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Aug. 19th, 2008 @ 01:15 am like a whirlpool, it never ends
feeling: blank
i'm inspired. almost... too inspired...

i went to JoAnn Fabrics today. i bought two t-shirts, an owl patch, two stackable storage containers, a super-cute sewing basket, a sewing magazine, a couple of frames (including one that says "meow"), some sewing machine needles and a couple pairs of scissors.

i want to design and make clothes. i mean REALLY. like, i want to go into the clothing design biznis. but there are some major roadblocks.

1) i'm not going to move to NYC.
2) Matt's not going to move to Canada.
3) i can't change my major yet again.
4) i'd want to go into business with Nay, who has about as many designs as Diane and Betsey combined, but she'll be a pharmacist and probably living in Vancouver.
5) i would have to be on crack for this to work. y'know, be ultra-confident and pompous.

and that's another thing. i'm inspired, but not motivated. i'm spending my money on dreams, not goals or realities.

and to top it off, i went to bed almost 3 hours ago, and got out of bed almost 2 hours ago.
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goat
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Aug. 10th, 2008 @ 11:50 pm Brandolyyyyyn!
feeling: accomplished
( i just fixed my toilet. what have *you* done? )
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zoidcab
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Jul. 28th, 2008 @ 09:17 am most xtreme sarcasm
I was just reading through recent and relatively recent (the last 40) entries in [info]mock_the_stupid, and I came across a post in which I made a particularly amusing comment.

The post ends with a poorly constructed sign:


a commenter said she was most upset by the apostrophe in "want's". another replied, and i followed.

[info]vagentzero: After all, we know that the apostrophe is a punctuation mark used to alert the reader "look out, there's an 's' coming!"

[info]str8_edge_4ever: imagine my shock when i saw the word "don't".

D... in lowercase, it looks like an upside-down Q, or a rotated P
O... i like that letter. so round and comfy...
N... i like the slanty-ness of this letter
'... ooh, look! an S is coming! hold on to your hats for the curve of a lifetime!!!
T... what the?! T?! what the shit is this crap?!?!

the end.

more tomorrow, maybe.
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deafgod
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Jul. 25th, 2008 @ 02:30 am Writer's Block: Phobias
feeling: sleepy
Tags:


Do you have a remarkable phobia? Does your phobia have a large impact on your life?

Submitted by [info]bitter_melodee


View other answers


I am so deathly afraid of drowning that i'm 24 and only started to learn how to swim last year, being taught by my husband. When my mother tried teaching me many years ago (when i was 10 and younger), i refused to learn. I complained that i couldn't relax because i was too afraid of drowning. I couldn't float, i couldn't tread; i constantly needed to feel the bottom of the pool while my head was above water. The only way i could let myself float was if i were holding on to qqc that couldn't sink, like an inner tube or the edge of the pool.

Last weekend Matt and I went to his parents' house for a couple hours. In their round pool, I dog-paddled back and forth a couple times. I was proud of myself and so was Matt.

I can never take swimming lessons because I will never be able to trust the instructor. They offered swim at Matt's high school, which i almost went to. I had asked him if one could get out of taking that part of gym class. He said one could, with a doctor's note. I commented that mine would be from a psychiatrist. "Please excuse Claire from swim class. She will never trust you to prevent her from drowning. Don't even try to warm up to her. She sees you as a threat to her life. Thank you for attempting to understand."

And just for a random twist, i used to be afraid to read 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea because i thought a league was a measurement of depth. My theory was, "If something goes wrong, they're all going to die. They'll never make it back to the surface in time." The movie U-571 freaked me out a few times because of underwater damage. I was okay with The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen though.
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boat eggs
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Jul. 1st, 2008 @ 11:03 am it's all about books!
feeling: accomplished
The Big Read thinks the average adult has only read six of the top 100 books they've printed below.

1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read
3) Underline the books you LOVE.
4) Reprint this list in your own LJ so we can try and track down these people who've read only six and force books upon them.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (i've also seen the movie and the play)
6 The Bible (parts of it)
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (some works)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams (i think this will be the next book i read)
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame (Mr ____ needs a ____ to ____ his ____.)
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - C.S. Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (from A.A. Milne to ZZ Top)
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell (oh god do i love this book)
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood (this one too. one of my top 5.)
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (i own it. i saw the play instead.)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck (saw the play too. the play had a more violent ending than expected. instead of blackout-bang-fall, it was bang-fall-blackout.)
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones' Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett (i've read parts of it and would like to read the whole thing.)
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (IIRC)
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery (the movie is fricking creepy.)
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams (in 6th grade)
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl (pretty much anything by Roald Dahl gets a "love this book" rating)
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
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deweydecimal
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May. 30th, 2008 @ 01:48 pm omgwtfbaby

Let's say you're a hobgoblin for 24 hours. What sort of havoc would you wreak?

