watch out portland, here i come!

only 3 more days left in the quarter and then i am out of this too-sunny-for-winter city like a rocket. today is the first overcast day i've seen in weeks. i think the clouds may actually stick around ALL DAY. a miracle. seriously folks of portland, i'll be up in your vicinity quicker than you can say DOUBLE DIASTEREODIFFERENTIATION 5 times fast. whoa chemistry.

other news:

BIKE POLO
this past saturday mikey millz and i built 6 sweet bike polo mallets out of ski poles and heavy PVC tubing. before we built these we were playing with croquet mallets, and they are just not right. too heavy, breakable, and the rubber lining messes with your shuffle flow in a serious way. so, these new mallets are a super huge improvement.

on sunday everyone was rocking the court, and by court i mean the top of a parking garage downtown (watch for cement parking curbs, i flew over them twice during the game!). the mallets were a big hit. then, drama struck. one guy kept hooking people's frames with his mallet, which is no good. finally he messed with the wrong guy and soon a fixie frame came hurtling his way. this resulted in the guy who was originally hooking people flipping out and body slamming the other dude into the cement parking pad. not good. i am so used to the serious nonviolent attitude that prevails in the zoobomb scene that i didn't know what to make of this. i don't understand fighting your friends. i guess i just don't ever get worked up enough to want to beat on my buddies...

anyhow, that was exciting, but it unfortunately ended the game rather abruptly. the rest of the polo guys and i all retired to my house for tacos and hot toddy's. it's been really fun to get more involved with this group of folks. i finally feel like i have a really fun crew to ride bikes and go on adventures with.

alos, the mallets all survived the game, so i think we made a pretty solid set. can't wait for more (violence-free) games to come!


CHEMISTRY
i'm still riding the passing wave. i just passed a fat mid-term and my second set of cumes...feeling good, ready for a vacation!

BIKES
i skinned my knees pretty well the other day, as i mentioned before. that is still in the process of healing, and it's taking TOO LONG. my bicycle is my primary mode of transportation and it's so obnoxious to be injured. but, i am trying to take it easy, while not limiting my mobility too much. i am going to start working on bike footage with mike soon, which will be awesome. hopefully we'll put something sweet together for 'filmed by bike' in portland this spring. finally, i am going to build a fixie. they are too fun. don't worry, i won't start wearing 'tight pants' or carrying a mini-ulock in my pocket! funny.

MY HEART
my heart is doing super awesome these days. the transition from bellingham to portland last year was the roughest patch of dreary, lonely days i've ever really known. i was worried about the same thing happening upon my arrival in santa cruz, but that hasn't been the case at all. i had a nice month or so of solo time to establish my routine and new responsibilities, and now i'm lucky enough to have discovered a fabulous community of bike centric creative minds to whisk me off on weekend adventures and art projects. i am totally content and pleased with life. hooray.

LETTERS/ZINES
i've started sending my zines to strangers whose work i admire and the response has been totally astonishing. i've been sent dvds, buttons, zines, and lovely handwritten letters that make me blush. the self-publishing network is so awesome, and i'm grateful to finally have something i can send to people to start sowing seeds for future collaborations/adventures/friends!

that's all.