Five Boros Bike Tour, NYC

Damp yet cheerful siblings at a rest stop, foraging for bananas amongst the madding crowd. We also ate more cheesy snack crackers than any one human being ought.

Under a bridge somewhere. We went over, under, around and through many of them. The Verezano bridge was pretty cool, I think. It was a little too cloudy and I was having a little too much fun trying to go fast on the bike to really tell.

People. Sooooo many people. With soooo many bikes. Had to shut down my 'personal space' monitors and just embrace the masses. Although I will not ever get over hearing 7 year old with Long Islands accents.

Went to NYC for the 5 Boro Bike Tour - they close off 42 mi of New York streets for 30,0o0 bikers, and route you through all 5 boros, over bridges, through parks, and onto the Staten Island ferry. Awesome in concept, and pretty cool in reality. Some logistics issues, some 'people are morons' issues (like screaming "LEFT!" and cutting across 12 bikes worth to get to the other side of street, or getting off your bike and walking it because there is a 15 foot 2 degree incline), and some pouring rain/hypothermia issues. But it was a great adventure, and pretty cool to be seeing the city from that perspective.
A friend loaned me his old cyclocross bike, which he is trying to sell me. Smartest thing to do if you want someone to buy your bike - I fell in love with that thing. It outclasses me in all ways, and makes me feel like a poser, but man I feel like a FAST poser. And I felt super slick slinging it over turnstiles in the subway. Never knew what a difference a bike could make. Now my beloved Kaitai feels like a tank, and I think I have to buy the cyclocross bike, even though I am unlikely to ever use it as intended.

Brett - who got me into this ride in the first place and is using Jedi mind tricks to get me to buy his bike. It's working.

4 women, one Temptation, and one Top

There's an annual concert here on campus where they bring in some big name acts and have a "semi-formal" for students, faculty, staff, parents... 4 of us decided to make a girls night of it (since most of the guys we know wouldn't have danced anyway). The Four Tops & The Temptations! Actually, in terms of original members, it was a Top and a Temptation, but they were still ridiculously fun. Spring is here - gorgeous weather, school almost done, and everyone is in a great, if impatient (to be done) mood! Nothing much to caption the pictures with that isn't obvious - we were very silly and had very much fun.

Storming Arizona

That's what we did. Yup. The ragingest spring break ever undertaken by three women. Who never bathed, wore the same sweaty clothes every day, went to bed at 7:30pm every night and slept for about 12 hours. Except me, because I was busy finding creative ways to rid my skull of assorted forms of mucus (head cold/sinus infection. which has since re-homed in my chest. again.), so I "slept" in the car where gravity could help...
Oh drama drama. It was an amazing trip - I can't imagine how much fun it would have been if I were healthy! As it was, we fit in the following:

• Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum
• Sycamore Canyon (Nogales)
  
• Chiricahua National Monument
• Chiricahua State Forest (Coronado State Forest?)
• Saguaro National Park
• Sunshine. Hail. Big moon. Tortillas. Ice cream. Red raspberry Panda licorice. Staggering quantities of Irish Oatmeal. Obscene banana/tortilla/peanut butter/honey lunches. Rescuing lost children. 2 feet of snow. 9,500ft elev. ~10mi/day hiking. Not witnessing a single sunset. Buddha disguised as the world's fattest prairie dog. A profound and perhaps nearly troubling obsession with skorts.

Heather and Megan were outrageously patient with sickly me (at one point, I said the only thing I wanted was permission to complain once an hour. And even skipped a few hours). And, cross fingers, I don't think they got sick. Below are an assortment of pics. Will add more as I get them. I am exhausted but happy, and only wish we could have at least a week for spring-break recovery before classes start on Monday (and maybe I'll throw and extra wish in there - to get my voice back in time for lecture....)

Miscellaneous Pics from Winter Days...

Getting into the swing of the semester. Teaching non-major's Bio in the morning, then whirling around to teach upper level Endocrinology in the afternoon makes me feel a little schizophrenic, but I love the different audiences. In the meantime, when I'm not pretending to be professional, have been entertaining myself with the dogs, yoga & pilates DVDs (went a class with about 40 lithe and limber 20y.o. athletes and decided I had a permanent date with my DVD player), climbing gym, and a standing Joss Whedon night dates with friends (Buffy, Firefly, and anticipating Dollhouse)... I know. I live right up there on the edge with this outrageous lifestyle of mine.

Met up with Letty, who was in NYC in between the inauguration and her return to Brazil. Halfway between us was the town of Delaware Water Gap, so we each drove for 1.5hrs for lunch and a walk in the woods... I love/miss my old friends.

Letty, Misha & I vying for the camera in Delaware Water Gap.

The Water Gap diner. Where they don't serve reubens no matter what the menu says.

My 'second family'. They pretty much adopted me, to my deep gratitude. I just about have my name engraved on one of their couch cushions. And they usually just plan on feeding me a few times a week... The girls have introduced me to "Veggie Tales" and now I am singing love songs to cheeseburgers.

Parting shot - my real source of sanity/happiness these last few months....

Venturing further East....

Lured Eastward by a conference in Boston - a chance to see old friends from grad school. An amazing concentration of Seattle folks there. Incredibly good for my sanity to spend time with some of my closest friends from those days. Turns out none of us have changed much - just tack on a career or spouse and some kids. It was both inspiring and terrifying, science-wise. There are a whole pile of talented, productive, motivated folks out there looking for the same jobs...

I fled an impending ice storm and headed to the coast to see some friends currently living in Newport, RI. I won't start in on how much I miss the coast - a couple days scoping out boats, smelling salt, tracking sand everywhere and enjoying the wind instilled a little bit of landlocked panic at the thought of heading back to central PA, but was well worth it. Am also a fully converted fan of "stuffies" - quahog clam minced with chorizo and other goodness and smooshed back into the shell for a good bake...

Beth and I checking out old America's Cup boats and trying to avoid being blown into Narragansett Bay

Waiting for our stuffies and bisque...

Back with a few days before classes start - I'm pretty sure that Christmas break should be at least 2 months...

2009: Bring It.

Misha embraces the carnage of a slain wrapping paper tube in the true spirit of Christmas

Won't wax philosophical/poetic/symbolic, but it's nice to have a numerical change (2008->2009) to coincide with all the other transitions I seem to be immersed in. The dogs and I have big plans for a busy year, well-punctuated with good long walks, wrassling matches and rumpus sessions. Hope you are all feeling fired up by 'the fierce urgency of now', and that the new year brings good things on all conceivable levels...