Peach World

complexity in the face of redundancy.

2011-11-11T18:13:00.000-08:00

there is something about muted gray skies that i adore. it may be the lack of urgency; at any given time of day it could be 8am or 11am or 4pm. i don't feel rushed by the sun darting across the sky, and i'm never blinded when i walk outside. it's delightful.

i've had a week full of positive revelations. here's the most significant one:

three things prompted this change:

1. i've spent the week engaged in serious conversation about science while helping kenji, my labmate, write an NSF grant application. although the goal was to help him clarify the most compelling reasons he has become a budding scientist worthy of funding, it has also forced me to ask this question of myself.

2. my friend carley and i had a heavy conversation about life and what we are doing here while overlooking the ocean at sunset near the bicycle path on campus. there are a set of chairs i always see when bombing home from campus, and we finally took a little time to actually walk out to them.

here is a great illustration of what it looks like from that spot:

3. walter (collaborator/housemate/killer friend) and i tested a new dye that changes color in response to the level of metabolism taking place in whatever cells you are testing. the dye works like a charm and will seriously improve our measurements of cell viability. BUT, the more exciting result of this screening was that i was giddy about it. i was genuinely fulfilled by my work.

this is an uncommon experience for me. i came to grad school for the wrong reasons (healthcare, to satisfy some unspoken parental expectations, socially ingrained personal expectations, etc.). as a result, i have had a pretty miserable time being a researcher. it has been a real struggle to be productive in the lab because i am rarely compelled by the work i'm doing.

this past week that changed.

science INSPIRED me this week. biology in particular. i can't believe that i never took a real biology class. i feel like such a fool! i have known for a long while that all life is primarily composed of Carbon, Oxygen, Sulfur, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, and Phosphorus. every chemist knows this. as a chemist we pride ourselves on the manipulation of molecules at the atomic level. this simplicity and redundancy is comforting to me.

HOWEVER, my lack of experience with biology has hindered my ability to fully comprehend how completely stunning the previous fact is.

the two examples that knocked me off my feet:

1. cyclic-di-GMP is a small molecule used by tons of types of bacteria to control changes in these cells. what really gets me is that bacteria have constructed loads of different enzymes to make this single molecule. AND they have also made enzymes to break it into pieces. this one molecule controls a bunch of different things (from virulence to biofilm formation to developmental transitions). it is made and broken down in response to local environmental cues. it is an amazing molecule! how can one molecule do ALL THESE THINGS!

the craziest part about this is that we barely know anything about this little molecule. we are just starting to scrape of surface of what this little bundle of atoms is responsible for accomplishing in bacteria. this BLEW UP MY MIND last week.

2. our immune system is fucking out of hand. we have ONE SYSTEM to deal with all types of wack-ass infections that are constantly colonizing our system. that's amazing! the fact that your body evolved a system that can deal with most nasty diseases is crazy.

BOTTOM LINE:

learning more about biology has uncovered the mind boggling complexity of life (us and bacteria). yet, there is still an incredible degree of redundancy in these processes. redundancy beyond atoms.

awesome.

new zine day!

2010-07-10T23:03:00.000-07:00

hello little blog, sorry for neglecting you all these months.

today i put in some serious hours in on the new zine. it's a spin off of an old blog/social art project. where i asked folks to send me lists of 100 things about themselves. a handful of people did, and i think they are brilliant. thus, i am compiling the lists into a new zine called, "100 things about you". i am also going to the trouble of typing up all the lists on my new typewriter, and the experience can be summarized in one (two?) hyphenated word (s?):

time-consuming.

that's okay though because lately i've been making time to just hang out with my thoughts. it feels good doing art projects alone. i miss slowing down. i have kicked the summer habit of attending one weekend-consuming bbq after another. dare i say i'm turning over a new leaf.

lately i've been a cooking machine as well. this is the summer of indian food. i've bought bags of cumin seeds, cayenne pepper, ground coriander, stove-stainin' tumeric, garam masala, and gobs of fresh ginger. turns out that's about all you need to make delicious eats. oh! don't forget the asafeotida. it's the MSG of indian food. i have made cauliflower and zucchini taste like magic, and i'm moving into the world of roti or chappati or naan...indian flatbread is what i'm talking about!

also, there is a new meat eating plan. i'm vegetarian on business days, and a meat-eater on the weekends. sometimes the weekend starts on friday afternoon. BUT! it's been going splendid, and i am happy to be at the very least cutting down my consumption of animal products, for the environment's sake, 5ish days a week. baby steps...

i biked to school everyday last week, and it wasn't until friday that the 800 foot elevation gain felt feasible again. i'm enjoying returning to this morning ritual. i hope i can keep it up. i've started sketching a little bicycle on the days of the calendar that i bike up, and it is actually a good little motivator.

then there's...drum rollll...LAP SWIMMING! it's my new obsession. i swam almost everyday last week, foiled on friday by an unannounced swim meet. i've started with 36 laps, and hope to make it to a smooth mile by the end of the summer. i got serious about it this week. i even wear a swim cap! it's such a strange form of exercise. i still feel a wave of fear roll over me when i get to the middle of the lap. i'm working so hard, and i can't help but feel that i may be on the verge of drowning. this sensation has chilled out a bit in the past week, but it still lingers a bit. KICK FLIPS are the next step. i'll update you next week. i hope i don't smack my forehead into the edge of the pool.

what else? oh, soccer! i love the world cup. to the men of uruguay: your spirit and your fabulous hair will forever impress. can't stop the magic. i love you. and you! and you!

ps. i also got corey feldman's signature at the screening of lost boys at the boardwalk. it's a hilarious story.

today i am a queen

2009-11-21T11:12:00.001-08:00

chariot rites of passage
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

remember that huge fuzzy hat the i knit in college. the one with all the little frilly bits poking out of it in all directions? (as depicted in the photo to the right) well, i was wearing it today in this coffee shop, and generally people give me the 'are you insane look' when they see it on. it is pretty over the top, and makes my head look twice its size. ANYHOW, a mom with a nervous little girl in tow approached me to say that her daughter loved my hat. in fact, she thought it would be a hat that a queen would wear, and on that note she was wondering if i was a queen. with a hat with so many jewels i must be a queen right? i had to tell her i wasn't sure anyone would call me a queen, but thanks for the compliment. i asked if she wanted to wear it, but she was WAY too nervous (she was talking to a hypothetical queen after all).

it was adorable, and since i felt all sad because of all the qualifying exam studying i've been doing and strange wearing my hat, it really perked me up. man, little kids rock.

i am totally fun.

2009-11-14T18:13:00.001-08:00

even though i have been nothing but a pile of stinky, chemistry-studying poo for the past two to three months i am totally fun.

i ride bikes places, i make art, i give art to people and it makes them smile, i sew funny costume-like items that make people laugh, i wear funny clothes.

i scuba dive. i snowboard. i do fun things. i am fun. i will be fun again soon. december 4th. remember the date. call me after 3:30, and i will be a FUCKING RIOT!

personal wisdom that gets me through the day.

2009-11-08T15:55:00.000-08:00

i've decided that it doesn't matter what you do with you life everyday as long as you make sure that what you choose to do is hard. challenging is really a better word. it's particularly rewarding when you like the challenging activity you do. like bike riding. if you go on huge, serious bike rides that wears you out that is awesome. if you choose easy rides you know you can do without much of a challenge, that's lame.

the reason challenge is important is because challenge is growth. the more challenging things you take on in a day the more you will grow. it's nice when you really like the tasks. like i would love to go on more hard bike rides over working in the lab. but, even the shitty hard things you have to do in a day force you to grow.

so, even if graduate school makes me crazy and unbalanced. i am still learning a shitload about science and chemistry. my brain works so hard trying to untangle all the insane transition states and stereochemical outcomes of these reactions, and this is great. even if it sucks, i am expanding my understanding and capability to take on and conquer complex questions. yeah.

now, everytime i think 'this sucks'. i am going to try and think, 'at least i am growing.'

awesome.

life is okay.

2009-11-08T13:14:00.000-08:00

yesterday i almost posted a depressed, mopey update about the misery of preparing for orals, blah, blah, blah. but then something amazing happened.

joe kliegman from san francisco made a surprise appearance with three other friends of ours: alyssa, will draper, and another will. it was so nice to get the chance to give the kind of hugs where you know you can hold on as long as you want, and it will never get awkward. solid, super hugs. i usually only find them in portland, but joe k. knows all about these hugs.

they landed, and the five of us piled onto the three bikes i own (one bike was an xtracycle and another a tough touring bike with a killer rack). it was a hilarious slow affair, with copious giggling and shouting. we made it to a fancy bar, called the 515, in one piece, and met some chemistry gals for drinks. catching up was wonderful. there was plenty of reminiscing and a lot of laughs. after everyone was good and tipsy we headed to the ocean, something i seem to never do without company, which is a damn shame.

joe quickly discovered that you can explode the pneumatocysts on the macrocystis that it scattered all over the beach, and it makes a popping noise, like bubble wrap. Suddenly we were off, running like crazy people, stomping all the algae we could find. the moon lit up the crashing waves, and the empty boardwalk rides. it was nice genuine fun. i forgot all about my synthesis, and how miserable i'd been just hours before. it reminded me how much i love my friends. people who are always up for making their own adventures. people who are serious about the things they love. it reminded me that i am one of these people, and that i will be done with my qualifying exam soon, and then i will have the opportunity to play again. this is a small blink of time, and it seems like tomorrow i'll be back to my normal bike riding, scuba diving, pop-up crafting, stencil cutting self.

all 5 of us found our way back to my home, and we all piled into my room. there were people sleeping on every bit of empty floor space.

it was nice. i was happy.

thank you joe! i love you.

the things i did today.

2009-10-20T17:43:00.000-07:00

1. i froze my ass off scooting to school before 8 am this morning.
2. i made delicious coffee (i'm now a happy addict).
3. i reworked my retrosynthetic scheme, and it looks much more feasible and reasonable now.
4. i attended the intro organic lecture i'm required to attend.
5. i assigned the fucking gnarly stereocenters for my molecule.
6. i talked about my diels-alder reaction for about 2 hours and felt my brain melt out of my ears.
7. i could think from 5:15-5:45 pm.

now, i'm thinking of going home and trying to study more. try to think about the synthesis of my diene and dienophile. i will work on chemistry at home. i will sop up my brains and wring them back into my head where they belong.

wish me luck.

check out my bangin' new tattoo

2009-10-17T09:29:00.001-07:00

science for life!
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

if this doesn't make me a science geek for life i don't know what will. this is my artistic tribute to all the studying and researching i've been doing for the last 8 years of my life. it's got an organic chemistry focus, which is what i'll be getting my ph.d. in. the glassware is a dual neck, pear shaped flask, and there is a spatula and pasteur pipette dropper crisscrossed behind the flask. these tools are all things i tend to use on a daily basis. i love that the flask looks a bit like a heart. i designed the tattoo, and my friend justa helped turn it into something i was prepared to get put on my body permanently. the tattoo artist did a great job! i hope you guys love it. i know i do.

here comes fall.

2009-10-11T15:09:00.001-07:00

here comes fall.
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

today i was chilly from the second i woke up, until the moment when i reached into the dark depths of my closet, past all the tank tops and leggings, to the place where scarves, fuzzy hats, and gloves spend most of the year down here in sunny santa cruz.

i'm about to start preparing for my final set of exams. it's a two hour oral exam in front of four brilliant professors who have free reign to tear my total synthesis proposal to pieces. i am very nervous, but excited as well. if i pass this exam i will transition from a graduate student to a ph.d. candidate. it means i may actually be seeing this thing through.

so, i'm back to weekends spent in coffee shops pouring over pages of mechanisms. i'm back to feeling lonely and annoyed with school. back to questioning what the fuck i'm doing here. back to not taking good enough care of myself because i'm preoccupied. back to teaching.

wish there were more interesting things to say. i haven't been my normal passionate self lately. i seem to be attracted to damaged boys lately, that have temporarily lost their capacity to love. no pop-ups. no mail art. no romance. kind of a bummer. but, it's a good lull right? more time to focus on SCIENCE.

yay...

day 10

2009-09-03T13:27:00.000-07:00

the good: i make a killer hot toddy.

the bad: i never know when enough is enough.

day 9

2009-09-01T09:34:00.001-07:00

the good: i tend to be exhaustively upbeat and positive.

the bad: i am a serious procrastinator.

day 8

2009-08-30T14:02:00.000-07:00

the good: i wear outfits that make people laugh.

the bad: i am terrible at multitasking.

day 7:

2009-08-30T11:32:00.000-07:00

the good: i am never bored.

the bad: i am incredibly impressionable.

day 6:

2009-08-29T14:06:00.000-07:00

the good: i am good at making stuff. crafty type stuff.

the bad: i am really impatient.

day 5:

2009-08-28T14:18:00.000-07:00

the good: i send lots of mail to friends.

the bad: i get bummed when i don't get letters back in return.

day 4:

2009-08-27T09:21:00.000-07:00

the good: i cook excellent breakfasts.

the bad: i am extremely competitive.

day 3:

2009-08-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

the good: i'm a morning person.

the bad: i'm wreckless with my heart.

day 2:

2009-08-24T08:37:00.001-07:00

the good: i'm spontaneous.

the bad: i'm an extremely poor planner.

new game:

2009-08-23T18:04:00.000-07:00

so, for the next however many days, i am going to post two things. one positive trait and one negative trait about myself. know why? because graduate school is good at highlighting the things you love and hate about yourself. it's an emotional rollercoaster like i've never known, and i don't have a good way of dealing with it. i am going to try and keep these short and sweet without a bunch of explanation or blither blather.

the good: i am easily amused.

the bad: i'm not a good listener.

dreamland is INSANE lately

2009-06-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

each day this week i've been arriving late (well, later than usual) to work, and i have to blame it on my dreams. they have been totally wacky:

on sunday, i dreamt of awesome all-nite partying in pdx with my favorite people, followed by a very stressful attempt to not miss my plane back to california.

on monday, i dreamt i was riding the rails with my high school crush in another country, immediately followed by being in pdx yet again, having missed my plane flight back to california.

today, i dreamt i was running away from a t-rex with the remaining pdx friends i had that hadn't been eaten, followed by completely missing my plane flight back to california.

one thing is for sure, i apparently was meant to miss my flight from pdx back down to california.

that feeling of being late for a flight makes me so sick, and i can't stop it from capping every dream session. how will i escape this subconscious madness!?!

ideas welcome.

my first tattoo, still in design stages!

