Hi! I'm traveling to Dallas on the super-scenic route. Should be fun! I'll check in late in the week with photos and an account of my adventures.
Ciao!
mandy
Monday, May 26, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
I love The Internet
Because I discovered "Pushing Daisies", my new favorite show on the web. Which definitely makes me a hypocrite because I guiltlessly watched 4 episodes in the past 24 hours.
(And I claim America is lazy!)
Reason number 2 for loving the Internet: my Aunt Shirley. She recently discovered its bounty and, giggling, sends me gems like this:
(And I claim America is lazy!)
Reason number 2 for loving the Internet: my Aunt Shirley. She recently discovered its bounty and, giggling, sends me gems like this:
AFTER A SHORT STAY IN AMERICA
DAVID RETURNS TO EUROPE
A Gracious Champion
Georgia Gould never fails to impress me. She is a gracious winner, a classy competitor, and a treasure to the sport of bicycle racing. She will hopefully represent our country in Beijing on her mountain bike. And she throws down in ‘cross, too! 
I first meet Georgia when we formed the winning break in 2004 at a UCI Cyclo-cross race in Virginia. She was a welcome companion as we extended our lead over the chasers, and strong as heck. I attacked her on the last lap and rode solo to my first UCI victory (and did the dumbest finish line salute ever: Richard Nixon). She was gracious in defeat, and we chatted afterward. I learned that she was a first-year ‘crosser living in Idaho with her fiancé. I could envision a huge future for her.
I never beat her again. The closest I got was the next year on the same course when she rode to a solo win far ahead of me and Betsy Schauer, who I outsprinted for 2nd. Talking afterward, Georgia confessed that she was “only a cat 3 on the road” and hadn’t done much road racing. We (Cara and I) encouraged her to check it out, since the two of us did a majority of our racing on the road. She said she might.
I’m glad she didn’t. Mountain biking and Cyclo-cross is lucky to have her. She has podiumed at Cyclo-cross Nationals every year since 2005. She is a national champion on the mountain bike. She rocks the World Cup Mountain Bike circuit. She’s phenomenal.
Last weekend, she suffered heatstroke during a race in Santa Ynez, California. She’s recovering, but it definitely gave her some pause. I read her interview and was once again struck with how gracious and professional she is. She said she didn’t want her DNF to detract from Kelli Emmett’s victory that day. How pro is that? She’s lying in a hospital bed and has only wonderful things to say about her competition. You can accuse women’s racing of being a sewing circle. Go ahead. But I think that Georgia’s rare attitude is sorely lacking in a lot of arenas…not just cycling. I wish more people would think like that. To take a step back. To never begrudge someone a victory. To be positive.
Just like last weekend when Scott Zwizanski snuck to a solo victory in the Downtown Wilmington Criterium. You can accuse The Zwizza of sitting on in the break…but whatever. He did what he needed in the last lap and while Colavita and Kelly Benefits were watching each other, he attacked and powered home alone for the win. Good on ‘im. Love me some Zwizza.
But love him or not, I hope I never badmouth a victory by someone who saw the situation and played their cards right. I think that only sore losers would accuse him of “sitting on”. He had zero teammates in the break; why should he do anything? Anyway he did plenty. People who whine about that kind of stuff grate on my nerves and I want to shove a pile of Georgia Gould interviews in their face. Be gracious. Be complimentary of your competition. Spend those minutes of badmouthing on something else. Clean our bike. Blog about how much you love your race tires. Help your soigner unload the van. How you behave in defeat says more about you than how you behave when victorious. The sport doesn’t need dissention in its ranks; we have enough problems already.
So…heal up Georgia and rock those Olympics!
I first meet Georgia when we formed the winning break in 2004 at a UCI Cyclo-cross race in Virginia. She was a welcome companion as we extended our lead over the chasers, and strong as heck. I attacked her on the last lap and rode solo to my first UCI victory (and did the dumbest finish line salute ever: Richard Nixon). She was gracious in defeat, and we chatted afterward. I learned that she was a first-year ‘crosser living in Idaho with her fiancé. I could envision a huge future for her.I never beat her again. The closest I got was the next year on the same course when she rode to a solo win far ahead of me and Betsy Schauer, who I outsprinted for 2nd. Talking afterward, Georgia confessed that she was “only a cat 3 on the road” and hadn’t done much road racing. We (Cara and I) encouraged her to check it out, since the two of us did a majority of our racing on the road. She said she might.