Or:

If a baby of unknown origins suddenly fell into your care, would you keep it? What would you name it?


View other answers


"Here you go, Colleen." (my mother-in-law, for those reading Writer's Block responses)

she can't wait to have grandchildren.
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avi
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Apr. 21st, 2008 @ 12:14 pm do some damn research
feeling: crushed
National Geographic just put out a special called "Inside Straight Edge". I thought it would be great, informative, and bring me to tears.

In one of the LJ communities i belong to, someone asked if it's online (as they don't have cable), and then asked for people's thoughts on the special. Here's my comment in full, minus an introductory sentence:

Big problems:
1) the only female who spoke during the entire show was a straight edge kid's ALCOHOL-DRINKING CIGARETTE-SMOKING MOTHER. WHAT. THE. FUCK.
2) the only bands mentioned were xAFBx and Minor Threat. i saw two instances of In My Eyes merchandise, which made me happy because i think they're awesome and the singer has a great voice. excuse me, but Snapcase is from my hometown and Earth Crisis is from Syracuse, just down the highway a couple hours, to name only a couple of locals. when discussing the militant side, why not quote from "Ultramilitance"?
3) straight edge is world-wide, as they said, but they only went to Boston and Reno.

Not-as-Big Problems:
1) i have no tattoos. someday i'll probably get a couple of sXe related ones, but they seemed to make a big deal out of tattoos being a part of the movement.
2) i don't think any of my friends consider themselves to be straight edge. my husband doesn't drink or do drugs and never will, but he's not into the music that much. i can't hang out with people at school and talk about straight edge fun times, because there's no one i know of with whom to talk about it. i can't hang out with band members because i'm shy and would feel like i'm trying too hard to fit in.
3) am i supposed to have enough sXe clothes for every day of the week so everyone around me always knows what i am? if i'm dressed in a suit and wearing chandelier earrings, does that make me less sXe?

okay, i think that's enough.
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chairleg
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Mar. 24th, 2008 @ 06:18 pm USA! USA! USA!
feeling: disappointed
US military Iraq toll hits 4,000


and here's an article with words from President Jalal Talibani, along with other Iraqi government officials, regarding five years of war.
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suppository
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Mar. 19th, 2008 @ 04:46 pm mission accomplished... only not... now watch this drive!
feeling: aggravated
I've compiled a disturbing summary of an article on BBC.co.uk. It regards Bush's 5th anniversary speech. This summary includes only the title, the subheader, and the last paragraph of each section.

Bush speech hails Iraq 'victory'
Overthrowing Saddam Hussein was "the right decision", US President George W Bush said in a speech to mark the fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.

"The costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq," he said.

He made no reference to the fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq - a major justification for launching the war.

Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz calculates that the war will cost $3 trillion (£1.5 trillion) once health care for veterans and future economic losses are considered.

And near the northern city of Kirkuk, US troops shot dead three Iraqi policemen by mistake, an incident officials described as "a tragic accident, which was sincerely regretted".


the whole article
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earthtrash
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Feb. 29th, 2008 @ 03:45 am chemistry fun times!
feeling: contemplative
After coming home from the grocery and putting stuff away, I proclaimed to Matt, "We have a chemist's kitchen!"

In our cleaning closet, which would be a utility closet were not the tool kit and related items in a different closet, there are the following items:

two spray bottles of clear liquid
three glass jars of white powder

They are clearly marked in several different ways (i have yet to mark down the pH factors), because the items are the following chemicals:

acetic acid
boric acid
isopropanol
magnesium sulfate
sodium bicarbonate

for christ's sake, do not mix B(OH)3 with NaHCO3.
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unspeakable horror
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Feb. 28th, 2008 @ 04:48 pm why NPR rocks in its entirety
feeling: amused
I couldn't pass up posting this immediately! XD

I'm updating my bookmarks folder, including cleaning and news websites. I'm at NPR's online news quiz, "Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!", which is also a weekly radio show. This is the question I just answered.

The state of Maryland is considering whether to give residents the official green light to do what they're already doing. What legislative distinction is under review?
= Making cereal the state breakfast food.
= Making walking the state exercise.
= Making gardening the state outdoor hobby.
= Making dogs the state pet.