2009-06-29T12:57:00.001-07:00

color science tattoo
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

check it out, a fancy artist rendering of the tattoo i intend to get. since, i've decided to stay at ucsc and get a ph.d. i want to make sure i never take myself too seriously. thus, this tattoo is perfect. plus, i am a total science geek and this is the perfect goofy tattoo to reflect that. oh man, i am SUPER STOKED.

tell me what you guys think. i am sure it won't look exactly like this, but any suggestions are welcome!

ps. i am 100% positive i'm getting this tattoo, so no naysayer comments. how could i not!?! it's so fucking awesome!

this is where i work

2009-06-06T10:27:00.001-07:00

hydroboration followed by suzuki coupling
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

in a hood with a crazy argon manifold. i am pretty excited about the new set-up, but pretty bummed that none of the chemistry i've attempted in said new hood seems to be working. that's chemistry for ya i suppose.

back to work!

things that i like today

2009-06-01T12:17:00.000-07:00

things i like today:

that i live in the bay area, and thus got to attend the maker's faire yesterday
rube goldberg machines
engineering pop-ups
inquiry based learning
all the fun chemistry i'm participating in (it's working today!)
being confident i will ride my bicycle up the huge hill to work everyday
the quarter ending!
long, sunny summer evenings
that i am heading up to pdx for pedalpalooza in less than 2 weeks
that i don't have to TA all summer
that i will be recieving non-stop hugs from all my favorites super soon
that i am going to get a ph.d.
smiles from fellow cyclists commuting to work
pay day!
the cute boy that makes me smile these days

that's it!

today i feel responsible

2009-05-22T10:25:00.000-07:00

because today i opened my very own 1-year certificate of deposit! hooray! i didn't spend all my money and now the bank will take money from me if i try to spend it!

i'm 25 and feeling very mature.

HA!

somedays i am confused as to where my life should go.

2009-05-17T16:29:00.001-07:00

structure sunset
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

before i start: this photo is from burning man last year. i posted this photo because i just got my ticket for this year. woo hoo!

this title is terrible, i know. but, it's true. somedays are so magic and awesome that it makes me wonder what i do on the days that i don't feel that energy, community unity, and joy. i felt like my heart was bursting out of my chest this afternoon, and i don't know why i can't facilitate that feeling daily.

here's a recap:

1. i woke up later than usual, and concocted an amazing super veggie omelet. i showed off my fresh off the presses pop-up project (which i promise to post on the interweb soon enough) to my roommates, who were very pleased and confident that it would be a powerful wooing gesture. i made tea. basked in the sun. enjoyed the calm of the morning.

2. was off on my bike with coffee mug in hand to watch the kinetic art parade. a parade composed of anything rolling and decorated. there were little kids on stilts to massive shimmery floats with dj's popping out of them. quite a sight. these guys, krank boom clank, were my favorite.

3. this was all in the name of the river arts festival. where i found a whole host of friendly faces and amazing hugs. i ate delicious veggie phad thai in a tipi. i sat with dr. wasabi and waxed lyrical about how awesome life has been in the past days.

4. i took a moment to really appreciate the community around me. there was nothing but smiley faces and sweet greetings. i felt like i belonged in this park with all of these folks.

5. i listened to a tough group of mamas playing taiko drums. they were absolutely stunning and their energy rushed over the crowd, getting everyone fired up.

6. i laid in the grass for a long while writing letters and talking to my mom.

these are all very simple small things that put me in a totally cheery mood. i was struck by all the community building. these types of events that unify us as people living together in this wacky, complex, and often messy and mean place seem very honorable to me. feeling comfortable striking up conversation with your neighbor and learning something about each other can be really special and touching. i venture to say you live an incomplete life if you don't get the opportunity to do this. this is important and valuable. in portland the power and sense of belonging that i gained from the bicycle community was priceless. these types of networks help people in so many ways. one of those ways, which i've been focusing on through most of this, is in realizing creative goals. in creating art all around us. BUT, it goes much deeper than that. in times of serious need i've seen these types of communities keep people afloat. whether that be via helping pay for hospital bills, support in times of personal tragedies, helping construct homes (my yurt wouldn't have happened with my juggling community), community gardening, etc. i never feel alone in portland. sometimes i actually need to demand some solitude! that's awesome. if i do decide to settle down in one particular place i want to plant myself somewhere where i can foster that type of support system.

back to the title: this is a difficult problem with respect to what i am currently pursuing. the field of science can be a frustrating, cold, lonely place. i have often found myself alone in the lab at 9pm looking out the windows feeling hopeless. working at my bench with a bunch of terribly toxic chemicals wondering what the fuck i am doing. there is a big picture. i am learning everyday, but it rarely feels like a very nurturing place. maybe this is just the big hippy in me. but, it can be really challenging most days. sometimes i just shutdown and waste full days at my computer, stagnant without a means to motivate myself to get any science done.

however, the amount of knowledge i've accumulated in the past 2 years is priceless. i have transformed into a lifelong science learner with the tools to perpetuate this learning indefinitely. it feels awesome! it is also really empowering. i have been given opportunities to attend conferences and workshops that have significantly enriched my life.

HOW DO I FIND BALANCE BETWEEN THESE TWO COMMUNITIES.

somedays i just want to take the entire week to construct pop-ups.
somedays i want to hula-hoop until i'm bruised.
somedays i want to research kombucha via scientific journal articles.
somedays i want to make zines about science.
somedays i want to teach science to kids.
somedays i want to bike tour across the country.
somedays i want to learn to weld and construct kinetic monstrosities.

this list could continue for multiple pages.

my problem is that you can't really do science half-way. science is moving so quickly and in order to keep up you need to be throwing all of your time and energy your research continually. this sucks. i need balance. i need to exercise other interests too! i want to be a very versatile person. i don't want to leave these things behind in exchange for becoming a stunning scientist.

so, what do i do? this is my question to you. i rarely sleep as is. where do i find more time? anybody?

wow, that was a little intense. i wonder how many people made it to this sentence. i had to spit it out. these thoughts are churning through my head everyday. my head was getting too full.

back on the main land

2009-05-15T00:35:00.001-07:00

the ucsc crew in hawaii
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

hawaii knocked my socks off. i was learning how to think about teaching science by day, carefree booze cruiser by night. there were renegade stolen golf cart rides, 40's of mickeys, kisses, barracudas, lavish pool poaches, ocean floats, snorkels, lounge chairs, jacuzzis, hula hoops, musical chairs, kings, giggles, pineapples, etc.

strange pieces of my day:

1. i almost died flying down the bicycle path today. a massive sunning snake stretched over 80% of the bike path forced me to swerve and brake in an extremely unsafe manner at probably around 35 miles per hour.

2. i cooked a bitchin' fava bean dish. shucking fava beans is funny, the pods are super fluffy and soft on the inside.

3. i have been floating about the day in blissful crush mode. it's nice.

4. i haven't slept much for days, and can't believe i'm still awake posting this.

5. this morning one of the first things i did was flop a buttery crumpet onto the thigh of my new favorite pants. damn, damn, damn.

goodnight!

some days i love science

2009-05-06T14:09:00.001-07:00

holy shit check out the size of this nmr!
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

like on days i get to see the 900 megahertz NMR at UCSF. laura and i headed up to a chemical biology conference and my buddy joe (who is a grad student at ucsf) showed us all their rooms of amazing instrumentation, housed in genentech hall (big money, big money, BIG MONEY!).

the conference was pretty cool. can't argue with free food, free coffee mugs, and free booze. not to mention some rad science talks. good times were had by all.

experiencing taste disturbances!

2009-04-28T18:50:00.000-07:00

so, i did a really gnarly reaction in the lab and then during lunch everything i ate tasted bitter and metallic. i was very safe while setting up the reaction, but i started to freak out after 2 days of everything tasting like chemicals. i have been talking to everyone about it, and my lab mate told me a story of another chemist in the department with the same problem. he also thought chemistry was the culprit for his 'taste disturbances'.

HOWEVER, he found out that it was due to pine nut consumption! totally crazy! i ate ABSURD amounts of pesto last weekend and have been throwing pine nuts in all my food, and i think i have it too! i have been reading about it on the internet and TONS of people have this problem. people are trying to blame it on chinese pine nuts, i think that's stupid.

the internet says i may have these 'taste disturbances' for up to WEEKS!

i quit pine nuts.

post second year seminar debauchery

2009-04-25T22:53:00.001-07:00

post second year seminar debauchery
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

so, i finished my seminar. it was a hell of a process, and i decimated both my sanity and my relationship in the process. BUT, i'm done and that is worth something. i lived science. i am a specialist on biaryl construction. whoa.

now, i am a much more stable and sane human.

click through the flickr photos for a good laugh. most of the pictures are pretty absurd, definitely a flash back the 'the what what' days.

after the event i flew to a parasitology conference in colorado, and did a bit of the snowboarding. it was really fun to get back on a mountain and it dumped while we were there, very lucky.

then back to pdx for some chillin' and de-stress time. i saw all of my favorites (except nickey robo, who was out of town). i coffee shopped, bicycled, dance partied, zined, browsed, ate delicious food cart meals, etc. it was a very nice slice of life. i was there for a solid 10 days, and really started to feel like a portlander again.

but now i'm BACK TO WORK! i have also enrolled in two new awesome courses this quarter. warrior yoga twice a week, and swedish massage once a week. pretty zen and stress-free.

i am back at the pop-ups too. i'll post a video of the new one soon.

love,
kp

one sleepy peach

2009-02-28T20:46:00.001-08:00

one sleepy peach
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

so, life status update:

as many of you know, i'm in graduate school. last year i had loads of time consuming classes and terrible tests that required weeks of arduous preparation. then i finished my first year.

the summer was glorious. i went home from work and just chilled out. i regained possession of my evenings. i drew. i rode bikes. i watched movies. i took deep breaths. i did yoga. i cut stencils. i sent boatloads of mail. i hula hooped. i juggled. i drank beer. i danced until the wee hours of the night. i read zines. i chilled the fuck out.

unfortunately, my evenings have been stolen out from under me once again. i now spend every evening working on....dun, dun, duuunnn. my second year seminar. it's this miserable rite of passage required for year two. you must prepare and present an hour long seminar on a novel and innovative topic of organic chemistry. the professors are sure to ask terrible, terrifying questions. there are sure to be at least 100 eyes on you while you try and describe the transition state of your compound with the BARF ligand, that's right, the BARF ligand. WHO DOES THAT?!? WHAT TYPE OF SCREWED UP JERK NAMES THEIR LIGAND 'BARF'? HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO SAY BARF IN FRONT OF 50 PEOPLE WITHOUT LOSING IT. I'M SCREWED. anyhow, i've been preparing for this damn talk for a full month. i have one week to go before the big day, and

i am tired.

i am tired of spending every evening falling asleep amidst a scattered pile of science articles. i am tired of waking up at 6:00am on BOTH saturday and sunday to get to work by 8:00am. i am tired of spending over 13 hours a day thinking about asymmetric biaryl synthesis. i am tired of never seeing my boyfriend, or making him miserable by having to be around my grumpy ass. i am tired of powerpoint. i am tired of chemdraw's lack of fucking keyboard shortcuts. WHAT THE HELL CHEMDRAW PROGRAMMERS!?! DO IT FUCKING BETTER. i am tired of never having a spare moment to answer phone calls. i am tired of being so nervous and strung out that i can't sleep. i am tired of ordering small mochas at the coffee shop everyday, so i can legitimately spend 7 hours at my table. i am tired of this miserable routine.

i can't wait for this to be over. for spring break i'm going to breckenridge for a parasitology conference. once i get back from that i'm not going to leave the airport, i'm going to head to a different gate for a WEEK LONG VACATION TO PORTLAND, HELL YA! i can't wait to transform back into a balanced human again.

the tunnel is still very dark, but there is a small pinpoint of white light in the distance. god i hope i have the perseverance to see that pinpoint widen.

one tough papa of a sandwich

2009-02-22T12:23:00.001-08:00

one tough papa of a sandwich
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

check out this gnarly sandwich i made for lunch. it has...drumroll please.....corn, shredded beats, shredded carrots, onions, heirloom tomatoes (b/c i'm fancy like that), avocado, freshly fried tofu (fried this morning anyhow), and wasabi mayo slapped between two pieces of sprouted bread.

the beets n' carrots make it sweet. the wasabi mayo is a spicy kick in the pants. the avocado chills out the mayo, and the corn adds that funky bit of texture required for a totally exciting meal.

goddamn it's delicious.

more tutorial photos to follow...in a couple weeks when i resurface from science hell.

