the whilrwind that was september

Well, September, you are just about gone! Real life is turning out to be just as chaotic (in a much, much different way) than my life this summer. I suppose that's just how it goes, right? In any case, lots has been happening around here. But first, I will start with the one thing that hasn't been happening lately: my car. No word from anyone, although JP did think he spotted it on his way home from work the other day and stealthily followed it for a few blocks...alas it wasn't my car, just one of the thousands that look exactly like mine minus the good old MN rust and the snarky bumpersticker. I've let it go for the most part, and the insurance company will let it go as well this Thursday if it hasn't been found by then. Finding another vehicle for me should be interesting, and I am sure picture worthy as well, so don't think for a minute that I would leave you all out of the fun when the time comes.

What else...I passed my CNA recertification exam with flying colors!

Well, since it is just a pass/fail thing, I am left only to assume that the colors were flying, but either way I am done with the anxiety that comes with preparing for a practical exam with just youtube and some hastily scratched notecards. PHEW. The elise-goes-to-PA-school planets are finally starting to align and a job at a hospital is hopefully soon to come! Passing this exam of course just means that it is time to study for the next exam(s), which seem to be never ending. Luckily I am doing alright in my classes, and with no job for the moment I can use this time to start studying for the GRE. The fun just never ends when you are a perpetual student!

In other news, although you already know that I survived Hwy 50 in Nevada, otherwise known as The Loneliest Road in America, this summer, I now have Nevada's gift to me on my refrigerator to prove it:

and on my lapel (if I had one):

As part of the tourism schtick for Hwy 50, you can get a passport when you enter the sate and get a stamp for each of the towns along the route.

Since there was nothing else to do while in that state other than bike forever, I got my passport filled up and after moving and unpacking I found it at the bottom of my camelbak and mailed it in for a present from the state of Nevada. Somehow it redeems the state just a little bit, and it reminds me how proud I was of all of us for making it through such a challenging place in one piece.

Lastly, I have gotten in a bunch of family time lately. A few weekends ago I flew to Ohio for my cousin's wedding and had a great time catching up with everyone and getting to see my parents again for a few days! Weddings are my favorite, and growing up in an Irish Catholic family we went to four or five every summer. I got to see my cousins all the time! It's slowed down a lot since then, and the last wedding on that side of the family was over two years ago. Needless to say, it was a beautiful celebration and a much needed mini reunion of sorts to boot! I also got to see some cousins this past weekend in Boulder for Sep's third birthday! Molly and Phil and their little brood were in town from Chicago and we celebrated Sep's birthday with a picnic and a hike that for some included a bear sighting!

Here we are post-hike, but somehow without catching a glimpse of the bear that we apparently hiked right past..

So that's the compacted update for the past few weeks of settling back in. I am ready for fall to be here, and am getting in the mood for baking pumpkin bread and knitting some christmas presents. I'm plotting out my Halloween costume already, and am really excited about it! Oh, it is going to be great. I'll put up some pictures of the preliminary supplies and crafting soon so you can get in on the excitement as well.

surprise!

Well, I like surprises. I like gifts that I am not expecting, seeing people randomly that I haven't seen in a while, or class getting canceled out of the blue. Unfortunately, my most recent surprise was a bad surprise, and one that I have experienced once already. After wheeling my bike out the front door yesterday morning I looked up to an empty street. Well, it wasn't quite empty, empty. In fact it was quite full except for an elise's-car-shaped spot right at the end of the curb. My car was stolen! Yanked! Snatched! Borrowed indefinitely! Sad day. Some of you might remember back in 2003 when the same thing happened to my trusty old Buick Century that I inherited from my grandmother. This was back in the days of my culinary career and among the more frustrating things to be stolen with the car were my knives and some irreplaceable photos and letters. It was an irritating ordeal, and even though the car was finally recovered everything in it was wrecked when the thief decided to christen the by then ripped up upholstery with urine and beer and who knows what else. In the middle of a hot August. With all the windows shut for days. It was pretty gross. This time around I knew what to do and after a brief moment of brow furrowing and disappointment in humanity, I called the police to file a report, my insurance to file a claim and my sister for some indignant outrage. I'm not really sure why I haven't been more upset about the whole thing. Maybe it's because this summer I had so few possessions, and even those I did have weren't too relevant when I was reduced to the basic needs of simply eating and sleeping through ridiculous exhaustion. Maybe it's because I didn't have many things in my car that aren't replaceable, and I am so glad that was the case. I mostly just feel weirded out picturing other people in my car, probably drinking in it, hopefully not peeing in it, and generally being in my space. It's a disconcerting feeling. I suppose I will just have to wait and see how it all pans out.

home again, home again

I am back in Denver, back to the ol' real life again! It's been chaotic learning how to transition out of b&b mode and back into other things, odd to be able to get so much sleep and pick out what clothes I am going to wear that aren't the same clothes I wore the day before! Everything kind of happened at once when I got back. I missed the first week of school while I was in San Francisco, so I jumped into that pretty behind and confused. I forgot how much ground can be covered in a few lectures! I took some time this weekend to slowly catch back up and am starting to feel confident that I won't entirely bomb my exam tomorrow. I'm working on finding work again, trying to get my foot in the door at one of the hospitals in the area. In the meantime I've been babysitting for a few of the families I used to help out, and it's been nice to be back in the baby section of life again. All the kids grew so much while I was gone!