I’m glad she didn’t. Mountain biking and Cyclo-cross is lucky to have her. She has podiumed at Cyclo-cross Nationals every year since 2005. She is a national champion on the mountain bike. She rocks the World Cup Mountain Bike circuit. She’s phenomenal.
Last weekend, she suffered heatstroke during a race in Santa Ynez, California. She’s recovering, but it definitely gave her some pause. I read her interview and was once again struck with how gracious and professional she is. She said she didn’t want her DNF to detract from Kelli Emmett’s victory that day. How pro is that? She’s lying in a hospital bed and has only wonderful things to say about her competition. You can accuse women’s racing of being a sewing circle. Go ahead. But I think that Georgia’s rare attitude is sorely lacking in a lot of arenas…not just cycling. I wish more people would think like that. To take a step back. To never begrudge someone a victory. To be positive.
Just like last weekend when Scott Zwizanski snuck to a solo victory in the Downtown Wilmington Criterium. You can accuse The Zwizza of sitting on in the break…but whatever. He did what he needed in the last lap and while Colavita and Kelly Benefits were watching each other, he attacked and powered home alone for the win. Good on ‘im. Love me some Zwizza.
But love him or not, I hope I never badmouth a victory by someone who saw the situation and played their cards right. I think that only sore losers would accuse him of “sitting on”. He had zero teammates in the break; why should he do anything? Anyway he did plenty. People who whine about that kind of stuff grate on my nerves and I want to shove a pile of Georgia Gould interviews in their face. Be gracious. Be complimentary of your competition. Spend those minutes of badmouthing on something else. Clean our bike. Blog about how much you love your race tires. Help your soigner unload the van. How you behave in defeat says more about you than how you behave when victorious. The sport doesn’t need dissention in its ranks; we have enough problems already.
So…heal up Georgia and rock those Olympics!
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Look, Mom!
i won an award!
"best representation of student life", apparently.
yay, me!
also, notice that julydream is #1 for applicant bloggers, and christof #10 for student bloggers.
yay, darden kids!
now, back to planning my drive to dallas. there are so many options. i want to hit the big easy, so it should be an interesting route!
"best representation of student life", apparently.
yay, me!
also, notice that julydream is #1 for applicant bloggers, and christof #10 for student bloggers.
yay, darden kids!
now, back to planning my drive to dallas. there are so many options. i want to hit the big easy, so it should be an interesting route!
Sunday, May 18, 2008
The First State
apparently delaware was the first state. they shout about it on their license plates, but i'd vote for "home of tax-free shopping instead".
aside from the reputed awesome shopping, downtown wilmington left something to be desired after 5 p.m. no matter what day it was. zilch was open so i did a lot of t.v. watching. now i know why 80% of america is slovenly: t.v.! i felt like a banana slug after a few hours of the tube. no wonder most people have a hard time thinking about working out, cooking, reading, speaking, thinking, etc. t.v. is a gigantic vacuum of lame.
yesterday during the race i got panhandled (and didn't budge. i saw through his plea for sodapop money); and again that night (8 hours later) by the same dude. the 900 block of north market street is either lucrative or he has a problem remembering the thousands of people who already told him no.
on a good note, i did get to photograph jonas carney in his hary-legged glory.
and the ghost of el gato in my room.
not bad.
i'll reserve judgment on delaware in general (national cyclocross champ katie compton, after all, did come from here. as well as the awesome granogue cyclocross race), but in general:
thanks, delaware, but can you return my $16 in tolls?
aside from the reputed awesome shopping, downtown wilmington left something to be desired after 5 p.m. no matter what day it was. zilch was open so i did a lot of t.v. watching. now i know why 80% of america is slovenly: t.v.! i felt like a banana slug after a few hours of the tube. no wonder most people have a hard time thinking about working out, cooking, reading, speaking, thinking, etc. t.v. is a gigantic vacuum of lame.
yesterday during the race i got panhandled (and didn't budge. i saw through his plea for sodapop money); and again that night (8 hours later) by the same dude. the 900 block of north market street is either lucrative or he has a problem remembering the thousands of people who already told him no.
on a good note, i did get to photograph jonas carney in his hary-legged glory.
and the ghost of el gato in my room. not bad.i'll reserve judgment on delaware in general (national cyclocross champ katie compton, after all, did come from here. as well as the awesome granogue cyclocross race), but in general:
thanks, delaware, but can you return my $16 in tolls?