Heteronuclear Multiple Bond Correlations

2009-02-19T18:36:00.001-08:00

Heteronuclear Multiple Bond Correlation
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

so, i am officially a slave to chemistry. when i'm not making slides for my seminar on biaryl synthesis i'm working up 2D NMR data. for our assignments we are given the structure of some freaky poisonous natural product (this week it's a gnarly rat poisoning!), and have to assign all the peaks and correlations. laura and i almost had a communal mental breakdown, but we used out sudoko focusing power and BUSTED through the barrier. safe to say we didn't finish, but we made some phat progress. PHAT!

here are my notes from my structure elucidation class. i'm so glad i sewed my new pen pouch; i never would have been packing the color diversity required to illustrate these correlations otherwise!

well, it's 6:30pm, since i got here at 7:45am it's about time to leave campus and start working on chemistry somewhere else. man i sure am HAPPY! not one irritated, burnt out, sleep deprived, overwhelmed, fun deprived, or anxious bone in my whole fucking body.

pen pouch in all it's pen-a-licious glory

2009-02-14T10:52:00.001-08:00

pen pouch in all it's pen-a-licious glory
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

i made this yesterday to hold all my pens that like to float all willy-nilly about my pannier otherwise. i meant to make it a little longer, but it isn't. so, now only well used, shorter pencils will fit inside. it fits pens of all sizes though. plus a mini-ruler.

isn't this fabric fantastic? reminds me of how excited i am to attend the opening of the seahorse exhibit at the monterey bay aquarium!

circus in santa cruz

2009-02-07T14:58:00.001-08:00

lately i've been reinvigorated by my somewhat forget hobby of 'circus arts'. i've broken it into the different genres below

juggling:
i taught mike how to juggle, and now he is always picking up my juggling balls and coaxing/tempting me to pick up juggling again. we've been working on passing and we spend about 30 minutes working on it before we end up on the floor in a tangled-up giggly piles of limbs. it's pretty awesome. i can't wait to get him juggling clubs. i've also been passing a bit with the older men who attend all the juggle nights in town. there are two circus practice nights: sundays at the light house there is a hoop jam followed by a fire jam, and wednesdays at the vet's hall in town there is circus jam. john, a fantastic sweet man, is really amazing, and a fantastic teacher. some of you may have actually run into him before at the juggling tent at the oregon country fair. he is one of the main teachers there. he also owns a share on belly acres, the juggling commune in hawaii. i have met a few other very skilled jugglers through him and they have been good at pushing me to pass more. i tend to be a fairly independent juggler, but i'd like to force myself to play more with others when it comes to juggling.
i've learned new tricks too! i can now do flourishes in both hands, and i can throw doubles on the sides with one club in the middle doing tennis between the columns on either side(343 i think...). i am also learning to throw doubles while passing. pretty fun.

hula hooping:
i started hula hooping on the juggle farm, but when i moved away i was hoopless and remained so until my move to santa cruz. one of my burning man camp buddies is an excellent hooper and since hooping is 'totally hot right now' i bought the tubing and tape and started making my own. my buddy 'vanessa vortex' taught me the trade in pdx, but i actually started taping my hoops in santa cruz. i made a really gorgeous pink n' green hoop for the burn, and i've been rocking it ever since. the hoop jam at the lighthouse is AWESOME. full of fantastic hooper with skillz to share. i learned how to hoop around my chest vertically and how to hoop around my elbow horizontally with my head bowed out of the hoop. explaining circus tricks is silly. but, i am starting to feel like i have a nice arsenal of hoop tricks to play with. the next development on the horizon? FIRE HOOPING!

poi:
oh poi, how i've forgetten you. i rarely spin poi these days. i find that other people who spin poi are snobby and stuck up, unfortunately. this make skill sharing pretty lame. i never feel like people are jazzed about teaching in the poi community. i did, however, get my wall plane anti-spin 4-pointed flower happening the other day, SUPER EXCITING. i hope to work on poi more later, when it's sunny outside and i have EPIC amounts of time. it's funny, the better you get at poi the harder it gets to learn new tricks. antispin is KILLING me right now. way too hard. i feel like i can't break down the anti-spin wall. it's brick and 4 layers thick.

yup. that's the circus update. i am also interested in costuming more these days. i've posted a few fun hats, and i really want to put together some good performance costumes, so i don't just look like a laid back juggling hippy chick playing with different toys. but look more playful and performer-like.

okay, back to biaryl synthesis reading. i am narrowing my topic to innovative biaryl axially chiral cycloisomerization reactions. i know, the title needs work....

no time for editing! i'm sorry.

check out the sweet 'stache i grew this week

2009-01-23T23:20:00.001-08:00

me at liquor and fireworks
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

i've been working on growing a mustache this week and just wanted to post a few photos to show everybody how it's workin' out. there's a few more on my flickr account showing the different styles i've been working on.

let me know what you think...i'm thinking of shaving this weekend.

wanted:

2009-01-23T21:27:00.001-08:00

wanted:
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

click on this photo, and it will take to you flickr. if you flip through the photos in the set 'my plea to you.' you'll get the picture. mail. that's the bottom line. i want more pen pals.

so, here is my concept if you feel like 'mail' is too nebulous:

send me your top 5 once a week. i'll send you mine too. examples of top 5 lists you could craft: top 5 awesome things that happened this week, top 5 bikes in my town, top 5 silly hats i own, top 5 reasons grad school sucks, top 5 songs i like, top 5 things ever, top 5 things i like to do right now, top 5 beers, top 5 ways to pimp your life, etc.

yeah. any interested parties should check for more details on flickr. forsheezy.

i've quit the bike shuttle.

2009-01-23T09:49:00.000-08:00

so, turns out i'm a quitter. i am officially quitting the bike shuttle from here on out. i'm now going to commit to always riding my bike up to campus. quick update for people who that doesn't make sense to:

i work at ucsc in the chemistry department. the ucsc campus is about 5 miles with 800 ft. elevation gain from my house, which makes for a pretty gnarly commute to work for me. i used to be really good about riding everyday, and then i got a cold. i didn't know how to get to work, until someone introduced me to the bike shuttle. since ucsc is on a hill the school has purchased huge bike rack trailers with a 15 bike capacity to haul up biker from the bottom of the hill to the top of campus. they run every 15 minutes all morning long, starting at 7am. they are ULTRA convenient, and drop me off right in front of my building. once i started riding the shuttle i couldn't stop!

however, a lot of the people who ride aren't very thankful for the FREE service. they get pissed off when it's late, they make snarky remarks to the drivers, and they are generally stupid and annoying on a whole. plus, the bike shuttle is like cheating from a commuter perspective. these people play like bike commuters, but they get all the glory of bombing the hill at the end of the day with none of the work. it makes them overprivileged. when service is cancelled they flip out, rather than just getting on their bikes and huffing up the hill. once a driver trying to deal with an asshole rider exclaimed, "well, you could just ride up." it was awesome. the rider did not respond kindly.

when the quarter started i tried to remember when i last rode up. i couldn't. so, i've made the resolution to ride up everyday i'm able, whether it will make me late or not. i've riden up three weeks straight! it feels great and really jumpstarts my day.

ps. the reason i've been proclaiming all of these resolutions on my blog is because i sort of feel like the internet makes my goals published and makes me more accountable. kinda funny because i'm pretty sure only 3 people read this mush. ha.

i'm quitting tv.

2009-01-22T12:31:00.000-08:00

rather, i've quit tv. i don't own a television, but this awful innovation called the internet has now made so many shows available that i couldn't resist. it started with LOST. then i got hooked on grey's anatomy, which quickly spiraled into desperate housewives and private practice. to top it off i discovered nbc.com and heroes consumed days of my life. it was a disaster.

then the holidays hit, and the shows took a break. i started making things again. i started reading at night. i have even started juggling again. it's so wonderful and fulfilling. i feel like a whole human again with hobbies and skillz.

these past two weeks i've been streaming tv free. it's getting hard though. my labmate watches all the shows and drops little hints and excited squeals while at her computer and it's challenging not to load up the tube. BUT, i'm doing it. i heard that LOST started again yesterday, and i REFUSE to watch it. YOU HEAR ME, I'M TV FREE. i hope i can hold on.

I JUST WANT TO BE FREE!

pop-up cards, what WHAT?!

2009-01-19T20:40:00.002-08:00

my pop-ups from Kelly Peach on Vimeo.

i like to make pop-ups. here is a showcase of a few i've done this past year or so. i hope you like 'em!

dino hat

2009-01-19T20:40:00.001-08:00

dino hat
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

i made this hat this weekend! mikey got me a fabric store gift certificate for the holiday and i bought EPIC quantities of fake fur. i have pink (think unicorn), light blue (think narwal), neon green (see dino), black (think panther), brown (think bear), sparkley blue, white tipped blue, etc. it's a furry shit storm. my room is full of synthetic hairs making all of my clothing hilarious. there will be future design photos to follow.

not that these hats are very practical down here in sunny-ass santa cruz. it was 75 degrees today. there was a point today when i was lounging on the beach thinking, 'it's too fucking hot out.' so, i jumped up and ran through the GODDAMN FREEZING ocean to cool off. then in 5 more minutes i returned to my too toasty condition. there was sierra nevada celebration ale at the store, and i thought, 'that's silly, that beer is for winter!' then i remembered that it's still JANUARY. it was 75 DEGREES IN JANUARY. what the hell?!? not that i'm complaining. who gets to bike around in a sun dress in january? ME! i love my life....on the weekends.

more list:

did kelly ride all the way up to campus today? hell no, it's the weekend!
if no did she get halfway? nope. i did get to the beach though
health: 9 (my skin loves the sun!)
happiness: 8 (hooray for sun)
# yoga poses completed: 0
# of liters water drunk: 0.5 i suck today
servings vegetables: 6

it's 1:15am and i've come upon my second wind

2009-01-14T01:12:00.000-08:00

look! i'm caffeinated. i'm awake. i feel like i'm in college again, undergraduate that is. i NEVER stay up working on school this late anymore. kind of make me feel young again...HA.

i'm working on both of my laptops right now and feel like a big, big dork (BBD). it's pretty awesome though. also, photobooth is so fun! look at this amazing picture i've taken to share with you. no digital camera required. i love it.

MAN, i should drink black tea all the time. this is great! i'm back to work. hoo haa!

ps. everybody be careful not to get malaria. i've been reading about it A LOT and it's not good. also, if you accidently do get infected don't accept quinine as your treatment that shit will FUCK YOU UP! for real. we're talking a fat list of gnarly side effects that effect almost every single person that takes that drug. whoa. side effects include: nausea, headache, tinnitus (buzzing or ringing in your ears!), hearing impairment, dysphoria, and blurred vision. not only that, but you have to take 7 days of treatment. i'd rather stick to euphoria. don't get malaria friends!

whoa coffee shop politics

2009-01-13T20:59:00.000-08:00

holy crap the sexual tension among the coffee shop partisans at lulu carpenter's is blowin' up. it's nuts. it's better than tv. i just want to made power point slides about malaria and i can't take my eyes off everyone around me. right now there is a love triangle between an old man, a hot young girl, and a sauve philosophy grad student dude. it's high tension. the old man is PISSED about the grad student moving in and has been slamming down his coffee mug and shuffling his books ever since the new dude arrived. the girl isn't interested in either of them. all she wants is a table alone so she can check all her social networking accounts. there's also a really codependent gal. a really cute young animated couple, who should really just get a room and get it on. etc, etc. who knew i'd have such a hard time getting work done. i'm going to be awake until the wee hours of the night. damn it. back to work i guess.

thanks god for friday!

2009-01-09T15:16:00.001-08:00

DIPEA distillation
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

it's friday! this morning i was actually stunned that this day had already arrived. that seems to be how academics go though, fast as hell. it's like living life at hyper speed. which is an ideal speed for me seeing as i want to get the hell out of here as quick as humanly possible.

i'm working on a really elaborate pop-up card at home right now, and i finally understand why pop-up artists refer to themselves as 'paper engineers'. orchestrating all the events i want to see in my latest card has been a headache to say the least. it's really fun to incorporate my own drawings now that i feel like i'm a better comic artist (due to my postcard comix project). i may post a video of the pop-up in action at a later date.

this is a photo of a distillation setup required to purify DIPEA (one of the reagent in my reaction) for my fluorescent amide coupling. isn't the thermometer with a built in ground glass joint adorable?

it's a really fun purification because i get to heat the dirty DIPEA side up with a glorified super hairdryer to get it boiling.

now for the list:

did kelly ride all the way up to campus today? yes
if no did she get halfway?
health: 8 (i love riding bikes and think it helps with this)
happiness: 6 (my santa cruz transition is finally kickin' into gear)
# yoga poses completed: 0
# of liters water drunk: 1.5
servings vegetables: 4

long time hey?

2009-01-07T09:02:00.000-08:00

so, i know i suck at this blogging thing lately, but today i was inspired to return to the world wide web to share my funny life.

yesterday i tore a frozen sponge to pieces and submerged it in methanol. it smells like the ocean. dying. i even found a teensy baby brittle star clinging with it's dead arms to the crinkly surface of the sponge. the methanol is going to extract all the interesting chemicals inside and make them easily accessible. pretty cool.

lily is a friend of mine who has a fun list she completes on the internet each day. i thought that was a cool idea. so, here's my version:

did kelly ride all the way up to campus today? yes
if no did she get halfway?
health: 7 (i've been unexplainably phlegmy lately)
happiness: 4 (going to portland drug up my previous santa cruz melancholy)
# yoga poses completed: 0
# of liters water drunk: 1.4
servings vegetables: 2

i miss the shit out of portland. being in santa cruz sometimes feels like tearing out my insides one organ at a time. i am trying a new moral boosting plan to solve this indifference though. i'm going to draw and do art projects all the fucking time. no more shitty online television (damn you internet!!!). no more useless drinking. i am a mail art machine. i will craft away my sadness. you just watch. maybe you'll be a lucky victim of my crafty rampage. check your mailboxes people, i'm going nuts!

love to all the people who are my friends and read my blog. in particular, I LOVE YOU TONY! i miss you a whole bunch and know i'll make it up to seattle sometime soon to cook you breakfast ungodly early and convince you i'm still a viable friend. not just a barrage of angsty phone calls.

lady powered city pedal!

