre.

Your love will be safe with me*

Music blog entry time! Two albums in particular have really been standing out for me for the last couple of months.

Bon Iver - "For Emma, Forever Ago" This is a beautiful lo-fi alt-folk album by a native Wisconsinite, Justin Vernon, on one of my favored labels for all things pretty and folky, Jagjaguwar. Most of the time he sings in a kind of weird falsetto voice, which normally would turn me off, but it just adds to the playfulness and wistfulness of the album and makes his chest voice that much more satisfying when it breaks through. "For Emma, Forever Ago" reminds me a lot of the Kickball album I mentioned ages ago in that it just makes me so fucking happy when I listen to it that my chest aches. It makes me think "The sun is shining, it's summertime, I'm in love and the world is a beautiful place." Seriously, I was listening to it yesterday as I walked to my building on campus thinking about how beautiful the sidewalk is. And the album was a gift from my lover which would make me love it even more than I do if that were possible. My only complaint about this album is that it ends.

Ludacris - "Chicken N Beer" Ludacris is a dirty dirty dirty man. I love him. If I'm gonna dance, at a party or all by my lonesome, then raunchy music is my favorite and Ludacris got a potty mouth that puts my own to shame. The three opening tracks to this album ("Southern Fried Intro", "Blow It Out", "Stand Up") are booty shakin' enough to get your grandmama to drop her hips to the beat. Especially if she's into nasty lyrics. After the intro, the tracks bounce between pretty good and not bad, and there's something to offend just about anybody. Why is this album getting my ups along with the one above? Because I similarly cannot listen to it and be in a bad mood. Personal favorite quote: "We all know Jesus saves and Ludacris withdraws..." Oh yeah, I also love the liner art.

*"re: stacks" - Bon Iver

Crashing through the parlor door*

I'm not dead, just busy and lazy. I'll have to get back to this blog thing at some future, undetermined date. I'm guessing none of you were relying on reading it for your base life satisfaction anyway, but I've been leaving you hanging for a while now. Pics from my birthday party are up here.

*"Company Calls Epilogue" - Death Cab for Cutie

I fucking hate the fucking wind in fucking Madison

At one point this morning I was standing on the fucking pedals, in first fucking gear, on the fucking flats - and I almost fell over because I was barely crawling along.

I began to entertain fantasies of turning around and going home, but I have a meeting with my big boss this afternoon so it was not a truly viable option.

Then every time a cyclist passed me in the opposite direction (i.e. with the wind), I imagined that I would turn around, catch up with them, and push them over. But I couldn't figure out how to do it without crashing myself.

I screamed at pedestrians. Twice. "MOVE!" and "MOVE YOU FAT FUCK!" Right before that last one, I was pedaling in first gear - downhill this time - and once again nearly fell over due to lack of forward motion. I'm thinking about carrying rocks in my basket to pelt at pedestrians who cross against the light directly in my way. But again, I'm not sure I could throw something without causing myself to crash. Also, I'd probably feel bad later about actually hurting someone. Maybe eggs instead.

I probably shouldn't bike on windy days.

The one cool part was when a big gust came from the side and just shifted my bike over about two feet. It was neat. It would not have been neat had a car been anywhere near me, but I guess I got lucky on that count. No, wait, there was a second plus: it was so warm I didn't even have to wear a jacket with the amount of effort I was putting out.

Here's hoping the wind doesn't shift 180˚ (like it usually does) before my ride home tonight. Birthday party news and pics up soon!

Heavy

Okay, y'all. I'm just going to do the teensiest bit of bragging:

I deadlifted (sumo-style) 95 lbs today. Personal best by far (like, 30lbs).

I know, I know, in the world of deadlifting it's not that much really. It's only about 75% of my body weight even. But it's the heaviest thing I've ever picked up in my life. And it totally made my day.

One hope, one quest*

One year!

Yes, it is my 1-year blogger anniversary. Unfortunately, I've got too much work today to put up anything exciting for it, so here is a picture of me posing with my first post. Kindly ignore the extremely messy desk. Although it actually doesn't look so bad from this angle; the panoramic view is overwhelming.

