airplane

It's 6:06 in the am. I woke up about 20 minutes ago and it's still dark out. Traveling early on the the shortest days of the year is an experience one could say I guess.

I've got my 44 liter bag nearly packed up, my skateboard is by the door and there a few books on my shelf I'll need to grab to occupy some time while I'm in St. Louis. Luckily, I'm taking a 1 leg trip, so I'm actually hoping the fact I don't have an assigned seat on today's flight works in my favor. I wouldn't mind getting into some free miles or flights. A short, random trip of my own will probably be much needed by the end of next semester.

We'll see how it goes. At least I'm not traveling on the 24th with my brother. Certainly to be a shit show.

not the same me I used to be

Last night I watched The Motorcycle Diaries with Katie (http://cheekytree.blogspot.com/). Beyond the actual Che content, I really enjoyed the film and was given confidence in what I am doing. The basic coming of age plot in the film was powerful and the transformation steps represented are seemingly relevant to how I've spent my past year. If you haven't seen this, it's worth a rent or an instant watch on Netflix (still up 12/17/09).

After having done that, I prepared my mind, my body and my bike (of course) for the mountain bike ride I attended this morning. I woke myself up around 7am in freezing weather to pack up and meet with 7 other hearty and like-minded souls for I believe a 3.5 - 4 hour ride (I never keep a watch on these rides). I assumed that because of the freezing temperatures (26 degrees in Harrisonburg when we left, so maybe in the teens at certain points of the ride???), my toes would go numb, and not surprisingly, they did. I also assumed that at some point in the ride I would probably return to Slumville, which I did. I also expected to have a tough time on the bike I borrowed to ride since my bike needs a repair, and once again, that was the case.

I ended up dressing nearly appropriately for the weather except my lack of foot protection, well noted above. We hit some ridge/pass spots on our ride that brought seriously biting winds that ignited a continuous drip from my nose. Things started to go downhill before we actually went down hill and I certainly did not help myself when thinking we were climbing that last road section to the parking lot at Reddish Knob. While we passed on riding to the tippy top, we began the long ride down Timber/Wolf Ridge, which isn't entirely all downhill. My next wall was encountered here when I realized the brake levers on the bike I borrowed were about a mile away from the handlebar, extracting constant, crampy pain in my hands the entire downhill. Why would I have that of that before when all we did was ride uphill???

All in all, I'm exhausted, I've already napped, I'm already fed (Jess's Quick Lunch chili cheese dogs are awesome post ride), I think I'm getting sick and my body is yelling at me.

I had an awesome day.

christmas break?

Finished up strong at the end of the semester. Now I can only wait to find out if it paid off. Kind of frustrating that I can enjoy the grades for only a day or two since there's still other things that need attending to.

Just got my flight itinerary from my dad for my trip to St. Louis. Really thankful I don't have to drive, but wishing I had been able to make plans around a job, one of which I can't claim still. Tomorrow I'll be driving around, looking and applying again. It sucks you can't just say, "This is getting old." Doesn't get you a job...

it's already decemeber

Finals week will be over in less than 24 hours for me, "break" will begin and I'm still trying to find part time employment. I'm trying really hard this time around, so I've got my fingers crossed. Making follow up calls, dressing well etc. Had a "mix up" with Panera and thusly was dubbed "the guy with a bad attitude". Really?

Yesterday, I started with a new band, The Equestrians. I'm not sure how to explain the sound really, you'd have to ask Matt Vogel, Tim Skirven or Andrew Barnes. It is a lot of fun though. I'm playing bass which is crazy, haven't played electric with any seriousness in a few years now. I did end up leaving practice with a "dead" ear though. It's still bothering me, which is beginning to worry me. I'm going to get serious about using ear protection, even if I can't hear anything, I'll be able to listen to it later.

Besides becoming gainfully employed, my next project is to get my mountain bike in shape and sell it. It's a heavier/longer travel bike than I think I really need and I would really like to get something lighter so I seriously have no reason to skip out on Sunday long rides. I'll probably make a post about it here once I get it together for selling.

I just turned 24 this past Sunday. There was snow on the ground, my brother and some other friends visited, essentially a really awesome time. I'm glad Phil was able to join and honestly make it one of the best birthdays I've had since probably the 21st. Now is the time to look into the next year being 24, which is starting to get ridiculous. I just realized I'm 24 and in school. I'm really hoping my application at VCU is getting some serious work done for me...