2008-07-09T22:03:00.001-07:00

4th of july pedal up to san fran
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

over the holiday weekend lovely riley and i rode our bicycles up to san francisco from santa cruz. we stayed the night at pigeon point and went to sleep dreaming that the rain clouds above us would stay at bay. (our dreams came true) the following morning a cute australian boy offered us 'a bit of breaky' aboard a squid bus filled with weekend surfers.

for the riding on saturday it was cloudy until half moon bay, where the clouds broke, and the rest of the ride was sunny with a lovely breeze. we didn't take the highway into the city, but discovered a disastrously steep climb into daly city in exchange for the speedy freeway traffic.

once we arrived we set up shop at riley's familia's house and headed out for well-deserved ice cream and a movie. we saw 'the fall'. it was amazing (i highly recommend it), and i was so physically exhausted that i bawled my eyes out. i was left feeling both mentally and physically done. but, a solid night of slept ushered in a day of city bustle. we walked for miles across the city to the zine shop, caught a jazz fest, ate chocolate, ate pizza, and headed back to santa cruz via 3 different modes of public transportation.

i think this was the first 4th of july i've never heard a single firework!

kinda nice actually...

2008-06-08T16:50:00.000-07:00

final draft of paper = done
cave rave = glorious out-of-control fun
post-party headache = raging
inorganic hw = more than half-way
presentation for final tomorrow = not started
frustration level = mediocre
timbaland album = bumpin' (HA)
mikey millz = still missing from sc
my portland anticipation = bursting from the seams
lulu's coffee shop = satisfying and motivating
my interest in taking finals all next week = nonexistent

friday seems leagues away, but it will be glorious!

hilarious!

2008-06-07T13:35:00.000-07:00

baldy beardos!

good morning saturday!

2008-06-07T08:35:00.001-07:00

THAT'S RIGHT, I'M AWAKE, AND IT'S 8:30 IN THE MORNING ON SATURDAY!!!

what's crazier is the fact that i've been up since 6:45. take that people. i've even started settling into paper writing at this point. i'm doing school work before 9 am on a saturday morning. i feel insane. it's all worth it though because tonight will be glorious, glorious silly drunken debauchery. i'm attending a 'cave rave', yes, a party in a cave 40 ft. under ground. should be a blast. i have got to finish this 8 page, single spaced, 11 pt. font, 1 in margins, with 10 references auxiliary to the references in the original science article.
how's that for shitty?
i have to remember that finals will be done in the blink of an eye and i will be whisked off to portland for a full week of bicycle fun for pedalpalooza!!!! yippee!

as you may have guessed, i'm at lulu's the only coffee shop worth beans (ha!) in santa cruz, and the crowd is delicious. all older folks chillin' and reading the paper. talking about afternoon plans, and generally waking up. this rad lipsticked fancy old lady just cleared her throat in the most elaborate and revolting manner i've seen in a long time in public, and that is awesome and totally allowed because it's goddamn 8:30 am, and no one should be feeling that stellar this early.

hoo haa!

i will slay this paper!

lavish dream embellishment

2008-05-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

two nights ago i was in a delicious deep sleep. in my dreamy realm there was an extravagant celebration taking place. i had, apparently, done something of fantastic merit that warranted recognition, thus the purpose of the celebration. everyone was waving and smiling at me as i walked across the room. i think i was being summoned up in front of the crowd to receive some honors. as i reached the front of the crowd i was jarred awake by a cacophony of sizzling and sparking noises. my room lit up suddenly, and i jumped up to see a HUGE fountain of flames and colors emanating from a mortar in the middle of the street outside my house. it was about 3:30 in the morning and there was a long, beautiful fireworks display taking place in front of my glazed, sleepy eyes. perfectly in sync with the workings of my imagination.

pretty magic.

the inferno sputtered out and i rolled back to bed with hopes of another cozy fantasy to grace the remainder of my slumber.

birthday weekend!

2008-05-21T20:07:00.000-07:00

this past weekend was my birthday weekend, and it was totally delightful. i love being old!

on friday the boys and girls at the paul sweet through a totally nutty party out in the woods that was more like an adventure. in the same way that there is a difference between vacation and traveling. traveling is sometimes hard, scary, taxing, but also exhilarating, wild and free. vacations are cushy, relaxing, and comfortable. this woods rave was none of those things, but (in my opinion at least) still a grand adventure. there were lights twinkling in the oak grove canopy with tall bikes perched in the branches. there were generator powered bumping tunes and illuminated projector screens floating in the darkness above. there were bothered police. there was a toasty bbq, hamburgers, and roasted corn. there were belligerent, obnoxious party animals harshin' all types of mellow. there was a roaring dinosaur stuffed animal. there was a full bar. there were angry hustlers demanding free drinks. there was a shiny gold lame one-piece. there was full out beat box supported bonfire rhymes. there were flying fists.
it was traveling, not vacation.
.
saturday was the 'allgirls alleycat' thrown by the local ladies-only bike club, las palomitas. the most amazing and heartwarming part of this race was the rad crew that i got to ride with. christina, riley, erica, laurel, and last but DEFINITELY not least will-a-mina. laurel was a super tough lady, new to oakland, who rolled down to santa cruz, just hoping to meet some cool gals to ride with up in the bay. this seems really intimidating to me because i'm a bit self-conscious about just jumping in the mix and keeping up with the crew. she, however, didn't have anything to worry about. she was up front the whole time on her fixie. EVERYONE else had gears and brakes aside from her. point being laurel was rad, and it was really fun to have her join our group. most awesome impromptu addition ever. will-a-mina was our friend will in drag, riding on his...ahem, her, tallbike. she definitely tore it up. chasing our speedy fancy road bikes all over town from 10 feet above us. the most awesome part of will-a-mina participating was that she was beautiful and fooled everybody. later i was talking to a gal who said she didn't know there was a new tranny girl in town! awesome. it was also will's first alleycat EVER, so it was really fun to have him as an addition to the crew too. erica tore it up on her poorly geared mountain bike like a champ. riley and i were super zoomy the whole race. christina was MVP for sure. without her we would have never made it to half the check points. she knew were every spot was! it was awesome. i've never had so much team spirit in my life.
the race took us all over santa cruz: up to the base of campus, out to pleasure point, out to the old tagged-up mansion, to the end of the wharf, etc. our crew definitely kept up like champs. it was mildly strange because there were probably 3 times as many boys running the checkpoints as there were girls racing. i guess they are just supportive! sometimes i'm not sure i like the gender polarization, if only co-ed events could bring as many ladies! i don't know why there aren't more equal turnouts more often. oh well, the world is changing in front of my eyes, perhaps this will be something i'll be lucky enough to see change in the future.

sunday, my big day! it started with mimosas, pastries, and ladies. all my favorite ladies! both chemistry and paul sweet gals. everyone was so sweet to me. i got showered in totally unexpected sweet gifts: ginger spread, chocolate, warm lemon bars, jewelry, flowers, bike tubes...i was in heaven. once everyone had had their fill of sweets we headed down the street to kiva, a spa/retreat spot. it was 'ladies morning', and the spot was packed with relaxed ladies. we lounged in the hot tub, shivered in the 'cold plunge', giggled on the perfectly manicured lawn, sweat away our worries in the sauna, and enjoyed a perfectly spoiled princess morning...

perfect. that afternoon i lounged in the park, listening to music and thinking about how lucky and stoked on life i am these days. then my fella, mikey millz, rolled up with a whole crew of biker boys. we BBQed. i beat mike at horseshoes (a miraculous display of beginners luck)! we giggled on the kids spring toys on the playground. we slack-lined. mike tried to not to scoff at my pathetic cartwheels. we cuddled on a GIANT beach towel. it was the perfect park picnic.

i know always moan about miserable graduate school when i talk to my old buddies in portland, but, as i'm sure this post has communicated, life ain't bad. in fact i am having a tough time muffling my smiles during these sunny santa cruz days. 24 is my age, and this is going to be the year of endless gratitude. i'm too lucky for bellyaching. this life has treated me too well.

speaking of which, thank you friends. you make life worth living. yes i am a cheeseball, it's my birthday I DO WHAT I WANT!

that's all!

POW!

santa cruz to san francisco via bicycle

2008-05-13T11:35:00.000-07:00

my oh my was this an epic weekend.

on friday mikey millz, ryan agler, will, and i packed and suited up for a bicycle ride. our destination: the city of san francisco. we headed out at about 11, later than was probably wise. then it was about 75 miles up to the city. we took hwy 1 the entire way. it was definitely one of the most challenging things i've done in my life. the first 30 miles up the coast was against a grueling headwind. at one point i was in my second chain ring pedaling as hard as i could downhill! i have never worked so hard to accomplish so little. after 30 miles the headwind did let up a little, which was an absolute requisite in order for me to finish the ride.

i got into the bike touring groove at about 45 miles and was feeling great. we stopped about every 5-10 miles for water, bites of food, and stretches. the night before will and mike whipped up about 15 peanut butter 'n jelly, and honey/peanut butter/banana sandwiches, which we steadily devoured over the course of the ride. i felt like i was hungry at every stop, which surprised me. the boys stopped for jooze breaks every 10-20 miles, which i did not partake in, well not much...

when we hit half moon bay everyone was feeling pretty worn out and hungry, so we chilled out at a taqueria and munched on some tasty mexican cuisine before the last leg of our trip. i was feeling pretty freaked out. the sun getting low on the horizon and we still had the toughest 1/3 of the trip still ahead of us. nothing to do, however, but jump back in the saddle. i am pretty mental when it comes to physical challenges, so this leg didn't seem as bad as i expected. i was pretty cheery and full of smiles. at one point we were bombing into pacifica and it felt just like a really steep run down OG (zoobomb!).

as the sun set so did my attitude. i was pissed by the time we arrived and left without really saying goodbye to everyone. they headed to a show and i headed to the airport via BART and then CalTrain. i was dead and the train was full of obnoxious drunk assholes coming from a) horse racing b) a shark's game or c) a giants game.

i explained my life to some real sweet squares who thought i was totally insane by the end of the conversation. then, in an effort to find out how to get to the airport i met a really rad lady named emy. she invited me to stay at her place, which was a true blessing. she gave me water, a shower, a bed, and a route to the airport for the morning. i can't explain how awesome this was.

then portland! nick graduated! the clowns won best bicycles for the st. john's parade! we rung in summer with the first portland bbq! i ate SO MUCH tasty food! i got a free plane ticket anywhere by getting bumped off my flight!

life is good. now i'm back and feel like michael j. fox in back to the future! i just can't keep track i'm moving so fast!

coming down from spring.

2008-04-29T10:26:00.000-07:00

so, it's spring, whatever, not so new to those of us in the southern half of this coast. however, all you portland folks should keep on riding that high! it's an old bag here in santa cruz, now people complain when it isn't 80 degrees with clear, sunny skies.

anyhow, here is a funny update:

1. yesterday i got the most awesome mail i've ever recieved. a first class package from BLUBLOCKER, containing my first pair of blublocker aviators. while i was flying back from richmond, va (spring break trip) i met this rad dude named geoff. we talked the entire flight, i gave him some zines and stickers, we giggled about driving across the country, and geeked out about science. by the end he said, "you have got to try BLUBLOCKERS! i'll send you some!"

check out more photos: BluBlocker Photo Shoot

thus, now i own the sweetest glasses around. i'm, in fact, wearing them right now!

2. two nights ago i had a super crazy dream. i was lying in bed (in the dream) staring at the ceiling, and observing how fucking strange it was. it was flickering between it's typical flat white and a bubbling, boiling mess. it almost looked like an abstract sea of octopus tentacles slithering and knotting together. these two states continued to glitch back and forth. suddenly i got an overwhelming premonition that this trippy ceiling was going to collapse onto me, and i dove, head first, into my wall. my head hit so hard that it woke up mike, next to me. i woke up confused and in pain right after the collision. my head hurt so hard that it was hard to think much about the circumstances that led up to the event. but, later that day i definitely felt the bump and giggled for a good 30 minutes.

crazy.

ps. check out this sweet blublocker RAP!

old men in coffee shops

2008-02-10T18:04:00.001-08:00

are keeping it real.

they come to coffee shops to philosophize, drink coffee, and read the paper.

not like all us lame-o new school kids who pop out our computers and don't socialize.

whoa science.

2008-02-09T11:35:00.000-08:00

in 5 days i'm heading up to portland for mini-bike winter. i can't contain how ultra stoked i am about returning to that dreary, gray, rainy and ultimately rad part of the northwest. in preparation for chilly pdx i took apart my old, gnarly smittens from sweetpea and reconstructed a sturdier pair for. check it out:

i think they look mighty fine.

today i'm studying SCIENCE all day and into the night. this lovely pdx vacation unfortunately fell right in the middle of my final (cross your fingers) cumulative exam required for my ph.d. thus, i will be a scientific article digesting monster for the next 60 hours so i can leave santa cruz without being guilty.

whenever i get depressed about my current agenda (today is SATURDAY, and it's 75 degrees with CRYSTAL CLEAR skies. goddamn california, doesn't it recognize that it's winter. hey california, are you TOO GOOD for seasons!?! ) i just smile and think about last minibikewinter, where i met all my best portland pals and made out with adorable canadians... mmm canadians...

we're heading up there with a sizable (well, 5 person) crew of santa cruzians. it will be fun to represent from the southwestern coast. maybe repping the weather will get some of those silly oregonians to come visit. visiting me is like a luxury vacation! that'd be my tag line.

plus, we've got bike polo:

and PBR, it's just like home!

anyhow, i should get back to the massive quantities of SCIENCE that lie in front of me.

love,
kelly

watch out portland, here i come!