* "Witness (1 Hope)" - Roots Manuva

Well, duh.

I got so absorbed in writing about my mom that I forgot all about the topic I meant to write about originally.

In Madison we are currently going through "The Big Melt". Snow and ice and other nastiness that's been piling up since October is finally on its way out. The bike paths and streets are completely clear of precipitation for the first time in months, although now they're full of sand and debris instead.

Today, on my way in to work, I was biking down E. Mifflin between 1st and 4th streets and the whole road, an entire 3 blocks of this street, was coated in a sheer film of oil of some kind. Most likely motor, I suppose. Even though this was obviously a clear sign of pollution, it was really beautiful. All rainbow-y, several orders of the Michel-Levy chart represented, including a whole lot of first-order colors (my favorite!). It was a lovely 3 blocks. I hope it's still there tomorrow when I bike in. If so, I'll stop and see if I can't get a good photo to share with y'all.

I do realize that the fact that I was contemplating the Michel-Levy chart as I biked down a dirty fucking road is pretty dorky. No comments necessary.

It's not devotion that I want from you*

I don't care what any of y'all got to say: my Mumsie is the sweetest mom in the whole universe, ever. For example, she still sends her very independent, nearly 31 year-old daughter (ahem, me) regular care packages. This morning, as I was overdressing for my bike ride into work, the postman banged on the door because he didn't want to leave such a "fancy package" just sitting on the doorstep. As soon as he said that, I knew it was from my mom without even looking.

The outside is decorated in cut-out paper flowers and when I slice open the box all of the inner flaps are covered in paper flowers and bunnies and whatnot. I know that she spent the better part of an evening decorating this plain old cardboard box. This is how my mom always sends stuff; I've got an entire collection of similarly decorated boxes in the basement that I don't want to throw away. Inside there are packets of flower seeds, a toothbrush (mothers can never quite accept that their adult children are capable of otherwise acquiring such necessary items), a flowerpot, some chocolate almonds, and Easter-themed paper napkins which will promptly be put with the other holiday-themed paper napkins to come out at the next house party, probably for my birthday.

Additionally, there is a coffee can full of anisette biscotti like only my mama can make, although Cabbibo's Bakery at the farmer's market comes damn close. It's nothing like that coffee shop shit that passes for biscotti in most places. It's also a pain to make, because you have to bake it twice, but it's my favorite and so Mumsie makes it just for me. Also inside is a box of rat treats (for Toot) that she made by hand. The rats always get included in a care package. Finally, there was an Easter card that arrived yesterday, with a "rat" on the front. My mother excels at finding cards for every occasion with a "rat" in it. ["Rat" because most likely the artist intended the vermin pictured to be taken as a mouse, but we have none of that in my family.]

Above: a sweet picture of my sweet mother on her 56th birthday. She made that face because I asked her to do something silly. She ain't too bad-lookin' for 56 and, luckily for me, seems to have passed on the easy-aging genes. Also check out Buzz the cat's bionic eye.

* "I do" - Edie Brickell

Tarred

I'm so tired, I can't pronounce the long "i" sound. Early to bed for me tonight, especially since I want to get up early to go do some deadlifting.

Lately I've been having a lot of trouble fitting climbing into my schedule. That sucks, because I love climbing. Tomorrow! I shall climb! I guess my main problem is that there's just too much that I want to do, period. I should aspire to be a more boring person. Or go down to having a single job. Somebody hire me to teach full-time?

And the dogs are lightning to attack*

Ah yes, quite a bit of news to report. I've been so so busy of late that I haven't had time to write much. In fact, I'm too busy to be writing right now, but fuck it. I'm a list kinda gal, I like the order of it, and also it will save me the time of composing transition sentences.