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Wednesday ride...6+ hours
and it was really fun! brother saul and logan and i headed out at 10 this morning (kitted up in u.va colors!) and i didn't get back until 5. not a bad day at the office. especially awesome because i did it out of fun; not obligation/training/fear of being slow/fat-burning motives. okay, maybe some fat-burning motives.
i ate my first moon pie (so tasty!) and discovered uncharted albermarle/greer/nelson county roads. pretty rad.
i love virginia.
last week in a tiny country store in b.f.e. i found this adorable mini banana bread (of which i've eaten half) that was wrapped all pretty for mother's day. awww! happy mother's day, mom! i bought you a treat but i ated it.
and with that, i'm going to bed! off to wilmington tomorrow for a weekend of kelly benefits p.r. and a bit of bike racing (i'll do a time trial like a nerd and spectate a crit because i gots me no snaps)
i ate my first moon pie (so tasty!) and discovered uncharted albermarle/greer/nelson county roads. pretty rad.
i love virginia.
last week in a tiny country store in b.f.e. i found this adorable mini banana bread (of which i've eaten half) that was wrapped all pretty for mother's day. awww! happy mother's day, mom! i bought you a treat but i ated it.
and with that, i'm going to bed! off to wilmington tomorrow for a weekend of kelly benefits p.r. and a bit of bike racing (i'll do a time trial like a nerd and spectate a crit because i gots me no snaps)
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
On connections
Ah, the blessed internet. At times the site (ha!) of semi-passive-aggressive mudslinging; other times the place to find those lost through time’s passage.
This weekend marked the last of my Darden First Year days. Such fun we had! When this is going on, it can only lead to trouble…
Incredible hangovers aside, I’m excited for the next chapter. I’m taking some serious suntanning time on my patio. And reading Carl Hiaasen’s “Nature Girl”. He is absolutely hysterical, and I encourage filling your brain with his witty prose.
So back to the izzerwebs. It’s a place where we can be “found”, and therefore people think they “know” us. I guess they sorta do, but there’s plenty of information about us that is not on the internet. Like the fact that my favorite vegetable is asparagus (oops, it’s out there now). Or that my hair went curly when I was 15 (oops again). So I naturally get a bit miffed when people dump H8rade on others via blog comments (usually the do the shit-talking anonymously. so brave). I think that there is a rabid tendency to make snap judgments and paint with broad strokes someone who is just thinking aloud in a post. Most blogs aren’t the handiwork of crafty publicists; they are just words we think and type. So don’t jump all over everyone and assume that the person they are on the internet is their all-encompassing identity. There are tons of things we all think that we don’t share with the world. So grab 3 grains of salt and just read and enjoy, eh? And by that same token, I am trying not to call all the anonymous (and non-anonymous) objectors jerks. I know they are fallible folks just like me.
I think my shirt says it all.
Back to the internet:
Recently, I’ve reconnected with a college friend on Facebook. Though my sister is convinced that only serial killers and Dungeons & Dragons aficionados frequent social networking sites; the sites are quite valid. I’ve met some really awesome people this way. And I found Azla! Due to the Ugly-American inability to pronounce any name besides Mary and John; she switched to Azla in a phonetic representation to the oft-butchered Ghazaleh she had growing up. She turned 30 yesterday and is the proud mommy of 14-month old Jack. I almost called him “2-year old” but apparently babies under 3 are referred to by months. My bad.