2007-12-04T12:47:00.000-08:00

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.

she's got a new attitude!

2007-11-29T08:31:00.000-08:00

good morning! i'm feeling about a billion times better today, and i just wanted to let everyone know that although my past few posts have been fairly bleak i'm still as smiley and giggly as ever.

so, here is a list of this week from the flip side:

MONDAY: i worked on math with one of my favorite people.
TUESDAY: i took a super satisfying nap.
WEDNESDAY: i passed my second set of cume exams! only two more to go! i also received loads of fantastic mail from friends and newly befriended strangers.

today: i'm going to pass this organic chemistry exam and draw comix when i get home.

hooray! feeling good!

love,
kelly

my week so far.

2007-11-28T18:13:00.001-08:00

MONDAY: i forgot my keys, and i replied to credit card spam and thus had to cancel my card.

TUESDAY: i suffered from a debilitating allergy attack, rendering me useless all day long.

WEDNESDAY: i caught my pedal on the curb and fell off my bike skinning my knee and scrapping up my hands.

dear god i fear thursday!

holy allergies.

2007-11-27T20:56:00.000-08:00

yup, all day my nose was running like a faucet. i am so tired from constant sneezing and sniffling that i can't even focus on a little chemistry now that i am finally home. it's scary being so sick that you are virtually incapacitated. i did an amazing job of just ignoring it though.

here is what i did today:

1. cooked delightful breakfast.
2. rode my bike to school, FAST!
3. sniffled through class.
4. zoomed off campus by 1:30, woohoo!
5. ran around working on a mail project for friends in another country.
6. hung out in line at the post office for a decade. (it was a really quite pleasant decade)
7. installed some toe clips on the pedals of my bicycle.
8. ate some chocolate because i was bummed about being sniffly.
9. took a well-deserved nap.
10. cooked a lame dinner because my farm box (CSA that friends and i were getting weekly veggies from) ended and the farmer's market is tomorrow.
10.5. read one of the new zines i bought up in SF
11. drank tasty tea.
12. tried to start working.
13. started this post instead.

yup. things i'm thankful for today:

down to earth people who help me with my bicycle, and that don't treat me like a stupid person.

thanks bike church

good night!

Why My Life Is Amazing, by kelly peach

2007-11-25T10:42:00.000-08:00

lets start at the top!

1. i finished the last set of exams i have to take in this first quarter, thus leaving me footloose and fancy-free.

2. first thing i did after finishing the exam (aside from drinking a glass of champagne with laura) was jump on my bicycle for a camping trip with my new favorite friend, mike millz. i was completely unaware that we were going to be climbing a mountain (empire grade for all you santa cruz savvy folks) on our bicycles with all our camping gear, so it was pretty intense. the crew that rode up with us was full of really rad new folks to meet too. so far i've met a sewing buddy, polo pals, movie makers, music makers, and more!

we all watched the sunset over the ocean (something santa cruz's bay rarely makes possible) while hanging out on a really beautiful outcropping of rock. i couldn't remember the last time i really felt like i was in the 'great outdoors', which is sad and disappointing. so, this was a wonderful refuge from 'the office'. ha.

3. camping was fantastic. my sleeping bag was still pretty playafied, and the damp dew in the morning definitely cleared up all the dust it was smothered in. apparently there was a meteor shower too. i felt like i missed most of the meteors, but there were enough shooting stars to make me giggle. more champagne too. hooray for celebrating.

4. in the morning we rode to the coast and took highway 1 home. it demystified that strip of concrete, which will hopefully encourage me to do more longer bike trips in the future. plus, the ocean is unbeatable. i feel so lucky everyday i catch a glimpse of that gurgling monster!

5. bike polo! last week a bunch of folks showed atop a parking structure for polo and it was a total blast. the brake set-up on the bike i was riding forced me to play right handed (and i'm a lefty), but i figured it out after a few games. i really want to push a regular polo game here, it's such a perfect combination of goofy without losing the potential for a really good competitive match. i love it.

6. the monterey bay aquarium topped off my weekend. a bunch of us went for FREE late sunday and it was amazing, as always. the cool thing about this visit was that we were almost completely alone. as predicted i sat with my eyeballs glued on the jellyfish the whole time. i even got to do a little sketching!

7. thanksgiving! joe took burnsy and me in last minute for his feast. it was a really exciting bustling cooking environment. at one point the oven was belching huge scary flames! at other times it was just full of nice smelling desserts. good friends + fantastic food + fire = fun.

8. i bought stuff on buy nothing day. go ahead, tell me i'm a bad person. i know.

9. burnsy, peter, and i ate cake.

10. i found the san francisco zine shop! i dropped off my zine and next week i'm going to check back with them and see if they would be interested in selling it. that would be a really fun adventure. i also bought a bunch of different zines to fill up the space between now and portland. burnsy may have gotten impatient.

11. bookstore! maybe someday i will read for fun again...

12. tasty meals all day long! cooking for yourself is silly when on vacation.

13. the city! what a beautiful place with too much for one gal's eyeballs to absorb. i love the graffiti. i love the victorians. i love the hills! i love the city hall.

14. bicycling in a foreign city! now that i travel my bicycle i always have a delightful sense of freedom and mobility. it makes me wonder how i explored cities without my bike...plus, there are loads of pretty bicycles to gawk at. pretty fixies everywhere!

15. art! can't wait to make some. i collected a lot of resources this weekend, which is awesome. multi-tonal stencils here i come!

that's good!

love,
kelly

whoa.

2007-11-08T20:15:00.000-08:00

i just sat down at my favorite, generally delightful coffee shop only to be sandwiched between two people talking obnoxiously loud on their cell phones. whoa.

anyhow, this week has been total insanity. here are the highlights:

1. crazy hippies have set up shop high atop the redwood tree directly outside my building on campus. the tree is in the middle of a rather unsightly parking lot that the school has decided to tear down. in place of the current pavement paradise they are going to build a rad biomedical building! this makes the tree huggers hella pissed because that means they have to cut down that one tree in the middle of the lot. the tree sitters were fenced into the parking lot by cops. their angry hippie friends pushed through the temporary barricade to give them food. the whole front line was shot in the face with mace. then about a million more cops came with big beating sticks and beat down a few students who were being really crazy and dangerous.
aside from all the violent madness the fire alarm was repeatedly pulled in my building. lucky for me all that meant was escape from a rather dull seminar. unfortunately, however, this resulted in our building being put on serious lock-down for an undisclosed about of time. security guards man the doors, both inside and out, 24 hours a day. even the coffee cart was closed down today. insanity! luckily i just got a new set of keys 3 days before all this happened, so i am free to roam the eerily empty halls all i want.

2. the professor i really want to work for asked me to present on a paper for group meeting tomorrow, which, according to everyone i've asked, basically means he wants me in his lab. woo hoo! unfortunately the paper is almost entirely biochemistry, a course i've never taken before. not to mention the fact that the one and only biology course i ever took was over 8 years ago! so, these papers are about as easy as reading french.

ps. i never took french.

3. i love riding my bicycle. i've just recently tightened the headset on my lovely french road bike, which has unexpectedly enabled me learn how to ride no hands. at first i was all wobbly bits, but now i am so good i am starting to coast down big hills. it's the closest to flying i've ever felt in my whole life. especially with all the foggy days we've been having. nothing but huge heavy clouds of mist to fly through everywhere i turn!

ps. dad i promise i'm always careful.

4. all i do all day long is read chemistry papers. i have another (the second of 12 potential exams) cume exam next weekend. these exams entail a rigorous reading of 12 papers chosen by 3 different profs. the exams are 2 hours long on saturdays. lame. wait, Lame with a capital L.

5. i passed my first set of cumes! if i pass 3 more i don't have to take them ever again! hoo haa!

6. today sucked so i went shopping. weird.

7. i'm going to start another fabulous free fun scheme after cumes. it's similar to breakfast on bridges (a cool event that happens in portland), in the sense that i will be giving away treats to bicyclists to show my support for their choice to ride their bike. BUT, instead of giving away coffee and pastries i'll be giving away pie! we'll be called the "pie pedalers!" ha ha ha. i crack myself up.

8. i met a fantastic man on a tall bike a few weeks ago and sent him my tall bike zine. just this week he replied via snail mail with an AMAZING letter. i hope he will be my pie-pedaler-partner.

9. life feels extreme lately. i'm either extremely cheerful and happy. or extremely annoyed and concerned i've made an incorrect life choice. graduate school is all consuming and that bums me out. i need to hang out with non-students. pronto. last week i was so stressed out i pinched a nerve in my back (again!). i had to go to the health center and get a crazy shot to the hip to stop the pain. then they gave me a bunch of muscle relaxers and sent me home with the advice that i chill the fuck out. that kind of stuff freaks me out. when my body is so tense that it results in extraordinary pain somethings wrong. unfortunately there isn't much i can do about it. i have 21 credits, 4 classes to teach, cumes to study for, and i need to feed myself too! all those commitments chomp up every last hour of the day.

excluding, of course, the time i screw around on the computer or write letters to my buddies!

rant finished! sorry team.

other stuff: santa cruz is a really sweet place to live. once i meet all my new slew of bicycle buddies i'll be snug like a bug in a rug here. hopefully this pie scheme will help!

hoorah!

action shot

2007-11-04T11:17:00.001-08:00

business
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

here's me in my new place. i am in this position or one similar for about 2-12 hours a day now that i'm back in school. i've been grading, reading chemistry articles, working on homework, planning lesson plans, and more non-stop. it's finally starting to feel normal again.

i had no idea how much time grad school would actually be. it's really impressive to me. i have, however, chosen to go the 'organic' track, which requires way more work than any of the other chemistry fields here at santa cruz. but, within the next year (hopefully) this photo will be coupled with a shot of me in all my scuba gear in a really warm and beautiful place. hooray for natural products!

this weekend i went to my first ever 'stripper party' for jinsoo's 30th birthday party. it was SUPER hilarious. and SUPER expensive. i am impressed with how little the scantily clad lady had to do to make over $500 in less than an hour. makes me think i should switch my career path! ha.

did i mention that the high temperature for santa cruz today is 82 degrees. it's nothing but blue skies and blinding sun outside. the trees are still full of leaves and i'm starting to believe i live in the bahamas or something. i forgot that it was fall yesterday. i was talking about how nice this summer is and someone said, "kelly, it's november." out of control.

to be honest i kind of miss the rain. it's strange to make soup and drink tea (some of my favorite fall activities) when it's 85 degrees and sunny outside.

things are looking up!

2007-10-23T20:59:00.000-07:00

i got a delightful telephone call from my dear friend tim rappl this afternoon. i was working on an insane organic chemistry synthesis problem set, so i couldn't talk to him for long. BUT, he let me know that this evening there was potentially a chance i could watch the international space station and the space shuttle atlantis cross the sky together. i checked website and typed in my location to find out when exactly i would be able to see it. turns out the ISS and the shuttle aren't going to dock together until later this week, but i still decided to see if i could catch them cross the sky. from the coordinates i was able to catch them! it was so neat. they look like huge stars and they fly so quick across the sky.

check it out!

thursday and friday are really the best times, so i hear.

hooray!

the perfect hangover cure:

2007-10-21T12:03:00.000-07:00

reheat and eat greasy leftover phad thai coupled with a cup of orange juice.
wait 30 minutes.
drink an 8 oz. cup of totally fantastic coffee from lulu's accompanied with a square of ultra dark chocolate.

the phad thai has simmered down the unhappy stomach.
the orange juice provides some vitamins and water to rejuvinate.
the coffee and chocolate combats the spacey haze.

perfect.

i finished my first set of cumes. (a 2 hour exam on SATURDAYS! that covers anything from 12 different scientific articles. whoa, it was crazy.) laura sanchez and i are a rockin' chemistry team. almost on par with the kato/kelly combo. we may have swept up, only time will tell! think happy thoughts for us. if we pass the first 4 of these exams then we are done in two quarters. if we fail we have 11 other tries to pass.

fuck my shitty, old ass, french road bike

2007-10-17T20:07:00.000-07:00

ahem, let me rephrase that:

oh boy! i sure am glad that my bicycle has needed so many 'tune ups'! how else would i learn all this gosh darn interesting bike maintenance? plus, i learn things EXTRA well because it's a french frame and therefore has very specific needs and intricacies. it's funny idiosyncrasies mean i'm learning even MORE! i like to think of it as me becoming a more well-read 'bicycle investigator'. hooray for bike malfunction. what doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger right?

seriously though. something new on my little jeunet seems to break every damn week! it was fun when i had a bunch of time to learn about fixing bikes, but right now all i do is science. i like riding my bike to work because it means i don't have to waste time waiting for a bus. plus, bombing down i even beat cars i go so fast (sorry dad, today it was raining and i went slow just for you!). it's a time saver, all this breaking down is a time sucker.

i don't want to say it, but if i continue to have so many problems with little jeunet i may have to retire her for a bit. i might need to buy a more reliable commuter bike. oh man. that would make me sad.

things i've replaced: derailer and brake cables and housing, the rear wheel, the rear derailleur, front and back brakes, and a rear spoke. i've overhauled the bottom bracket. i've trued the rear wheel, scraped off the rust from the old ass chain with a steel brush, messed with the front derailleur limit (only one and i couldn't make it work), and lubed the ENTIRE bike.

today my front wheel started making 'ping' sounds like the spokes are unhappy! how much more can go wrong!

on a lighter note, chemistry is wicked cool. i have to read 12 scientific articles for a GIANT scary cume exam this weekend (damn organic chemistry!!!), and i am actually sort of enjoying reading the papers for natural products. neat!

love,
kelly

today

2007-10-13T23:22:00.000-07:00

i met a man with the last name lemon. he is the first person i have even met who also has a fruit for a last name. strange. he said he had met a lot of melons in the past. after we talked for a few minutes we both had to admit we had forgotten each others first names. his first name is rob. he volunteers at the bike church. he seems alright.

lulu's chai sucks

2007-10-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

santa cruz coffee shops have proven void of any even mildly acceptable chai.

all of it is too sweet and the only recognizable spice is cinnamon, tons and tons of cinnamon. for the love of god will someone in portland send me a bottle of spicy dragonfly chai. i miss the bejesus out of it.

ps. if i spend any more time at this coffee shop they may just begin to reserve a table for me in the morning.

oh chemistry, how i love spending my entire day reading paper after paper pertaining to your idiosyncrasies.

pps. did the pied cow close?!? tell me this is a vicious rumor!

a rough transition.

2007-10-07T17:31:00.000-07:00

so, i've been trying my best to initiate fabulous snail mail with friends. so far, i've got few takers. i've sent over 25 pieces of mail and gotten 3 pieces in return (two from sushi...one was 5 words long). i think i may be overwhelming people with my amazing mail. i really got into it when i started and i've been making the envelopes really fancy. perhaps snail mail is just too far removed from my generation. it's a dead method of communication. oh my that would be tragic. maybe i am just being impatient...snail mail has snail in the title for a reason. i suppose i shouldn't stop sending out excessive volumes of mail. everyone loves mail, even if they don't respond. it's hard to fight the wish for reciprocation though.

uck. i guess the lack of responses has become increasingly tough as school ramps up and i am having less fun. i spend my days, weekends included, at a computer or at a desk scribbling nonsense (at least from a non-organic chemist's point of view). i want to get out and play, meet new people, but i just don't have time. i figure since i've committed to this whole graduate school thing i may as well put in the time and energy to do it right, at least in the beginning. it's pretty horrible. i have 21 credits, i TA four classes, next week i start studying for organic cumes (big scary tests that happen every few weeks), and i am attending tons of extra seminars to find out what the hell i actually want to research.

send me some love. just a short anecdote of your day. or, send me a buck and i'll mail you my new zine called, "my friends and their tall bikes."

oh rereading this post is even more despressing. well...back to my powerpoint presentation...

trivia question for readers:

2007-09-30T09:18:00.000-07:00

how heavy (in the US. unless, luke you know the answer for canada) can a letter be before you have to pay more postage than a .41 postage stamp?

don't look it up on the internet punks!

anyone know this off the top of their heads? i had to ask in the local bookstore, i thought the reference desk would be all over it. but, they didn't know. however, the old guy they were helping did! he was awesome and a little bashful about know...i think it's because he still sends really fat juicy love letters to a special someone. that would be totally rad.

this is also a poll to see who is reading this. gimme one comment people. you're making my look boring with all these '0 comments' below my posts...

love,
kelly peach

pronoia

2007-09-30T09:00:00.000-07:00

"Rather than spin out conspiracy theories about how much we have to fear and how little control we have, SOOI strives proactively to co-create and nurture the idea of a Benevolent Conspiracy. This Benevolent Conspiracy has the effect of spreading the opposite of paranoia (sometimes called "pronoia") -- a perception paradigm where one suspects that there are forces in society (and nature itself) that are wholly concerned with and committed to our happiness and well-being." -excerpt from Snap Out Of It's webpage.

SOOI is yet another totally rad performance art group in san fran...

this is really funny because yesterday, as i was riding my bike home, i was overwhelmed with a feeling that nothing could be too bad; that somehow things always just seem to work out. if i had to characterize this past year i'd describe it as a sense of 'pronoia' arching over everything i did. it's rad to see that SOOI has actually put that feeling into words!

hooray.

next mission: dumpster tea from the good earth dumpster and serve it to biking commuters in the morning!

awesome art people!

2007-09-29T21:48:00.001-07:00

so, let me address the title first before i start getting into describing my fabulous life lately:

san francisco held the bicycle film festival recently and i went to see the films. i wrote one of the filmmakers and told him about my ballyhoo, and asked if he would be my pen pal. he said 'cool' (about the ballyhoo) and 'i'll send you new films we make' (about the pen pal part). how totally AWESOME. i sent him my zine in the mail today! to canada!

he suggested i check out an art collection called 'mammalian diving reflex' because they also had a wacky haircut event (check out my flickr page for haircuts from the ballyhoo). the MDR people had little kids give quality haircuts, a bit different from my event.

anyhow, these people are RAD. check out the website HERE!!! the social acupuncture projects knock me out. if my job were to think up, plan, and execute projects like those i would be totally happy and content. perhaps a masters in fine art will follow my phd in chemistry. that'd be pretty funny! while i san fran i also discovered REBAR. i witnessed their 'parkcycle', a pedal powered green space. they pedaled around a lawn with a big tree in the middle of it for PARK (ing) day. check out more on the website. these guys are also doing art that makes me question going to graduate school over joining an arts collective in san francisco...

the cabinet library is particularly fabulous!

okay! onto my new life.

school is...well...i haven't really gotten back into school mode to be honest. i understand that i need to get serious and start putting my nose to the grindstone, but i don't even really remember what that entails anymore! i wrote down some organic chemistry mechanisms today, that was good i guess. but the rest of the day was totally AMAZING.

yesterday is really when the good stuff started. after classes i spent hours in the library finishing up the layout for my new zine titled, "my friends and their tall bikes." i drew many of my portland buddies' bicycles when i first got to santa cruz, mainly because i was feeling a bit lonely without them. as the drawings multiplied and i became more and more excited about them i decided to turn them into a zine. i darn good one at that, in my opinion at least. after finishing the layout and printing a 'master copy' i headed to kinkos and completed my first 'small press run'. 12 copies total. for now at least. as i was leaving kinkos (a horrible corporate institution i don't plan on returning to) i ran into critical mass! i haven't ever been on a critical mass ride before, believe it or not, so i joined them. it was fun meeting some new faces, but i was so excited about my new zine it was hard to think about anything else. i've worked on it for hours each day for the last 2 weeks. it's a lot of work to make a zine! anyhow, i met some great new friends and as i left many of them shouted kind goodbyes.

however, my previous negative ideas about critical mass were only made more concrete on the ride. there were lots of pissed off cars revving their engines and passing too close at high speeds (something i rarely experience cycling on my own). plus, our group didn't behave in a very respectable manner. twice the group started riding in a big circle in the middle of the intersection holding up traffic in all directions. a few drivers tried to push past the cyclists, which is really unsafe and scary, yet provoked by the riders! i didn't see how this exercise was helping the biking cause. the whole group rode THROUGH trader joe's, which simply generated more negative attention. i finally got fed up after riding 4 blocks down a one way street the wrong way. at that point i felt shameful for our behavior and noticed i was beginning to sympathize with the annoyed looks on the oncoming drivers faces. luckily riding a bike offers you the ability to choose your own adventure and i smoothly split off from the group without feeling any guilt about abandoning ship.

later that evening i rode my bike across town to dr. wasabi's house. he was leading a 'pie ride' that day, where a group starts by biking to pick fruit and ends up at someone's house baking pie. i caught the end of the party. all the tasty pie and none of the work! ha. there i met a lady with a huge garden full of sweet pumpkins, hopefully i will be able to use some for my own pies this fall!

santa cruz is a fun place to bike because you really can ride to EVERYTHING. nothing is ever too far away. plus, i think i've gotten to the point where i am so comfortable with biking and clear that it's my only form of transportation that riding my bike feels natural. when i started i remember being annoyed with how much longer it (seemed!) to take. however, after comparing it with buses, especially here in santa cruz where they run far less frequently than in portland, it really isn't any longer. in fact, i often get places quicker. and, the more i bike the more i find myself really getting places fast! strange how that works hey?

today i wrote constructed some AWESOME envelopes to send off some zines in, cleaned my room, tried to focus on a little chemistry, and then headed into town. i love doing errands. it's such a great way to have strange, interesting interactions. after errands i sped off on my bike to my new friends beautiful garden. i left with a TON of tomatoes (many of them heirloom) and a belly full of raspberries. yum. as i was riding through the sunny city i had one of those, "my life is just perfect" moments. it felt really good, especially because i have been having a bit of a hard time transitioning into my new life.

some choices i think have contributed to my success:

1. i've refrained from going out to the bars with everybody in the department. i kinda think social drinking at bars is a big ol' waste of time. i'd rather ride my bike somewhere and drink. or read. or write letters. man, i feel like kind of a prude, but i've been having way more fun lately without wasting hours of my life drinking. there's simply too much to do in a day!

2. i've really enjoyed my alone time. i've started pleasure reading again. (right now i'm working on Homer's odyssey, which is awesome. life has never seemed so grand!) going on long bike rides. cooking really tasty veggie rich dinners. making a zine. writing letters! writing letters to strangers that i admire (this one is particularly satifying. they are the only people who have really written me back much!). it's also nice writing to strangers who seem 'out of my league' because when they write back it's really encouraging.

3. i've started finding 'my people' in santa cruz. sunday's i head out to the lighthouse for group hula hooping sessions. i've spent a good hunk of time at the local community bike shop working on my bike and talking to the folks there. turns out there's a local ladies bike gang that goes on rides every week. not spandex warrior rides either. i met a guy at kinkos who helps organize the guerilla drive-in (more like walk/bike/bus-in). people here are neat, and i'm slowly getting to know them.

4. i've been SLOWLY easing my way in. i was so manic in portland it's nice to slow down and relax now that i'm in santa cruz. no need to start planning any festivals. although...i am working on a few ideas....more later.

yup, that's all for now!

i woke up and put together really wonderful packages.

california is all right!

2007-09-23T20:27:00.000-07:00

well, it's good to know that the fun doesn't end once you leave portland. i've almost hit the 2 week point in my new location, santa cruz, california. last week was a bruiser. it started out with innocent orientation information meeting and crescendoed into a nightmare of entrance exams. after 6 hours of tests in chemistry subjects that i barely remember taking in college i was ready to escape for the weekend.

with my bike in tow i headed up the coast to san francisco. bike on a bus. bike on a train. bike under my feet! this weekend the Bicycle Film Festival was stopping in the city and i was ecstatic to check out the bike subculture up in san fran. fixed gear bicycles/track bikes are all the rage. i was in line with one neat guy joking about how ridiculous all the wicked fancy/expensive fixies are here and he laughed in agreement saying he was a bit annoyed/embarrassed to ride his conservative track bike in this ultra saturated environment. he laughed about how he felt like he'd unintentionally joined the crowd.

later i run into him with my rusty, dirty, squeaky, old french road bike only to discover him sporting his ULTRA FANCY fixie. he checked out my ghetto fabulous ride, ogling my (direct quote) "industrial chic paint job". when he inquired as to how i achieved such a sweet effect with the colors and variation in shade i had to let the guy know it was just a really old bike; naturally weathered over time. it was a really hilarious moment. i really didn't encounter that many vintage frames over the weekend, which made me giggle considering the fact that i rarely encountered anything but vintage frames in portland.

san francisco feels far less friendly that portland in general, but at the festival everyone was really fantastic. i hung out with a man that had a pedal powered generator attachment on his xtracycle, and traveled around playing music with the help of audience participation. he, along with many others, further fueled my interest in xtracycles. as soon as i find a way to get my trek hybrid down here i am planning on making my first investment in one so i can start going on camping trips down the coast. ah, what a life hey?

i also ran into an awesome dude named brian who i seem to run into all over the west. i met him in portland, saw him again (with his beautiful pink tall bike) at burning man, and once again bumped into him at the film fest. he gave me a big hug and we, once again, reminded each other of our names! funny how that seems to matter so little the more amazing people you meet. there was also a really great guy named aaron there who didn't make it to any of the films because he had spent the whole weekend building a sweet ultra stretched out cruiser that he was sharing with everyone. i took it around the block giggling at the silly dimensions the whole way. he was a blast and we had a good dance session to james brown later that evening.

the most exciting encounter was with a really wonderful guy named daniel. we met in a small enclosed box , in the middle of the desert, full of mirrors and christmas lights during one of the more epic dust storms at burning man this year. he was the only person i met on the playa that rocked a fixie and i got to give him props for that type of dedication! i mentioned that i may attend the film fest, half imagining it wouldn't be possible, but sure enough we ran into each other friday afternoon. small world hey?

we ended up talking a bunch. it was super fun to talk to someone pursuing really cool community based projects in the city. it's rad to meet other people out there who cherish playing, love to build stuff, and are making things happen! i loved his company and maybe in the future we can work on a project together. hooray for new friends.

aside from all the neat folks the films were really amazing as well. there was a lot of super 8 footage, which exudes a strange magic no matter the subject being filmed. in conjunction with bicycles it was really powerful and beautiful. super 8 footage reminds me of old photographs. i love it. particularly the film 'SKI.BOYS'. it was put together by the zenga brothers, who are also involved in the winking circle. the video is all about playing. they ride bikes because it's fun and makes them laugh. if you ever get a chance to see the film don't miss it. it plays in all sorts of bicycle film fests. it's actually the third time i've seen it at a bike film fest...

the last show was fixie mania. i've never seen so many aerospokes in my life! the crowd went nuts the whole time. messengers everywhere. afterwards burnsy (a guy from my burning man camp who is a gem of gems) and peter went on a bike ride. well, we climbed hills really. san francisco has hills like i've never known. they just go on forever at grades you wouldn't believe.