1. Cross country skiing I hate the winter. And by that I mean: I really fucking despise the winter. I always have. When I was a kid even I hated the cold and snow. As such, since I moved to this warmth-forsaken place I have studiously avoided any sort of outdoor winter activity, or really going outdoors at all unless it were absolute necessary. You will not find me sledding at Elver Park with the cool kids. Sure, I ride my bike despite the cold (although the ice has been thoroughly sketching me out for the last month and a half enough to keep even that to a minimum), but that's just stubbornness on my part, a refusal to admit defeat at the hands of evil winter. So when my friends D & L convinced me to go cross country skiing with them a couple weeks ago, no one was more surprised than I. I rented skis, etc. from Fontana and we took Big Red to the Arboretum, which I was assured had good newbie skiing trails. Holy crap, it was so much fun! I fell down a lot but it didn't hurt - um, yet. I could barely walk for the next 4 days or so but I'd say it was worth it. I'm even considering spending my hefty REI dividend on a pair of skis. I'm set for climbing, camping, and bike gear at the moment, so why not?

2. Weight lifting Yeah, so I've lifted weights before, but only infrequently and haphazardly. The day after my first-ever skiing (probably not the best choice for timing), el señor B took me to the Shell to put into action the 2008 Trunk Junk Campaign, i.e. bump up that booty. Romanian Deadlifts, Good Mornings and Squats were first on the agenda. Since then I've also added Sumo-style Deadlifts and Box Squats. Luckily for me proper form comes pretty natural, I assume because I already have decent flexibility and posture awareness from yoga, pilates, dance, climbing, and the like. So far I haven't added a ton of weight - my Squats are around 20kg, my Deadlifts around 25kg - but I'm having fun and am managing to smuggle lifting into my schedule once or twice a week. I feel kind of shy at the Shell because there's not a lot of ladiez there and my weights are pretty weak-sauce, but still I say fuck it. Also, it's pretty sweet of el señor B to let me crash his workouts. I doubt that having a weak lady following him around beefs up his gym cred much.

3. Writing an exam I have mentioned previously that I'm teaching a general chemistry class at my local community college this semester and IT IS PRETTY AWESOME. A couple weeks ago was our first exam. I agonized for days over what items to include, in what format, and how long to make the exam. I was really worried that the exam would be too hard or too long. I had 2 word problems starring el señor B (calculating his annual peanut butter consumption and related calculations) and roomie D (calculating his body's specific heat whilst skiing), which amused me greatly. At the start of class I was so nervous that my hands were shaking. But most of the students finished with time to spare, and the average score came out to a solid 80%. I'm pretty proud of myself and my students.

4. Solo tattoo For each of my first 6 tattoo sessions I have had a friend holding my hand (or more like I squeeze the bejesus out of theirs) the whole time. All because I am a wuss with a needle phobia. Last Friday was set as my final sitting for the piece on my shoulder/back (touching up the big flower). Originally, el señor B, designated hand-holder of the last 3 sessions, was going out of town for a bike race and so I had steeled myself to do this one on my own. Weather intervened and so it seemed that el señor would be with me after all. But the ice and snow and the lack of its removal from the bike paths made for one cranky señor, and thus I sent him packing anyway. So I did it! All by myself! It fucking hurt, but I'm a big girl now. I'll add some pics in here as soon as I'm done with the big peel.

5. D&D I've played plenty of Talisman and Risk (mostly while impaired) but to date had avoided the ultimate nerd game. Roomie D finally snagged me in, though. He was just so excited that I didn't want to disappoint him. Um...D&D kind of blows. Maybe I just think that because I kept getting killed ("accidentally" scythed in the back by a teammate, for instance) within the first 5 minutes of every game. Next week I think I'll be washing my hair.

I think there was more but already this is a long entry. Various photographs are slowly making their way to this page, promise.


* "New Orleans" - Silver Scooter

Dear Winter: You suck. No love, Dr. 1%

But I do love the rest of y'all. I think I might feel some free time coming up soon, so I shall spin a tale of firsts...

Feelin' fat & sassy

I recently attained my weight goal of the past ~1.5 years. For most people this task involves losing weight. For me it's gaining it. But now that I'm here I don't think I'll have trouble maintaining what I consider to be my ideal weight. If I could figure out a way to put some junk in my trunk without putting it anywhere else, I'd probably try to keep going. Suggestions?

