Jam, jam, jam, click. Was that a click?: a lesson in trusting my hearing.

This afternoon I was lucky enough to get done with work at 2:30, and it was lucky enough to be 50 degrees and sunny outside. Today was a ride day, and instead of having to trudge to the gym due to lack of sunlight I decided to treat myself to a real bike ride. Yes, treat myself, because these days it's ride, ride, ride one way or the other. My sister Emily has been chuckling heartily to herself (and intermittently to me which mostly isn't just chuckling but instead takes the form of outright gut-busting laughter) about my recent, present and upcoming spandex embrace. Now, of course, a lot of factors go into this embrace. One of which is the fact that I will be dressed head to tow in the stretchy, unforgivable fabric this entire summer, and thus must grab ahold of this fashion statement with the utmost vigor, never looking back or pausing to consider if the laughter I hear trailing behind me as I cruise super fast past pedestrians is in any way directed at my padded derriere. Which brings me to today. The sunny gorgeous weather prompted me to suit up spandex style for my first ever full-spandex-ride. Em has been begging for pictures, and so, after filling up my camelbak to capacity I snapped one for her:

Oh spandex, you are such a flattering material!

Thus properly attired, I took a deep breath and headed out the door. Now here comes the part where I, to my own demise, didn't trust my ears to be the superior machines that I know and love them to be. Five feet outside of my building, still in complete view of anyone in Denver who might be able to recognize me simply by the fact that they happen to see me entering and leaving and living in the same building that they do, I get on my bike. Pause one second for some background information: since the weather here has been pretty icky lately I've been training at the gym on the spin bike which I hadn't, until just a few days ago, realized you could clip into. This means that I haven't had much practice using my shoes and my new pedals recently. Okay, back outside my apartment. Right foot pavement, left foot jam, jam, jam, click. Click? Was that a click? I should check this by putting all of my weight onto my left foot while leaning very far to the left because surely that wasn't a real click. Well folks, it was indeed a real click. Crashing over my spandex clad self while attached to my bicycle, five feet from my apartment building, with three people all on opposite corners watching...ohh concrete why are you so painful and spandex why do you not have more protective qualities?? Ohh entire last sentence, why were you so embarrassing in real life??


Not one to be slowed down by mere blood coming from my appendages, I soldiered on. Really I was slowed down, (literally and figuratively) but I knew that continuing on would let me save face in front of those three people who witnessed my ridiculousness, probably weren't close enough to even see my face, and will even more probably never think of the incident again after today. Phew, face saved. The rest of my afternoon jaunt was quite lovely though, and I did get to see some of Denver that I hadn't seen yet and even had the presence of mind to snap a few pictures for you:



I am now going to go ice my knee, as it has started to throb quite noticeably, and find some calendula and arnica to make thing better..

tasty, tasty thai

As you may already be aware, from my constant litany of grumblings, I have yet to find any really great Thai restaurants in Denver. This is unfortunate because I love, love, love, and can eat most everything thai food related. As one friend put it right before my trip to Thailand, "You're going to be in gluten free land-ia!" and indeed I was. So, after sampling the best that Yelp had to offer and coming up bland handed, I have decided to do the practical thing and have switched to simply making the tasty thai food that I crave. Last night's GF potluck party (that's right, Elise is finally making some friends) gave me the opportunity to make one of my favorite dishes: Laab (or Larb) salad. Mmmmmmm.

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My gigantic kitchen owl supervised the operation.

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I've got to give credit to Joe for my love of tofu, it's just so tasty!

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This recipe for sure and cilantro in particular remind me so much of Carol, far away in Tanzania..and probably far away from cilantro as well.

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Cilantro sticks to everything!

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Oh so tasty, this dish is so simple to make too. Now I think I need to go eat some lunch!

ok, enough with the snow!

This past week has been GRAAAAAAAY. Oh so gray, where is my Denver sun? Blech. We've gotten some dustings of snow, but no sparkly sunshine to make it all pretty/warm/theenvyofminnesota. Yesterday amidst a snowstorm, I grabbed a ride to school. That ride ended up being over an hour long wait on a busy road in stop and stop traffic. Stop AND stop. Why is it that people can't ever seem to remember that turn signals exist when it snows? Are they concentrating so hard on the task of driving that they can't flick their right hand in a movement that has become so ingrained in their heads over the passage of time that they literally don't even have to think about it? It seems that way. BUT, gray ick weather aside, I've been putting in some serious gym time lately and am tracking my way to June. I took advantage of the YMCA's one free trainer appointment, and finally learned the ropes that are the crazy weight machines (no literal ropes, just metaphorical ones for the time being). I've maintained gym memberships for the past few years, mostly at YMCA's, and go to them dutifully, but for some reason I am super intimidated by the weight machine thingy-s with all the men looking at their arms in the mirrors and grunting extra hard while trying to make eye contact..and thus have never done much with that section of the gym. Generally I run on the treadmill, and take yoga and pilates classes, sucessfully avoiding all weight lifting related things. This time, though, I feel like if I don't cross train with some kind of upper body weight lifting, I will look like the bikers in The Triplets of Belleville when I'm finished in August and that's something no one would enjoy:




