New & Improved Libs

For my 26th birthday I bought myself a road bike.  I had been quietly lusting after one for years.  So finally in September 2006, I tried some bikes, went for a fitting and got myself an entry-level road bike.  I have come to love that bike.  It is nothing special, but it fits me and I upgraded components to the point that it runs smoothly and comfortably, so I am happy on it.  I have written a bunch in the past year about the fun I have had on that bike and why I love it.

Then in September of 2007 I ordered a frame to build my fixed gear for commuting.  It was a long process, but eventually I had a 27th birthday bike.  Of course that one was, not long after, wrecked and replaced by the Raleigh that I have now.  But I consider my retro-converted, beast of a bike to be the 2007 birthday bike.

You see where this story is going?

Since moving to SF, I have had two factors working against my riding- my knee is bummed and I don’t have a well-suited ride.  I considered revamping the Raleigh, but ultimately the problem is that it is just too heavy, and that is not something that I can fix by changing components.  I have been mulling this over for the past couple months, knowing that I was moving, and that my needs would be different.  Then when I got here a month ago, I realized that there was just no way that I was going to be able to ride regularly without having the right bike for the job– the roads here are just too hilly and dangerous.

I decided two weeks ago, in keeping with my new tradition, that I would get myself the right bike for my birthday.  In a stroke of curious luck, the delivery of my bike was scheduled for the 5th- today- my birthday.  How fun is that!?  So this afternoon I am hoping to go pick up my new bike from Freewheel!

For the bike geeks who are interested in what I am adding to my collection- a 2008 Surly Steamroller.  I looked at a lot, LOT, of bikes.  I thought about ordering one from Mission Bikes.  I considered the Bianchi Pista, the new Masi, Mercier, Fuji and a bunch of others.  I thought about getting another 80s frame and building one.  But in the end, the best price and the highest recommendations, and the everyday-ride of the vast majority of my most respected bike mechanics, is a Steamroller.  It’ll have my own saddle and pedals on it (because I care about those things) but it is otherwise stock.  I anticipate putting some Nitto bullhorn bars on it next week.  Then at some point, when the stock tires need to be relpaced, I’ll put either Ruffy Tuffys or some Vittoria Tyres on it.  Also, I’ll probably cave and get a slick set of Deep V wheels.  The thing that I am most torn about– painting.  Do I want to send it off for a powder-coat paint job?  And would I get it done in sparkly steel grey or yellow?  Oh the decisions…

[Please do not read this if you are easily offended by human sexuality.]

I made the following observation while walking down Polk, on my way to lunch today:  Given my, or really any average person’s, rate of walking and the length of the blocks in the TenderNob and the distance between my office and Good Vibrations, and allowing for a reasonable amount of “shopping” time, it would be theoretically possible to buy a sex toy on my lunch break.  I’m just sayin’…

What’s that dear reader[s]? I’m sorry, what did you say?  What is it you want to know? When my birthday is?

Oh. Why it is tomorrow.

What am I doing in celebration, you say?

Oh, I’ll tell you what I am doing.  I am doing nothing.  Absolutely nothing.  And you want to know why?  Because I will be too old.  Twenty eight means almost thirty dead.  I will be too busy eating prunes and playing bingo to have cake and party.  I’m not doing anything because I’ll be too freaking old to do anything!

[That's a lie, I am actually, probably, doing stuff.  Hopefully though, at my new advanced age, I won't have to take a nap at my festivities and drink prune juice with my vodka.]

I noticed that my wikipedia use this week was particularly eclectic, so I thought I would share it:

Youth&Society
Wikipedia:Statistics
Viking_(album)
The_Tenderloin
Show_jumping
Shisha
Raleigh_Bicycle_Company
Proofreading
Prodigy_(rapper)
Panhandle_(San_Francisco)
Oppositional_defiant_disorder
New_College_of_California
Mobb_Deep
McLain_Ward
List_of_social_science_journals
List_of_problems_solved_by_MacGyver
Joe_Biden
International_Organisation_for_Standardisation
ISO_5776
HTTP_cookie
Conduct_disorder
Comma_splice
Code_switching
Category:Sociology_journals
Carol_Myers-Scotten
Biennial
Bicycle_pedal

I always have an unwatched episode or two of my favorite shows– Six Feet Under, The Wire, Battlestar Gallactica– stashed away. I have a fear of running out of watchable television and that stash is my insurance.