I guess this is one good thing to come out of this crappy-ass winter. I'm pretty sure I have my reluctance to drive to the gym or bike anywhere in bad weather to thank for those last few pounds.

Better now

I'm still sick of the fucking winter, though.

Bad day

for a whole bunch of piddly little reasons a few not-so-piddly ones

blah

Brrrrrrrrrrrwah, chikka-ch-bow*

The plague
My house (aka the RaccoonBear City aka RBC) is currently a house of pestilence. Last week both roomie D and long-term houseguest M caught what is likely the flu, or at least some really nasty cold. Roomie D puked and now has a nearly constant cough - seriously, he doesn't go 30 seconds without coughing; M rarely crawls out of bed to venture downstairs, and when he does looks like death warmed over. Both had temperatures that topped out at over 102F. So far neither D's girlfriend J, nor el señor B, nor I have caught the dread virus, although B & I are sporting less severe colds at the moment. Viruses! All the rage here at RBC!

My eyes itch.

Biking in the winter/The crappy weather we are currently experiencing
I am crazy. I am somewhat assuaged by not by not being the only one. But seriously, yesterday was a weird winter-biking day. In the morning it was overcast, maybe even misty, 35F with a gnarly headwind. I was racing a train to all of the intersections as I made my way to PowerFlow class. I beat the train to the first intersection, but it caught me at the next two, thanks in particular to a bunch of asshole drivers who wouldn't let me by. I flipped off at least 80 people, mittens off, both hands. It's been at least a month or two since I got warm enough on a commute to take off my balaclava, unzip my coat, and remove my mittens.

Then I went to go get a haircut in the afternoon and the temp had dropped to ~10F with crazy gusting and this weird, pellet-y snow that stung my poor face, or what was exposed of it anyway. A few pellets even hit my tongue, which really hurt and I'm not sure why my mouth was open. The bike paths/sidewalks/roads, which had been clear in the morning, were now coated in half an inch of the pellet-y snow over sheet ice. Ouch. I decided to walk my bike as traffic was moving so slowly that I could still beat the buses to the capitol square in such a fashion. Then I got bored, and the crunchy stuff on top of the ice seemed to have okay traction, so I switched to biking. White-knuckle material for sure. At one point the wind was blowing my bike UP a hill with no pedaling, and I didn't even consider using my brakes on the sheets of ice. Harrowing indeed, but I made it to my hair appointment just fine and was only a few minutes late.

After the haircut (with Melissa at Chameleon Salon who is the awesomist stylist EVER - give her your business!), a mere hour later, the temperature had dropped well into the negative range and who knows how much further with windchill factored in. Me and the SDB4k took the bus the rest of the way home. Word. I refuse to ride again until we're at least experiencing positive digits in the morning.

*(at least, that's the closest I can come to writing it out) "Dael" - Autechre

I'm thinking something smart but I'm saying something stupid*

I had a seriously great morning on Thursday.

It began very early (at least for me). My alarm began its extended assault around 6:00am, and at 6:43am - knowing that I had to leave the house at precisely 7:00am in order to catch the bus to yoga - I rolled outta bed. As I peeled off my nightshirt, I noticed that I'd left behind a good portion of the skin on my back, being that the new tattoo had begun the Big Peel. That was kind of gross, but also cool, so I set it aside to show off to el señor B later. Then I got dressed, stuffed a boysenberry jam-filled bran muffin and half a cup of cold, leftover coffee down my gullet and ran out the door at 7:02am. Knowing I was late, I half-ran down the slippery sidewalks to the bus stop, where I would have missed the bus had I left the house 30 seconds later. Small victories, kids, small victories.

Sat down on the bus, all out of breath and still half-asleep. I opted for the Small Knives album "Rain on Tin" for the first selection on my mp3-player. I first discovered this band when the album came out and I reviewed it for me & el señor B's radio show. It's clean, simple, plain Americana folk/rock stuff, lapsteel and all. Only they're not American - story to follow another time. Anyway, it was just what I was in the mood for. Even though I was barely awake, I decided to try my hand at some killer sudoku.