See what I mean? Noooooo thank you. And SO, I have begun conquering my irrational distaste for weight machines, helped in part by my friendly trainer (for one free session!) Nic. The extraordinarily nice thing about my gym is that it is downtown, this mean it is a) very close to my apartment b)busy at predictable and easily avoidable times and c) has a huge membership and a lot vested in buying the newest equipment out there. All of these things are lovely, but the amazing new equipment makes my training so much more bearable. After the new year, they upgraded to these crazy high tech machines and the FitLinx program. FitLinx, for those who don't know, is this great, great program that allows you to log in every time you go to the gym, punch in your code at every machine, and tracks all of your workouts! It breaks your information into every possible equation: time spent doing cardio this week, time spent doing weights today, calories burned in the past month, amount of weight lifted in three days time...IT'S AWESOME. It's so easy to use, and it is a great help for a noobie like me because all I have to do is log in and the computer tells me what machines I still need to hit up, where to put the settings for my body, and how many reps of how much weight I should do. No need to remember anything except my five digit code which happens to be my old zip code because no one else here is from good old Duluth! PHEW, that was a really long promotional speech for my gym's tracking device, but I'm sure that if you have ever worked out at a crappy facility you can appreciate my love for this inanimate program. I guess what I was trying to say in the last paragraph is that I have officially begun training, it's making my body feel like I just might perish on the side of the road this summer, but at least I can sweat myself silly while watching the newest episode of The Office from the seat of my gym.

some snow comes to denver

Perhaps slacking on homework can have it's rewards too! I got up early today to polish off my medical terminology homework and woke up to a beautiful snowy morning! The only real sitting place in my apartment is the bar type counter in my kitchen, which just so pleasantly happens to be situated next to a big window.


I've been struggling with liking Denver lately, with the huge lack of my closest friends being the biggest downfall of the city, but I have to say when it snows here my mood is lifted. The nice thing about Denver is that in between snowfalls the weather is pretty temperate, and for the most part the snow melts. Every time we have a new snowfall it's like the first snow of the season, pretty white flakes that cover everything and aren't hiding gray, sloppy, muck underneath it all like in a certain state in which I used to reside. It always feels like the beginning of winter, and since it doesn't drag on (unless you count two days as dragging) it's like the best of both worlds! I didn't expect this kind of winter here. I suppose I didn't really expect much of anything in the three days between deciding to move here and then actually moving here, but I sure do like it. Most times it feels like spring, with a couple of windy fall-like days sprinkled in between days like these.

I've been putting in my time studying medical terminology this semester, and I find it really interesting! It's funny to come across conditions and diseases that people I know have had, and be able to break them down into word parts that mean so much to me now! I keep wanting to pick up the phone and pepper my dad with questions that don't even really mean anything but are illuminating when I put all the pieces together. Mostly I'm writing a little list (my specialty, especially when put on a notecard!) of things like what kind of break Micah's arm was during his skateboarding accident and what kind of plates they put in because I just read about them both, or what kind of treatment my mom had and what type of choices were out there. In my head I liken it to my french studies in which I would sometimes have a realization about a common french phrase that I used everyday and how the actually words broke down in meaning. Maybe that doesn't make sense, but one phrase is "je ne sais pas" meaning "I don't know". I obviously learned that one right away and put it to good use, but one day I realized it wasn't just a mash up phrase, it was in fact just the negative of je sais. Writing that down sounds silly, but I guess I just mean that words, especially medical words, that are just tossed around take on new meaning to me when they are broken down or actually applied to something tangible even if it's just in my little student brain.

a productive weekend

This blog is increasingly becoming a document-my-bike-life blog, but for now (and now and now and now until JUNE) that's what has become of my brain space other than chemistry and medical terminology which I think, and know from my textbooks, would be much more boring to read about so biking is what you get! This weekend I brought the bike in to get some clipless pedals and to have my bike fitted for me. I am realizing more and more that I am crossing over into an entirely new arena of bike life. I know bikes reasonably well I think. I can fix my bike when something goes wrong and can tinker around a bit to troubleshoot. I now know that I don't know anything about the kind of biking I am about to embrace. There are so many WORDS I don't know, and things about training and specialized gear and clothing and, and I can't even think of everything I don't know! It's a wonder I can even still pedal! I guess I'll just learn it bit by bit, just like everything else. The bit I learned yesterday, while I was skipping chemistry lecture shhhh it was sunny, was about clipping in and out. I figured I would probably tank onto my face once before the reality of clipping my feet onto my bike actually hit me. punny. BUT it wasn't so bad! I felt a lot stronger, like I was making the most of my energy, and, although it was weird to try to pull away and not have my foot follow suit, I think I am really going to like it! It also probably doesn't hurt that my bike shoes are super sweet and red. It should come as no surprise that I will once again be a flag.

In other exciting news I took my first two tests of the semester, and didn't choke! It's nice to get those first few out of the way, and even nicer to feel confident about them. I've got my first chemistry exam next Tuesday, so wish me luck!