i've been climbing a lot on my bike lately because the university of california, santa cruz campus is perched above the city atop a sizable hill. it's about 4.5 miles up and about 4 of those miles consist of significant uphill grades. at the top of the hill i'm panting and waving around my arms like rocky. some mornings i even throw a few punches into the air and giggle to myself amongst the giant redwoods that encase my building. note the usage of 'my' in that last sentence. i even have an office! you can send things to me via the chemistry department. i have my own mailbox! i feel so official. okay, okay i share the office with 18 other people, so what!

the point of this tangent being this: before this weekend i really felt like i'd been climbing some serious hills. but they're nothing compared to the hills in san fran. they are generally pretty short, but they are steep as sin. my road bike only has 10 speeds and i have to shift my front derailer with my foot, so it was quite an adventure heading up to buena vista park from the mission.

turns out vintage french parts are hard to find and the derailer on there now only has one limit screw, which is strange and thus results in my resorting using a flip flop to change gears. it is actually pretty fun, especially when you ride with people that have fully functioning bicycles. when they realize that i am shifting with my feet we usually have a pretty good laugh. i also have friction shifting, which is great for portland. lately, however, while climbing hills the shifters slip and inevitably at the point where i really have to put my all into pumping up a hill i accidentally am shifted into a tougher gear against my will. bummer.

okay that's the end of my mini bike rant.

the view from the park was really awesome. you get up above the city really quick and then it's all glittering lights intertwined with an obsidian ocean. riding down almost makes the climb worth it. flying down steep hills in the dark is hard to beat (zoobomb!). it was nice to get some riding in after sitting in a theater all day. finally we returned to capp street for the afterp party. there were a bunch of fun bikes to be ridden in the street. i love people who build bikes because they will inevitably be stoked on letting other people try them out. freak bike builders are often refreshingly humble too. i attempted and (unfortunately) failed to free mount the tall bike, which was pretty frustrating. each tall bike is different and sometimes it's tricky to learn how to mount a new one. i need to build a really tall one for myself without a step so i will finally master the real tall ones. then i will be an unstoppable freak bike riding machine. hooray!

it took some encouraging, but burnsy pulled me away from the street and up 6 flights of stairs to the 'after party'. it's times like these that i am reminded that this city is a real deal city, unlike portland. the view was nothing but giant sky scrapers and twinkling lights. the parties i've been to are either in gallery spaces or ghetto warehouse rooms. they are so 'industrial chic' it makes me giggle. i always feel like i've stumbled onto a movie set. like a man with a fuzzy microphone is going to push me out of the shot at any moment.

the party was a blast. parties full of bikers are always fun because we need to play. all night long there was a tiny little bike (maybe a foot and a half long) with a giant person teetering atop it attempting weaving through the sea of well-defined pairs of calves! people were running double dutch next to the hilarious dance floor, and later that space was taken over by some slack line people who rigged up a p-cord line and were rocking it amongst many an astonished attendee.

i had a blast meeting new faces and giggling at all the silly games we play. that's why i love parties like this. it's great to witness people get bored of standing around, and rather than leaving they create something, change up the atmosphere, and inevitably have people smiling in seconds.

what else. i collected some potential pen pal addresses and am stoked about my new print project. the perfect snail mail gift. oh baby.

ps. upon arriving home i was whisked to a fantastic 'san francisco mime troupe' performance and then headed on my bike down a beautiful road along the west cliffs to hula hoop the sun away!

moral of the story. fun people live in california too. i met some really good ones! inspiration lives!

sorry i didn't edit this. it's probably a grammar disaster!

exciting things happening tomorrow:

1. receiving the entrance exam results
2. pay day! this will be the first paycheck i've seen in weeks. fresh produce here i come!
3. meeting older grad students at a chemistry department retreat with an open bar. thank you government for funding science; an honorable cause indeed.

ohhh!

2007-09-17T23:26:00.000-07:00

right now i am so full of playful energy i'm practically giddy. i've been drawing all evening and enjoying myself thoroughly but now i am all wound up with no one to giggle with. it's a true disaster. 11:29pm, monday, and i'm alone without someone to roll around with and just laugh.

i miss your laughs portland.
i miss your sweet smiles mooncake rebellion.
i miss your sarcasm tony!
i miss your bikes chops.
i miss your couch kitten shak!
i miss your silliness jollies.
i miss your steamy saunas bellingham!

oh man. all alone in a new city. i remember this feeling. bummer. welp, i'll just have to bottle up all this bubbly fun and save it for a latter date. some unsuspecting graduate student in my near future is in for it!

i miss all you dears in a way words couldn't ever describe.

thank you for all these wonderful memories that are dancing across the horizon of my psyche.

santa cruz! wowie

2007-09-13T13:22:00.000-07:00

riding my bike home from campus yesterday i thought about my biking experience and came to this conclusion:

i am a fresh water cyclist, rather than a deep sea cyclist.

yup

that's all!

mooncake rebellion

2007-09-10T23:25:00.001-07:00

teahouse
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

mooncake rebellion (the most delightful theme camp on the playa) was kind enough to take in this jolly camp refugee for this years burn. i was associated to the camp through shawnie, a fellow bicycle maniac from portland. i really didn't know anyone in camp, aside from a few portland encounters, before we arrived on the playa. by the end i was smitten. i've fallen in love with each and every individual...repeatedly.

how i've managed to actually move away from these darlings is beyond me.

this photo is a shot of our shade structure/teahouse. a magical miracle in itself. i slept up top, in the loft, practically every night. it was always full of air matresses, blankets, pillows, and cuddle buddies. every night was a giant camp cuddle puddle. i loved it. tents were abandoned for the glory of the loft. i've truly come to understand how some people never leave camp after experiencing such a wonderful and elaborate space and the phenomenal lovies at the mooncake rebellion.

i'm a lifer. those folks couldn't shake me if they tried.

cascadianTourSept07

2007-09-06T15:38:00.001-07:00

cascadianTourSept07
Originally uploaded by revphil

mark your calendar! these films are totally over the top and outrageous. plus, they all feature my portland buddies.

i may even be in one of the films...

bellingham's showing will be at the pickford. don't miss it! serious.

more info (venues, gossip, etc.) at the following LINK!

late nite pizza and beer party in the park

2007-09-06T14:27:00.001-07:00

PR203
Originally uploaded by kellypeach

here's a classic midnight ridazz hit portland group photo. rev borfo and brassknuckles are sandwiching me in the middle. what a weekend, what amazing folks. watch out LA, i'll be there soon!

ps. flickr and google and blogger are being crazy right now.

portland goodbyes

2007-09-06T12:30:00.000-07:00

i did a great job lying the bricks for the foundation of my new life in portland. in fact, that foundation was a bitch to demolish once i decided to uproot and head to school in santa cruz. i should pay those construction dudes extra because the mortar between those bricks was flawless and tough as steel. in fact some of the connections were impossible to break. my heart will have to remain stretched, on the verge of tearing, across state lines.

as many of you know i'm a bit of a softie, thus goodbyes are super hard for me. i like them to be perfect and resolute. i hate it when you whisper your last nothings, place your last kisses, and squeeze your last embrace only to run into the recipient 5 minutes later on your final visit to the bathroom. anyhow, there was no way to say goodbye to all my precious, precious portland friends before i left. in fact, out of emotional self-preservation i presume, i got strep throat right before i left to burning man (i was still taking antibiotics mid-way through the week at black rock city), so i felt like shit for my final few weeks in portland. i was in no mood to see anyone. i had a lymph node in my neck swell up to the size of a lemon and people generally wanted to avoid me altogether anyhow.

luckily my antibiotic prescription was timed to allow 5 days of wellness (a false sense of health?) to run around like the crazy person i am and attend all my FINAL bike events, uncover a sweet veiled love, and drink myself silly one last time.

ALSO, folks from the LA bike club, the midnight ridazz, came up and ransacked our home for a weekend. they provided an endless supply of food, booze, and merriment to distract me from my looming departure. talk about insanity. by the end of the weekend they were up to 10 injuries, 3 of which required a trip to the emergency room. they must have administered over 20 wacky haircuts with buzzers they plugged in wherever they went. oh and there where megaphones...with police sirens built in. two BBQs, the dropout's ride, zoobomb, some quality COCOC time, a late night free pizza raid, march forth block party, and (of course) early morning waffle tacos. it was a weekend to remember, and now i get to visit those crazy LA cats and see how they do it in the big city (so close now!...well, so close soon...will i ever get to santa cruz)

yeah. how's that for a portland wrap-up. none of that crappy, 'now i will make a massive list of the people i want to thank for improving my life and thus exclude half of my lovies because those lists are stupid and never do it right.'

yup.

that's the scoop.

ps.

2007-08-06T14:56:00.000-07:00

more costa rica and nicaragua stories to come. i didn't take my camera, so
i'm waiting for joe and will to post their photos before writing much. color pictures will definitely speak louder than my discombobulated words.

adjustments!

2007-08-06T13:24:00.000-07:00

it's interesting that while even traveling all over a foreign country i've still accrued a strange new collection of routines and mannerisms. upon returning to portland i've been perplexed and surprised by the extent to which my travels have affected my daily life. to be honest it's been a fun reminder of my adventure, which already seems very far off now that i've jumped back on my bicycle and started attending all the fun activities and gatherings that are constantly stacking up each week in this absurdly busy city.

here is a list of a few of the adjustments i've made upon my return:

1. drinking tap water! i found myself heading to the bottled water section of the grocery store on a few different shopping trips before remembering portland has a glorious water treatment program that eliminates all those nasty water bugs in lots of central american water. the act of turning on the tap and sipping water directly blew my mind this first week home!

2. eating fresh produce! veggies just aren't that big a deal in costa rica or nicaragua. rice and beans, yes. leafy things, no. shopping the safeway produce section left me a bit weak in the knees, and i checked out with a basket full of veggie and fruit exclusively. so tasty!

3. for the first few days i came frighteningly close to throwing toilet paper in the trash, rather than the toilet. in both costa rica and nicaragua the plumbing is so poor there are signs directing you to toss your soiled toilet paper in the trash to avoid clogging the plumbing. yes, this does mean that every toilet you enter smells like shit. you get used to it. it almost feels more natural, the place where everyone poops should smell like poop, not roses, that's confusing!

4. riding my bicycle. i forgot how much coasting feels like flying! i spent a lot of quality time with my jeunet riding with no distinct destination, just riding to feel the wind rush through my curls. oh wow, there's a pretty gross cliche, but it's true!

5. quiet bus rides (with AC!). where's the man screaming the buses final destination? where are the women selling tacos and soda? where are the street kids peddling cigarettes? why am i not sweaty and cramped? why is this road paved? where is the sheer imposing cliff on our right? this is all wrong...

6. spending lots of money again. this is the worst. realizing that i can no longer purchase a huge tasty meal for dinner at a sit-down restaurant for $2.50. damn it.

7. sleeping on a queen sized mattress. heaven. it's more than 2.5 inches thick, it doesn't have pokey bars jabbing me, it smells nice, it has a memory foam pillow (!), and i know whose slept in it before me. yeah.

that's it for now. more to come as my culture shock is fully articulated.

i miss you all!

back in action

2007-07-30T11:21:00.000-07:00

holy moly, my life is so funny these days. as many of you know i like making split second decisions when it comes to big life choices. this tendency was curbed throughout college because i was on a nice school track that imposed a good amount of structure to my madness. i could only push so far until to the institution pushed back. now, however, since i've graduated it's been total pandemonium.

here's some examples for a frame of reference:
i put on a crazy four day free fun festival during which i simply didn't sleep. each week i fly around this city on my bicycle fluttering from one wacky event to another, trying to fit something into all the space alloted to me. i also tend to spend all my money rather frivolously on fun things/food/entertainment that makes me and other people happy simply because i feel like to and think saving money is silly (for me). i decided to go to costa rica for a month on a whim. i decided to enroll in graduate school at uc santa cruz on a whim. i skip out of town for insane bicycle events a lot. if not bike events, i'll skip out of town for something else as equally ludicrous. i spend a lot of time at work trying to reorganize my schedule and drop shifts to accommodate fun, rather than working, like you are supposed to when you have a job...

bottom line for me is that NOTHING is set in stone. thus, i am writing to announce that i indeed changed my mind again. i simply can't miss burning man, so despite how insane it's going to make things i will be heading down to black rock city at the end of the summer to attend yet another crazy 8 days in the desert.

the reason this year is particularly insane is because i am planning on simultaneously moving to santa cruz. so, i'm going to bring all my essential belongings with me down to burning man and then hope and pray someone there will be interested in toting me and my things with them back to santa cruz after the man burns. woah. i hope that works... there is a little more organization involved. i've sort of talked to a friend in santa cruz who thinks he may know friends that may have space on the way home, but using burning man as a mode of moving is still totally absurd.

ah, for some reason the madness is strangely comforting. i love living everyday of my life like it's an adventure. routine is nice and comfortable, but mayhem is somehow more my style these days.

hooray for fun. hooray for summer. okay, i'm off to work...hehe.

costa rica and nicaragua pictures on the way!!!

ps.

2007-07-30T01:21:00.000-07:00

next weekend (august 3rd to the 4th or 5th depending on work) i'm going to be in seattle for the 'dead baby downhill' bicycle hullabaloo, so if you are in the area give me a ring and maybe we can hang out. it will probably be a pretty jam packed weekend, but that's how everything feels lately!

love,
kelly peach

good morning america!

