Sunday, April 29, 2007

The Tin Man Triathlon.

I did a triathlon relay today, which was pretty fun. It is apparently a fairly famous triathlon, or at least draws some pretty decent triathletes for early season stuff. I had met the swimmer on the team at least 5 times, but couldn't remember ever meeting the runner, so I was kinda wandering around thinking "How am I supposed to ask who this kid is?" Our swimmer is a fellow senior, and the runner was a freshman, and we did the co-ed relay.
It was a 1kish swim, 30k ride, and 10k run. She swam, I rode, and he ran.
According to the official clock I had the fastest bike leg, but on out computers my friend and local riding partner (age about 40) was faster.
It was for me to put on my Veloshop skinsuit and ride as fast as I could again.

My team won the co-ed relay event, and we also had the fastest overall time.

It was fun. I then went out to dinner with the family, and had a real brute-force Minnesota kind of dinner, with steak, prime rib, ribs, potato skins.

I felt better after the race.

I will probably drive down to the cities tomorrow, stay the night, and then, on Monday, I go back to Portland!

Saturday, April 28, 2007

Birthday.

I spent my 18th birthday kickin' it out here on the Prairie!
I went to lunch with the family, rode the triathlon course one last time, and then went to help out at the performance that my mom and her Opera Workshop class put on.
It was all not miserable, but it wasn't really how I had planned on spending my 18th birthday.

And on top of all that!!!! I have to go to bed early because I have to get up early to race tomorrow.

At least I will be in Portland on Monday!

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Tis the season to be jolly.

My dentists appointment was actually today, so I got there about 10 minutes late. I hadn't had anything in Japan, so I had two cavities, which I got fillings for. I got novacained, but for some reason, my teeth hurt some.

I bought tickets. I leave here on Monday, get into Portland about 4:30.
I then leave Portland to visit my older brother at Stanford on the 6th of May. I got a one-way ticket to San Fransisco, so I will see what happens with that.

Looking forward to getting out of here, but don't really know what to do. I have been fighting with my dad a lot recently, not really sure why.

Been trying to think ahead a little, but I can't see very far. I don't even want to go back to school anymore.

I'm not really sure what I am supposed to do.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Lost.

I had an eye exam yesterday. It was really weird. They dilated my pupils, and I got to wear these ugly sunglasses for the rest of the day. I also went to the chiropractor that day. I am working on my posture.

I woke up this morning, rode my bike for 2 hours, came home, shower, and went out again. I went to look for glasses. I am getting prescription reading glasses, because apparently I am far-sighted. That's funny, I always tried to think in the present.
I went and picked up 5 rolls of film that I had dropped off. I couple good ones, but nothing great. Having not taken a photo class since 7th grade at MLC (which almost doesn't count) that eye exam really gave me an eyes on experience of working with aperture. wow. bright.

Sat around the house for a while, didn't really do anything very exciting, which is almost to be expected. My mom got home, and then we went to look at glasses again. We just picked the frames, and they put in the lens that the prescription calls for. I wanted the Gucci rims, which was getting back at my mom for making me stay here for so long. Who pays $250 for Gucci rims?!?!?!?! I should get my glasses on Friday.

I might go riding tomorrow, or not, haven't decided yet. I will go rock climbing at the gym in the evening.

Thursday I go to the dentist. Maybe more training.

Friday is my 18th birthday. My family was out of town for my 16th birthday, and I had to make my own cake. I was in a really lousy situation in Tokyo for my 17th birthday, and now, I have to spend my 18th birthday in rural Minnesota.

I have a triathlon on Saturday. I am doing the cycling leg. 19 miles on the prairie. Kinda boring, really windy.

Sunday, I might try to leave. I should probably buy my ticket tonight.

I was watching Lost in Translation. I stopped about half way through. It means something so much different to me than I could possibly imagine that it would effect one of you. That is to say, watching after you spend a year alone in Tokyo is much different than watching it without that experience.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Ug.

I am not doing super well here. No routine and really nothing to do with all of the free time, as well as all sorts of other things that I can't really describe because I can't really make up excuses for lots of dumb shit have not really been easy to deal with. I will, however, be out of here in about 10 days. I plan on going back to Portland for like a week, just to get settled, possibly reenrolled in school, and then go visit my older brother at Stanford.

Tomorrow makes one month back in the states. Not a proud achievement. I have barely ridden 200 miles, and haven't written calligraphy in like 3 weeks.
Speaking of calligraphy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKS8C-mqGg8

I haven't worked on my zoo, and have just about given it up. I did check out a book out from the library on architecture, which is the textbook for PSU's ARC100 class.
Not that I can read, or anything, but its fun to look at the pictures. Last week in went to Denver for my uncle's funeral. While I was there, I saw the new Denver Art Museum. This very nice LOOKING Daniel Libeskind building, but it has all of these odd angles on the outside, which makes for odd angles on the inside, which makes for really claustrophobic, lousy display places.

Big waste of titanium, too.

I have one eye appointment, one chiropractic appointment, one dentistry appointment, and one triathlon, and then I am done here.

Ug.

Friday, April 06, 2007

The Sandy-Muddy-Snowy-Icy Climbs of Minnesota turn me* on.

Me*: also known as my heart rate. Ugh, those are really tough!
I did not go cross country skiing the other day, because after I got home from my ride, I felt kinda sick, and spent all yesterday at home with a fever.
I woke up this morning, took my temperature, saw that it was over a hundred, and looked outside. It was absolutely gorgeous!
At this point, two things ran through my head. The first one had to do with allergies. what makes allergy medicine work is that it has cells from the allergen that the medicine is fighting. Since I was probably made sick by riding my bike in the snow, I figured it might be an OK idea to use the allergy medicine approach, and go for another ride.
The second thing was about my fever. Any idiot knows that a fever is when you are too warm, and outside is really cold, put hot and cold together, get normal, and in about 20 minutes I had all my bike stuff together and was out the door.
Rode for about 90 minutes of beautiful Minnesota fields and wilderness, had some really entertaining falls into the snow, some super-sketchy skidding on ice, really good feeling climbs up these hills, which though neither tall nor long, the surface is really difficult, and it just made me feel really good. I wish I had a smaller camera to have taken with me, because there were some really pretty scenes. One of my favorites was the impact that my bike and I made riding down this hill. There was this point on the hill, which I had noway of knowing about, where the depth of snow reached WAAAAY higher than where a bike can ride, my front wheel went under into the snow, and I went over the handlebars into like 2-foot deep snow. I had to dig my bike out from under the snow.
Jed-I am in the Morris area (AKA. Middle of Nowharea), and was wondering if you had any tips on how to get snow, ice, and frozen mud off of a bike?

Here is kinda the scoop with my living situations.
While I was in Japan, my family moved from Portland to Morris, Minnesota. However, I have plans on going back to Portland. I have thought about going back to school (graduating from high school is apparently a good idea), and maybe going to PSU part-time as well. I think I can still work for PDOT, so might actually be able to come back to Portland!

I am planning on coming back in the middle to end of May.

To all of my librarian friends: I think I missed the training, but can I still volunteer this summer?

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

Springtime in rural Minnesota.

I rode my bike for 4 hours through the cold and wind yesterday. It hurt really badly, but mostly my hands and lower back.
Then came today. Today was one of those days where any idiot in even their wrong mind would only venture for the necessary, but, as everyone who reads this blog knows, I am not your ordinary idiot. So, I woke up, got my bike ready, and rode through 4-5 inches of snow and ice for about an hour. I would have ridden more, but my waterbottles froze.

Bummer.

I will have to think of something else to do today.

Cross country skiing anybody?