School stresses aside, things have been really busy but great! JP and I moved in together, which is a big step for both of us, and it's been fun! Well, the packing/moving/cleaning/scouring/driving all over portion wasn't fun, but that is all over and we now have so much space we can barely fill it up! I don't have many belongings with me in Colorado, as you might remember I moved here with just a car load of things last fall, and both JP and I were living in studios that didn't exactly leave much room for extraneous possessions. We are now in a 2 bedroom house and are gradually finding chairs to sit on (previous count = 1 computer chair from JP's desk), a table to eat at, and other necessities at the many thrift stores in the metro area. We've even got a yard now, which Yin is beyond excited about. She spends most of the day moving from sun patch to sun patch, just lounging about taking in the scenery. It's a pretty hard life.

One of the first things to unpack was my Grandma's owl that always hung in her kitchen and now hangs in mine.

My bike arrived shortly after I did, a little worse for the wear, but mostly fine.

Transition-wise, I think I am doing alright. I miss everyone, and am constantly reminded of the trip everyday, but I think it was the exact right amount of time and I was ready for the end when it came. We e-mail each other multiple times a day, are busy uploading pictures to facebook and are planning the reunions to come. It should be good.

San Francisco

After having San Francisco in the back of my mind for months on end, one would think that I would have been better prepared for the actual city upon arrival. While it is true to my nature to have planned things out way in advance, I left this one up to everyone else. I had no time or energy to really think about what I would do in San Francisco, but luckily my family had a lot of things they were looking forward to doing and so I got to tag along without having to put out much energy at all. This was also a fortunate plan of attack, as I was exhausted the whole time I was there! Guess that's what biking over 4,000 miles will do to you. We got out to the science museum and to a They Might Be Giants concert in the park, we ate lots of great food, strolled around a few different neighborhoods and drank copious amounts of coffee. It was a great vacation, with great people. It's pretty rare that we can all get together more then once a year, so it was extra nice that our schedules all lined up to be able to hang out for a few days!

VIP seating on a tree stump at the concert!

Packing her up definitely brought home the reality of the end of the summer..

After so much time picturing their faces to help me keep going, it was really odd to have them leave already!

WE DID IT!

We crossed the Golden Gate Bridge, and dipped our tires in the ocean! 4,200 some odd miles later our trip is finally completed! I don't really know how to describe what it felt like to see the bridge for the first time, and cross it all together. So many friends and family members were waiting on the other side to celebrate with us...it was absolutely amazing! What an overwhelming feeling, on so many levels, to have biked across the country and to end that trip in such a beautiful place. I was so lucky to have my whole family waiting for me on the beach, along with JP, the entire Altman family and an aunt and uncle! The thought of them being there really helped me push through the last week of riding, and I am so grateful they could all be there to help celebrate! I feel like anything I could write would just be inadequate so I will leave you with a couple pictures of the big day. Hopefully that will suffice!

That sign says "Golden Gate Bridge San Francisco"!

We almost never got to ride together in a big group, but on the last day we all waited for each other, and it was such a great feeling to see everyone all lined up together.

The bridge! We waited for everyone to arrive before crossing all together.



After our triumphant entrance, we dipped our tires, jumped in the freezing cold ocean, drank some champagne and promptly fell asleep on the grass.

So glad to see everyone and so happy to have finished such a challenging journey!

just rolling on through

I can't tell you how great it feels to be riding in California after slogging across Nevada. Yes the drivers are horrible, and the shoulders are still quite decorated with broken glass, but the energy is different, and the scenery is beautiful! We've been passing through wine country, seeing lots of vineyards and rolling hills. Climbing still, and taking some amazing descents, one of them was even a 13% grade! It's nice to not feel intimidated by whatever is ahead of us. We've got strength and endurance and resolve, even when it's really hard, we know we can do it and that's a really empowering feeling.

It's hot here! We took a break just outside a vineyard to catch some shade and eat a snack under a palm tree.

We have had some incredible lunch spots recently. The day we rode into Auburn we had two lunches, both at beautiful swimming spots. That almost never happens!

Spring Mountain, coming into Santa Rosa, was arguably the hardest climb we had all trip. It just kept going, with maybe an 11% grade sprinkled with turns that hit around 13%...it was insane, but getting to the top felt amazing. We waited in groups to cheer people up the last little bit.

Most of us drink a lot of coffee, but in CA we stopped often and lingered more then usual. Here's Robby and I outside a french cafe about 15 miles into the day.

californ-i-a!

We made it to CALIFORNIA!! We were welcomed to the state with the most anticlimactic sign that could ever be, but even that did little to take away from such a momentous occasion. California! The last state line! We made it all the way to California!! I think it was a little bit of a shock for all of us to see that sign. When you are on the road, it's really hard to think more then a few hours ahead and have those thoughts be very concrete. You just do it, and then do it, and then all of a sudden you're crossing into your last state. South Lake Tahoe is a beautiful place, and not only are we in California, we are also on the heels of our third and final day off. Spirits are definitely high. Here are a few pictures:

Nevada gave us one more long, hot climb as a going away present, but we handled it just fine.

Melon, Joel and I at the state line. If you squint a little you can see it!

Our day off was spent lazing about. We went to the beach, ate good food, watched the sunset and rocked some karaoke. I also got my bike fixed, and after crossing almost all of Nevada in granny gears it's amazing to be able to shift again! Only four days left until the trip is over, and I still can't believe how fast it's all gone! San Francisco, here we come!