Now. The killer sudoku is my newest math puzzle obsession. I bought this little book in the airport on my way to Puerto Rico. These were the puzzles I was doing on the beach. The puzzles are all rated by how much they make your pencil sweat - they each have these little pencil icons next to them, with no sweat droplets (easy) or up to 4 sweat droplets (deadly). I have twice previously attempted a "deadly" killer sudoku, only to find myself stumped with nary a box filled out. But this bleary-eyed morning I found an opening. In fact, I had a logical revelation - I figured out a new-to-me bit of logic I could use to open up these mean puzzles. As I was engrossed in my first semi-successful attempt of a "deadly" killer sudoku, the music stopped and I made my second fortuitous audiophilic choice: My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless". Definitely in my top-20 complete albums of all time, and a great way to get ready for the first PowerFlow class of the semester.

PowerFlow went well, it was A - one of my and el señor B's favorite instructors - at the helm and class was crowded. First 2 weeks there's 40 people in class. By the end of the semester it's just me, el señor, and maybe 3 other people. The class was easier than usual, I guess A didn't want to scare people away just yet, and I was relieved because after 1.5 months of no yoga, easy was more than enough.

On the ~5 block walk to the student union for coffee & a biscuit, I thought my face was going to freeze and fall off. But it didn't (small victories). At the union I'd anticipated ordering the inferior grill coffee when I got my egg & cheese biscuit - for convenience, really. However, there was a line at the grill and so I headed over to the QuickByte instead, which was a good save because their brew of the day was mighty tasty indeed. I re-entered the grill line, coffee in hand, and decided that I deserved the 2 eggs + biscuits and gravy special because why the fuck not is why. It was very tasty. I loves me some biscuits and sausage gravy. As I polished those off, I completed my first ever "deadly" killer sudoku! Woot! And still made it to the office earlier than normal.

A good morning indeed.

*"The Line" - Small Knives

Just me and you, pretending we're not home*

So I finished my first week of teaching general chemistry at ye ol' community college. It went okay, I think. I generally like my students, and I really just have to stay one step ahead of them throughout the semester. Haven't had to do a lab yet, so we'll see how that goes. Hilarious (to other people) hijinks have already ensued thanks to the fact that I don't yet have a key card that lets me into my office and lab, and the temporary ones they give me keep going bad. As I expected, significant figures (or, if you like, significant digits) are giving the "kids" a bit of trouble, which means they're just going to love the lecture I have planned for next week.

And now, some more photographic randomness. Except not really random, since they're usually pictures that have the unifying property of all being off of my camera.

How is it that I have a mother who is only 38 years old? Poor Mumsie, not only has she gotten cheated out of a proper birthday her whole life by being born 2 days after Christmas, but this year her ungrateful family forgot to buy the right number candles and so just used whatever ones were laying around the kitchen.

Me'n'roomie D making with the shenanigans at T & L's party this summer.

Tomorrow I get my newest tattoo colored in. But I'm not putting up any pictures until I've also gotten the old tattoo on my back re-colored. Thus, anticipate a photo in about a month!

*"Stay in Bed, Forget the Rest" - Deee-Lite

But the light seeps through*

Today I'm kind of cranky for no good reason at all and I don't much feel like doing the work I need to get done, which is mainly some very tedious literature searching. I've just completed "Hell Week" for new part-time faculty at the tech college I'm teaching chemistry at this semester. Thank goodness it's almost the weekend. Of course, I anticipate being hella busy making up a course syllabus and all the other goodies I'll be handing out to my students on Monday. I'm actually very excited to be teaching the class, so I'll let you know all of the dumb things I do in it. And now a few pictures for you:

I have the wing span of a turkey vulture and the skin of a chicken.

El señor B, J & roomie D drinking beer for breakfast and showing off some beer belly.

A scientific comparison of beer belly robustness via the ASTM 2731 tabletop method.

*"Two Way Action" - Andrew Bird & the Bowl of Fire

Pretty thing I've got you*

Tonight I say goodbye to my sweet angel-pie, Ollie. He was a good rat and will be missed both by me and his brother, Toot. Sweet dreams, little buddy.




*"Reckless Burning" - Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter