Nov

30

Embarassing Childhood Music Selections

Category: enjoy the blog, family | 8 Comments

My first record was Air Supply, the song that was about Love out of Nothing At All or something. Five-year-old Courtenay was brought to tears every time she heard it for some reason. At 8, i got to buy 2 tapes for a plane ride, I chose Billy Idol's Rebel Yell and a Whitney Houston tape where she was bald on the front. I wasn't sure if she was a boy or a girl.My brother loved Bette Midler's Wind beneath my Wings so much that he had the whole tape. This was when he was 10 years old, an age at which he should have known better...But we still turned out OK somehow.I ...
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Nov

29

Home

Category: enjoy the blog | 4 Comments

I am home again. The plane ride back from Hawaii was amusing - in front of me was "one of THOSE women". The type who is very self centered and thus loud, self-righteous, and annoying in small spaces such as airplanes. I guess she tried to go to the bathroom in First Class, although at the beginning of the flight us coach folks were informed that we had our own bathrooms and don't even try to go to first class, anyway OOTW went up there, got sent back by the flight attendant, and then OOTW stormed back, came up with some story about how the staff shoved her, got her husband to yell at the coach flight attendants, basically got ...
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Nov

27

I can get used to Vacation

Category: enjoy the blog | 2 Comments

I have fallen into a lovely pattern here in Hawaii. Get up, look out the window to verify that it's another beautiful day in paradise, go for a run, put on sunscreen, go to the beach, look at the clouds, listen to some hawaiian reggae, put on more sunscreen, hang out with my brother, all at a leisurely pace (except the training of course...). I met these two really cool girls visiting from New York, we went to the beach together and talked, amongst other things, about how they could ditch the city and make a new life in Hawaii. This was on Friday. At the time I was thinking about how lucky I am to live in the Bay ...
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Nov

26

Confused

Category: enjoy the blog | Leave a Comment

Why are the highways in Hawaii called Interstates? Does the Queen Liliuokalani Freeway go through Oregon too or something? (if you look at the photo you can see that at the top of the H-1 sign it says "interstate")

Nov

25

Conversation with Mom #2

Category: enjoy the blog, family, ma says... | Leave a Comment

So yesterday morning, I called my mom to wish her a happy Thanksgiving. I had just woken up. Since it is 5 hours later in Maryland than it is in Hawaii, she had not just woken up. She had been up for approximately 100 hours fixing dinner...me: hey ma um happy thanksgiving.Sal: HI SWEETIE! HAPPY THanksGIVing!me: whoa. thanks.Sal: SO, is it a BEAUTiful day in PARAdise?!me: ma i just woke up. i don't know.Sal: WELL, why don't you look out the WINDow?!I should have had breakfast before calling her. But anyway, it was indeed a beautiful day in paradise, as was today. ...
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Nov

24

7 a.m. at Hanauma Bay

Category: enjoy the blog | Leave a Comment

This morning we got up at 5:30 (believe it Ma, we did!) and went swimming with all kinds of lovely fishies. Here is my brother getting in the water a little after sunrise.

Nov

23

Victim of something?

Category: enjoy the blog | 2 Comments

So I am here in Hawaii. Which means beach time, and like most girls (I think), donning a bikini and walking around in public is kinda scary because bikinis don't have much fabric for covering and concealing one's less desirable body characteristics. Add to the normal insecurities my NOT very attractive cyclist's "tan."And then, to this collection of self-consciousness, also add the fact that my legs make me look like either a domestic abuse victim or a bad ballboy at a tennis match.What happened? How did I get 10 bruises on the side of my leg? It was either the cross race, or bike polo, ...
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Nov

23

Thanksgiving in Hawaii

Category: enjoy the blog | 1 Comment

My first full day in Hawaii included a hike along the ridge behind Than's house, a swim and a some sun at Kailua (including a sea turtle and a little girl posing for her parents), a large Thanksgiving gathering in Hawaii Kai... ...and a lovely sunset:

Nov

19

BASP #4 - Golden Gate Park Cyclocross and The Big W (Finally!)

Category: enjoy the blog | 5 Comments

Today was the race in the Golden Gate Park. I may be slightly biased, but I thought this year's course was even better than the previous two years'. And doing something so hard while in a place as beautiful as the park is much more gratifying than racing in a football parking lot! Like at MacLaren Park, I got a good start, and then came grinding to a halt upon hitting the dirt. I have no idea how, but for some reason I dropped my chain. However, this time I had the benefit of Dustin's excellent adjustment of my third-eye and my front derailleur, so the chain did not go into no-man's land and I was able to fix it ...
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Nov

19

Why? pt. 2

Category: enjoy the blog | Leave a Comment

Why do I race? Because I enjoy it. It is a physical enactment of the internal questions and challenges I present to myself, the proverbial "what is the meaning of life..." Or, more directly, how can I make myself happy? Both on and off the bike, I am happy when I feel challenged and then successful. Racing is a challenge, it's one of the hardest things I have done. I bring all this up because a couple of weeks ago, I wasn't exactly sure why I race my bike. I posted a blog about it, discussed it with a few friends, and did a lot of thinking. I realized that, during this past road season, I somehow allowed ...
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