I am quite fitful regarding my single status and my upcoming “almost 30″ birthday. While the possibilities that come with being unattached and able to make decisions for only myself are kind of inspiring, that semi-okay feeling is punctuated by gut-sucking apprehension. The increased risk associated with being okay with my situation is eliciting increased fear. In general, I guess I just sort of wish that I didn’t have to deal with any of this.

I’m pretty sure this is going to make me rich and popular, so no one steal my idea.

Mission Escorts

An escort service for the undeniably hip and obviously original.  Dating when you are painfully “in the know” can be tough.  But now hipsters can rest easy knowing that their date to the next indie rock show in the Mission will be more hip than everyone else’s hipster date.  We specially train all of our escorts in indie-rock show etiquette– no more embarrassing “dancing date.”  We also coach our escorts on the latest in hipster fashion, including lessons on thrift store clothes shopping, at-home hair cutting and coloring, the ever important “trying to look like you are not trying without looking like you are trying,” even knitting and make-up for men.  As a client you can be sure that your date will be appropriately uninterested in everything, including the band and, of course, you.  Your date will be prepared for ironic conversation and casual name-dropping.  Won’t your not-really-your-friends-because-you-are-too-unique-for-friends be impressed when your date joins a conversation with, “yeah, I remember that show, …so I ran into Ben Gibbard at the bar– super nice guy.”  You will never have to take another embarrassing conformist to a show again!  When calling please specify which gender and orientation you would like, and whether you would like your date to play guitar or ride a fixed gear.

iTunes does this crazy thing where you can share your music library over the local network.  So I’m getting into bed last night, picking out some listening material, when I notice another user’s shared library pop-up on my screen.  It has a name, just a first name of whom I can only presume is the owner of the library.  I recognize the name as a neighbor I have met.  I click to see what kind of tunes his collection is going to hold.  The first album I see in the collection is In A Safe Place, by the Album Leaf.  I clicked back and forth between my own library and the neighbor’s, just to be sure that I was not accidentally looking at my own collection.  Nope.  So I scroll down through 27 gigs of music to discover dozens of similar albums, several albums that I have been lusting after, and a couple of odd albums that I thought only I liked.

Pedro the Lion- It’s Hard To Find A Friend
Red House Painters- Songs For A Blue Guitar
Sufjan Stevens- Outtakes & Rarities
Steve Earle!
Songs: Ohia- Lioness
AmAn Set- Know By Heart

So, after going through his music collection 7 or 8 times and discovering nothing less than impeccable taste, I can safely say that I am the proud new owner of one über crush.

I went to my first baseball game of the season, and my first game ever on the west coast.  I saw the Oakland A’s play the Minnesota Twins.  It was just as fun as I remember baseball games being.  I am glad to again be able to afford to go to a game or two now and then.

I sat in the bleachers with the die-hard A’s fans– they heckled the Twins’ outfielder, Delman Young, through the entire game; it was pretty ridiculous.  While these fans were certainly among the more zealous I have seen, I have never been to a stadium that was that empty!  At peak, it was maybe 1/4 full.  It made me sad.  Why don’t more people come to enjoy the baseball?

The internets are glorious!

I logged in to my email yesterday where I found a notice that I had received a facebook message.  I went to read the message and, in the process, checked the status updates of some friends.  I noted that Courtenay* was lamenting a lack of proper art supplies (paper, to be precise) and asking if there was anyone who wanted to go to the good art supply store, Flax, here in SF, for her.  I looked up the location of Flax on the internets, discovered that it is literally on my route between work and home.  So I sent a quick message in reply suggesting that it was not at all unreasonable for me to stop by the art store.  Within an hour I had a shopping list.  By the end of business yesterday there was a pound and a half of festively colored paper on its way to Courtenay’s house in Nevada.

*For the dear reader[s] who missed this, I went to high school with Courtenay.  I have not seen her, save but one brief crossing of paths in approximately 1998 at a horse show in Washington, D.C., since her high school graduation.  So the other lesson of this story, beyond the glory of the internets, is that bonds are forged in boarding school, which require more than 4 years of teenage angst and 10 years of absence to nullify.