Need a Hint? (i forget the exact words for the hint, but it had to do with "by going out to get the mail, you're doing something for your community".)


Making walking the state exercise
Everybody is getting in line to honk the horn of the "let's all exercise" bandwagon, and State Senator Verna Jones doesn't want the state of Maryland to be left out. Accordingly, she's trying to get walking declared the official state exercise. While Jones has run into objections that walking is perhaps a little pedestrian (we are very, very sorry... we couldn't resist) to be a state symbol, she insists the virtues of walking justify the designation.

An informal poll conducted by telephone revealed that 12 percent of Maryland residents supported the bill, 23 percent opposed it, and 65 percent refused to get up to answer the phone.

ba-dum bum ching!
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lookgood
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Jan. 20th, 2008 @ 02:05 pm omgwtf
feeling: loved
MARRIED!!!

I love you, Arick! :-) Thank you so much for not playing crappy music! But what happened to Susudio???

thank you all for your warm wishes!
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ogrekitty
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Jan. 12th, 2008 @ 12:32 am the little things
feeling: zuh?
i've just been informed that something i do creeps out Matt.



guess what it is.





nope, he's creeped out by the way i dance. thank you, daft punk! i've now found out that i can never go to a rave or a goth club with him.
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buh
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Jan. 5th, 2008 @ 11:49 am oh god two weeks!
feeling: sick
plus i have a bad headache, a mother who is criticizing my choice in photographer because of the cost (of quality), dishes to wash, clothes to wash, music to distribute, a limo to reserve, bills to pay, and other crap.

i'm going to go and rest. i woke up less than an hour ago.

*sigh*
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leela&al
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Nov. 29th, 2007 @ 02:41 am a quick one before bed
Happy Birthday, Nay-Nay! beaky! (^,^)

I hope Beth is feeling better. I hope Pumpkin is batting her in the face with a foofy orange tail and kitten paws.

Free concert at Slee Hall on North Campus today at 8pm! Chorus and choir singing fun times!

My hands are getting that weird bumpy dryness.

My house, particularly the kitchen cupboard, is colder than it should be. We need to put up plastic over the windows.

The invitations will go out this weekend.

foof.
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futuramakids
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Nov. 2nd, 2007 @ 10:36 pm random thing
I decided to see how the Facebook group "1,000,000 Strong for Steven T. Colbert" was doing, and I saw on the discussion board something that said, "Why are all white people racit?" [sic]

I noticed it had over four thousand comments, so i went through the first few posts. First of all, apparently this person meant to say "racit", because, and i quote, "Racit is the new word for racist people, get in the game." Of course, this is because the poster apparently made the entry on Urban Dictionary. Then I saw he had at least one, maybe two people on his side, justifying his comments.

But moving away from that stupidness, one of the possible cronies wrote something, and I wanted to share with you how i would respond to it.

Everyone is racist a little bit. I mean, if you had a choice to enter three rooms, one full of blacks, one full of whites, one full of asians, which would you choose?

I hope this is another way of saying "negroid", "caucasoid", and "mongoloid", because there are people out there who are not black, white, or asian. The question is poorly worded too, because it switches from having four options (one being "to enter three rooms") to not being a complete sentence. But as for which room would i choose?

I would close my eyes, spin around, and stumble into a room without knowing.

I've heard another related question, where you're walking down a dark street alone and two scruffy guys are walking in the opposite direction. The one on the other side of the street is of your race, and the one on your side is of a different race. Do you cross the street?

What the shit kind of question is that?! Some people are just pathetic.

Well, time for Simpsons.
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shaddap
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Sep. 28th, 2007 @ 04:03 am you can shoot her in the face with a rocket launcher!
01. Person who tagged me: Katey
02. Relationship with her: musicals in high school, then eventually singing at UB. she'll be singing at my wedding with 7 other people.
03. 5 impressions of her: intelligent, amusing, linguistic, spunky, and proper
04. Most memorable thing done for me: uh.... i dunno. perhaps came to my house for corn and mario party. it was nice because it was randomly arranged.
05. Most memorable words for me: will be sung.
06. If become my lover: No, the words are, "If you wanna be my lover"
07. If become lover, things to improve are: does... not... compute...
08. If become enemy: aroo, whoever created this just made my Enemies list.
09. Reason become enemy: because they're stupid and can't form coherent sentences.
10. Most desirable thing to do for her now: this is so weird, but it's ok because the time now is almost 4:15... in the morning... um... she'd probably like breakfast delivered to her door when she woke up, but i don't know her address off the top of my head.
11. Overall impression of her: turtley.
12. How I think people will feel about me: i have no idea anymore. authoritative, maybe?
13. The characteristic I love about myself: my voice
14. The characteristic I hate about myself: my love of pillows, especially when tired.
15. Most ideal person that I want to be: energetic and hard-working
16. Say something to the people you care about: *beep!*
17. Pass on to 6 people who you want to know how they feel about you.
(1) Arick
(2) Zoe
(3) Zack
(4) Nay
(5) Fuzz
(6) Caitlin