Anyway, Azla and her adorable husband Adam and dog Bernard live with babyJack in SF where Adam works his tail off in the banking sector. Motherhood suits Azla so well; every photo I’ve seen of her on her 500+ blog posts has her smiling and glowing. It reminds me of the power of motherhood and the networks that develop out of it. She seems to be very linked in with her mommy friends, and I’m fascinated to see how companies will interact with these powerful networks that have emerged online. I know that advice, mother-to-mother, is as credible and sought-after as gold, and I hope that nobody comes in and mucks that up in a short-sighted attempt to promote their products. I think that the trust needs to be respected and products carefully promoted within this network. Despite my excitement about my future company’s awesome products, it’d take a lot of convincing for me to go into marketing that way unless I feel that the community of mothers really needed what I was selling. Case in point: Burt’s Bees. It definitely belongs on those sites, and I know through my experience there and extensive research that their products are much better for a baby’s development than some of the other stuff out there. I was always proud of our attempts to reach women on these sites, and believed babies benefitted from it. Though I think (and research shows) that babies need nothing more than warm water and a touch of soap in their hygienic regimen, I’m happy that mothers substitute Burt’s for some of the other phthalate- and sodium laureth sulfate-laden crap on the market today.
But enough about that. I’m just happy to have found Azla again and even more happy that she loves being a mom. It is definitely not for me (and nobody is allowed to comment and say “oh, you’ll change your mind” because I won’t) but I’m glad nevertheless.
Viva la internet…even the nasty stuff.
This weekend marked the last of my Darden First Year days. Such fun we had! When this is going on, it can only lead to trouble…
Incredible hangovers aside, I’m excited for the next chapter. I’m taking some serious suntanning time on my patio. And reading Carl Hiaasen’s “Nature Girl”. He is absolutely hysterical, and I encourage filling your brain with his witty prose.So back to the izzerwebs. It’s a place where we can be “found”, and therefore people think they “know” us. I guess they sorta do, but there’s plenty of information about us that is not on the internet. Like the fact that my favorite vegetable is asparagus (oops, it’s out there now). Or that my hair went curly when I was 15 (oops again). So I naturally get a bit miffed when people dump H8rade on others via blog comments (usually the do the shit-talking anonymously. so brave). I think that there is a rabid tendency to make snap judgments and paint with broad strokes someone who is just thinking aloud in a post. Most blogs aren’t the handiwork of crafty publicists; they are just words we think and type. So don’t jump all over everyone and assume that the person they are on the internet is their all-encompassing identity. There are tons of things we all think that we don’t share with the world. So grab 3 grains of salt and just read and enjoy, eh? And by that same token, I am trying not to call all the anonymous (and non-anonymous) objectors jerks. I know they are fallible folks just like me.
I think my shirt says it all.
Back to the internet:Recently, I’ve reconnected with a college friend on Facebook. Though my sister is convinced that only serial killers and Dungeons & Dragons aficionados frequent social networking sites; the sites are quite valid. I’ve met some really awesome people this way. And I found Azla! Due to the Ugly-American inability to pronounce any name besides Mary and John; she switched to Azla in a phonetic representation to the oft-butchered Ghazaleh she had growing up. She turned 30 yesterday and is the proud mommy of 14-month old Jack. I almost called him “2-year old” but apparently babies under 3 are referred to by months. My bad.
Anyway, Azla and her adorable husband Adam and dog Bernard live with babyJack in SF where Adam works his tail off in the banking sector. Motherhood suits Azla so well; every photo I’ve seen of her on her 500+ blog posts has her smiling and glowing. It reminds me of the power of motherhood and the networks that develop out of it. She seems to be very linked in with her mommy friends, and I’m fascinated to see how companies will interact with these powerful networks that have emerged online. I know that advice, mother-to-mother, is as credible and sought-after as gold, and I hope that nobody comes in and mucks that up in a short-sighted attempt to promote their products. I think that the trust needs to be respected and products carefully promoted within this network. Despite my excitement about my future company’s awesome products, it’d take a lot of convincing for me to go into marketing that way unless I feel that the community of mothers really needed what I was selling. Case in point: Burt’s Bees. It definitely belongs on those sites, and I know through my experience there and extensive research that their products are much better for a baby’s development than some of the other stuff out there. I was always proud of our attempts to reach women on these sites, and believed babies benefitted from it. Though I think (and research shows) that babies need nothing more than warm water and a touch of soap in their hygienic regimen, I’m happy that mothers substitute Burt’s for some of the other phthalate- and sodium laureth sulfate-laden crap on the market today.But enough about that. I’m just happy to have found Azla again and even more happy that she loves being a mom. It is definitely not for me (and nobody is allowed to comment and say “oh, you’ll change your mind” because I won’t) but I’m glad nevertheless.
Viva la internet…even the nasty stuff.
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