ABOUT THE TAGGED PEOPLE:

18. (6) relationship with you: former roommate, now living in my mom's house in New Orleans
19. (1) male/female: male housewife
20. Is (4) studying: unfortunately for her, yes. for two exams.
21. Last time you chatted with (3): um, when i met her at Skinny Puppy in Toronto.
22. (5) likes what music?: i should know this, but i don't. i'll guess anything chinese.
23. Will I woo (3): not wise for me or for her.
24. How about (1): no, but i'm sure Matt will try to.
26. Surname of (6): 53570k45
27. Hobby of (4): drugs. er, i mean, pharmacology. also birds. and crafts.
28. (5) & (2) get along well: they don't know each other at all. they would probably get along tho, especially after spring roll fun times.
29. Something casual about (1): two of him weigh less than one of Matt.
30. Tried developing feelings for (3): apparently this thing wants a relationship btwn the poster and whoever was chosen for #3.
31. (5) lives at: Chez Fuzz
32. What colour does (6) like: i'm thinking light blue.
33. (3) likes (1): as a friend and a supervisor
34. How I knew (2): through livejournal as a super-intelligent middle-schooler posting in MTS and u_make_lj_suck
35. (5) got pets: no idea.
36. No (1)'s sexiest person: Beth. or Venom. :-P
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stillhavezoid
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Sep. 7th, 2007 @ 02:05 am Frightworld is looking for actors and other peons!
er, people. yeah, that's what i meant...

go to Arick's post for much more information!

if you're creeped out by his icon, remember, this is the guy who will be doing music for my reception. and he'll wear something like that. muahahaha!!!
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brokenactor
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Sep. 3rd, 2007 @ 05:51 pm in the jungle, the creepy jungle, Homer rides a freeeeak!
feeling: creative
School is okay so far. I was falling asleep on friday, but hopefully things will even out and i won't go to bed so late on thursday... or ever. I blame it on how different my schedule is from Matt's, as he doesn't normally feel tired until 2 in the morning.

Ma has been helping out with wedding stuff. The latest plans? Out-of-town guests will stay at the Holiday Inn on Delaware Ave, where the reception will be. No clue where food will come in. Maybe Prima? It's certainly a possibility, since I wanted a buffet anyways, and I lurve pasta.

Also, my dress will be made too. I found an "average" difficulty Butterick pattern that I really like.

I think I'll go to JoAnn's soon. Like, when I'm done with this entry. Lemme check the ad... {shrugs} I don't see anything about restricted hours. Cool. I bought fabric swatches -- a dark purple and a light purple that go together.

Arick, you made me pout this weekend.

I have so much laundry to do.

Bridal show this sunday, the 9th, from noon to 4!

beaky. more pro'ly later tonight.
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coilette's pantsuit
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Aug. 13th, 2007 @ 11:03 pm first fall! (i'm ok)
Sadly, I've been lagging with cycling in general this summer, but I finally biked to work yesterday! Ogre and I had consecutive shifts, so he drove there, I biked there, he got picked up by Chase to go to a family thing, and I drove back home. Today he dropped me off, then later drove, then I biked home, and soon he'll be driving home.

There, that clears up any confusion and no longer implies that I slept at work. :-)

The way I went home involves going over an expressway and some railroad tracks. I coasted down the overpass, and apparently didn't realize just how fast I was going. I saw up ahead that I would have to turn in order to get off the sidewalk via an apron. I gripped on the brakes, came to a halt and, as far as I could tell, flew sideways off my 2003 Giant Cypress into some thick grass.

When I got up, I noticed that both my water bottle and my squishy seat cover had also flown off. I was amused.

Luckily, I was not injured too badly. My wrists ached and I almost skinned my knees. Also, the grass stains came out in the wash.

Most importantly, my Cypress is ok. ^_^
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shelly
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