2007-07-30T00:38:00.000-07:00

i'm back from costa rica and nicaragua finally. after a month of action and adventure packed travel i've returned to the cozy streets of portland. there are too many stories to reiterate in blog world, so if you want to know how my trip was give me a call or invite me to coffee or donuts...yum.

upon returning to portland i was quickly reunited with my darling bicycle. it was rather awkward at first. being out of the saddle for almost a month left we wobbling like bambi for a good 5 minutes, but we ironed things out and were soon flying through the streets, as usual. i forgot how smooth and delightful bike travel can be. i was soaring through all the familiar neighborhoods with a goofy smile, giggles, and absurd loud public proclamations of satisfaction. examples: "HOORAY!" and 'yeah bikes!'

here is a recap of the past 72 hours (plus or minus a day or two...):

i rolled into town and was dropped off at the greyhound station to cancel my ticket (because i caught a ride from SFO to PDX instead). i then walked home to save my bus fare for later that day. turns out it's a pretty long walk from the greyhound to ainsworth, about 3.5 miles to be exact. this was crazy considering i had spent a full day on a bus, a full day on a plane/in an airport, and a full night driving back to portland from san fran without getting much sleep at any stage in time. by the end i was super pooped. until i received a phone call saying my bike was downtown (coincidentally parked outside the greyhound station). i jumped on a bus and was soon caressing the new pink grip tape on my drop bars while weaving through familiar se streets. i ran into carl and picked lots of wonderful greens from his garden. then finally rode home. i headed to work to find out my schedule and get some free food. then jumped on my bike again to head to the mystery movie ride! halfway through the ride i got bored because none of my friends were on the ride so i headed over to the clinton street theater for bike porn 2.0. i talked to the lady at the front for a long time and explained i didn't really want to see the movie i just wanted to hang with my friends inside and thus was uninterested in paying the $6 they were asking. she was tough about it at first, but later softened up and let me by. it was great to see tom rolf, gabe, nature boy, shawn, revphil, jay, and some other classy folks i'd missed a lot during my trip. there were lots of hugs and good laughs. once the porn ended a small crew headed to the mystery movie (at this point i am delirious tired and not even thinking straight enough to realize heading to the movie is a super stupid idea for me). the movie is at oaks bottom and was beautifully executed. lots of new upbeat folks, a really good scene. i was unconscious in the grass for most of the movies...and at about 3:30 nature boy and i started the epic 7.2 mile trek home. i was so tired and buzzed that it felt like nothing. my body was definitely in autopilot mode. at about skidmore we ran into josh, who gave me a big welcome home hug and was his general fabulous self. i forget how wonderful some folks in this community are sometimes...

we talked and hung out with him a bit until finally finishing the journey home. i went to bed at 4:20am, not kidding. then woke up at 7:15 am to meet tuey for breakfast, as i told her i would in a note from nicaragua. tuey and i don't have each other's phone numbers and communicate entirely through snail mail, so i was really riding across town with the feeling that she may show up. turns out she got my letter, but was in montana. at this point i was feeling really crazy and more exhausted than ever. so, before 9 am i have already ridden downtown and back home without any justification (about 10 miles) and on zero sleep.

i spent the rest of the day napping sporadically, checking and clearing out the 1000 emails i had clogging my mailboxes, eating the greens i picked at carls, showering, and generally chilling the fuck out. however, that could never last very long with me. at some point i decided to go on a 'run', and kicked it about 3 miles to the park and around the cute neighborhoods near me. i don't really run much these days, i don't run ever rather, so i was super tired afterwards. then i remembered that there was a hot tub party, and decided to go. it was unfortunately about 9-10 miles away in deep southeast portland. jump on your bike! it's lucky i missed biking so much because i was up for some really epic journeys as a result.

it was all worth it. i rolled up and was greeted by some really great folks. tiago, adrianne, gabe, nature boy, and carl being some notable greats. there was bbq, there was guitar, there was beer, and there was a hot tub OH YEAH. the perfect summer night party. i was so relaxed and happy. PLUS all the northeast crew was put up for the night on very comfy futons. the morning was classic. we cooked up some bacon pancakes (something i ate in nicaragua and thought would be hilarious to reiterate in the states), an awesome egg scramble, and gnawed on lots of other breakfast treats. while gorging ourselves we watched 'OVER THE EDGE' a hilarious film about teenage mutiny in the suburbs. i can't believe i hadn't already seen it because it is a true cinematic gem. highly recommended.

then we all packed up and headed up to washington state to a state park with waterfalls. the weather wasn't too conducive for swimming, especially compared to the tropical weather i have become accustomed to in the past month. it was good for some adventuring and i really liked getting back into the pacific northwest forest. non-deciduous trees are pretty awesome and just don't really exist in costa rica or sw nicaragua. i missed them.

conveyor belt sushi was the perfect cap to a perfect sunday.

the ride home was really nice with the great company of gabe and nature boy. i love those dudes. upon entering the house i realized from the gore on the tv that it is officially SHARK WEEK on the discovery channel, so i reveled in a bit of carnage before sitting down in the guest room to write this post.

i feel like i jumped right back into the fray of portland. i definitely hit the ground running. it feels great and i can't wait to pack in as much as possible before burning man and my move down to santa cruz. WOAH. 4 weeks, do it better.

oh, that last comment about the guest room may be confusing. i sublet the yurt for the month of july, so i am kind of in house limbo until august 1st. it's cool though, gives me an excuse to visit all my favorite cuddle buddies around town!

i missed everyone! send me email. how have your summers been!

S-T-R-E-T-C-H-E-D!

2007-06-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

that's right people i am feeling stretched. i really wanted to write about my glorious, glorious event more, but there has simply been no time at all. period. i am constantly riding my bike to an event, planning an event, attending an event, or trying to do things to make money for my TRIP TO COSTA RICA! it's really a backbreaking job, having so much fun.

the funny thing about this complaint is that three months ago i dreamt of a time when i would be so overloaded with fun. i wanted each minute of each day to be packed with great people and great fun activities. my dreams have come true! now i want my hour long coffee breaks back. i want to go to bed early and wake up at the crack of dawn to mosey down to the fresh pot and journal/read zines/send emails/space the fuck out.

truth is i am exceedingly happy with my current situation. my worries are all based on fears of the future. A.) how will i pay for my trip to costa rica? B.) how much am i going to miss portland while i am in costa rica? C.) how much am i going to hate graduate school? D.) how much am i going to miss portland while i am at graduate school? E.) how much fun am i having learning about this new person i really like a whole bunch? F.) how much of a bummer is it going to be to have that adventure end (end is too harsh a word, but you get the picture) when i move to santa cruz?

but, yes there is a flip side:
A.) how beautiful is santa cruz, ca? B.) how hilarious is it going to be to live in a yurt down there throughout the winter? C.) how awesome of a surfer will i be after living on the ocean for 2 years? D.) how much do i miss chemistry? (a lot is the answer) E.) how cool will it be to get a FREE masters degree? F.) how rad will it be to have all my friends visit me during the year? (most beautiful vacation spot ever!)

those are the thoughts in my head right now. it's all very overwhelming. but, i am doing a fairly bang up job of busting through and maximizing fun despite the concerns.

that's all for now

updates:
1. i am not going to burning man
2. i am going to graduate school
3. i am going to costa rica for 3 months of july
4. i am selling stuff (hats and bags and cards) to make $ for costa rica (email me if you want a kelly/ande special from this exclusive collection)
5. living in the yurt is really special since it has stopped raining
6. the ballyhoo was a raging success i am just too busy to write much about it

that's all!

today.

2007-06-12T01:28:00.000-07:00

i finally slept for more than 4 hours last night, which is the first time that has really happened in about 2 weeks! here is a good list of how things went today:

1. i woke up at 8:15. my ankle hurt a bit because ande and i ate shit on the hawthorne bridge coming back from zoobomb last night. how funny. we didn't crash zoobombing, which a ton of people do, but we did bite it on the safest bridge in town on the way home. ande's fancy bmx bike almost got hit by a minivan, but i yanked it out of the grating before that happened. injury-wise i was totally fine compared to ande...i really took him out. yikes.

in my head at 8:15am this morning i thought... 'shit i'll have to book it home to get to work on time.'

2. i kicked it to ne really fast on my bicycle. it was cold, and thus a fabulous way to really wake up.

3. at work my least favorite crew was working. it would have sucked, but today everyone was great. i think it was because i finally went to bed at a decent hour last night.

4. i came home and examined my tire the whole ride...a slow leaker maybe?

5. right as i was turning a clown named 'will workforfood' said, "have a good rest of your ride" and smiled at me.

6. i bantered a bit with housemates.

7. i did a long yoga session in the yurt.

8. i showered, brush my teeth, moisturized, etc. all the neglected hygiene of the past whirlwind accounted for!

9. i met ande at a really good ethiopian restaurant for dinner. it was delicious.

10. we rode to the wonder ballroom for the datarock show. ande said it was $12, then later $15, but it was really $19. we didn't have enough cash and he really wanted to go. i like them too, so we bought a lemonade to get cash back up the road. the guys at the door made us chug the drink before going in. it was really gross. inside we discovered that we had already missed datarock's performance. crap! a rad lady who calls herself 'planningtorock' was tearing it up. she made the night worthwhile.

11. hot chip kinda sucked. plus, people kept trying to cut through our space, which was a bummer.

12. we busted out of the theater and bought juice at a 7-11. i also bought 2 red vines, and the lady at the counter gave me 2 more because she liked my furry mohawk helmet. we then walked to a bench and drank it. i changed an IMPEACH sticker to just say PEACH and took pictures for lily and tony.

13. both of us rode home. it was really cold. hanging out like bums on bus stop benches is dumb. we laughed a lot though, and that's good.

common things that happen to me these days:

FIRST: people often give ande and i free things. we've pretty much got something free everyday for the past 2 weeks. examples of free things we've received: vegan chocolate covered espresso beans ($10 worth), 2 red vines (20 cents worth), 2 dozen fresh vegan voodoo donuts (lots of money), an 8' by 4' white board, 2 cups of coffee, pizza, lots of tofurky, and more! here's the 3 key ingredients we've identified that facilitate us getting free stuff: 1. be poor. 2. look funny. 3. be charming.

SECOND: i am always doing things. i never stop. i am either constantly riding my bike, hanging out with people who like to ride bikes, giggling with my fun co-director, building interior systems, planning events, hauling fun things to events, or working at hot lips ALL THE TIME.

THIRD: people really like the 'dream team supreme'. we get invited to help with projects all the time. it's cool to now have the experience of planning an event because now lots of people talk to me about their projects and want me to help them!

FORTH: bikes are always ridden.

FIFTH: i am usually with ande.

SIXTH: my helmet now has a fatty strip of fuzzy fur over it, like a mohawk. it's slamming!

SEVENTH: i don't blog anymore, or enough anymore due to extremely busy circumstances.

ballyhoo photos

2007-06-06T00:41:00.000-07:00

here are the photos.

soon there will be updates. i'm still in recovery. safe to say the ballyhoo was a raging success.

love,
kelly

new website!

2007-05-24T20:39:00.001-07:00

http://ballyhoo.sprockettes.org/

check it yo!

today

2007-05-24T20:23:00.000-07:00

list of things that happened today:

1. i woke up in the nook because last night i freaked myself out in the yurt alone and couldn't sleep.

2. i had terrible dreams and when my friend called to go running i was angry and annoyed on the phone.

3. i spent the morning on the internet ballyhooing

4. i am starting to feel stressed out most of the day.

5. leah came over and it was nice to hang out with another person. i've been pretty lonely planning all this ballyhoo business alone in my house all the time. email is so bland. i miss my friends.

6. the willamette week (a pretty big name newpaper) is going to post the ballyhoo and i've been desperately searching for a picture for them...i did that for too many hours today.

7. leah and i tried to have a neighbor take an action shot of us with our chins on our handlebars. it turned out horrible, and we giggled a lot.

8. i made a list of too many things i need to buy tomorrow.

9. i fixed a flat tire on my bike.

10. i found a coleman double burner for donut holes in the park next friday

11. i called my friend will draper, who i love and don't talk to enough.

12. he told me about a trip he is going to take to costa rica with my friend joe.

13. i think i'm going to go with them to costa rica. in fact, i'm positive i'm going to go.

yeah. i am going to bed early tonight. breakfast on bridges in tomorrow and i am pumped! who wants free donuts on the broadway bridge!

love,
kelly

check it!

2007-05-23T00:07:00.000-07:00

http://ballyhoo.sprockettes.org/

some would call me insane...they would be entirely correct.

The First Quarterly Moon Castle Ballyhoo will commence in t-minus 8 days.

holy fuck.

things i did today:

1. built hoops with vanessa for family fun day.

2. emailed free geek about securing projectors for movies

3. filled out form to get free food from tofurky for the bbqs

4. postered all around SE portland

5. called dead letter about a vcr and free beer

6. wrote marc about bike routes

7. posted the events that are primarily bikey on the shift list

8. wrote city repair asking if they would publicize the event online

moral: everything i do includes the words BALLYHOO!!!

happy birthday juggling festival mania!!

2007-05-21T19:40:00.000-07:00

this past friday was my birthday and i've officially turned the ripe ol' age of 23. i suddenly feel like an adult, albeit a very immature and silly adult. i've been living alone in a big-ish city without anyone i previously really knew well for almost 8 months now. i've made a huge new host of friends that i love and adore. i'm living in my yurt alone, which is more of a challenge than it seems. i am financially independent. i have had a job for more than 6 months (the longest yet!). i'm organizing a massive free fun event (see ballyhoo.sprockettes.org for more info). i volunteer every week at a neat non-profit in town called the 'independent publishing resource center' and i am really happy to support such an amazing organization.

bottom line: portland has been treating me overwhelmingly well.

since i spent my birthday weekend out of town my fabulous friend marc surprised me with a scrumptious carrot cake at our friend's weekly crafty potluck this past wednesday. everyone sang to me and i felt truly thankful for the amazing new circle of friends i have stumbled upon. we wasted the night away eating cake, spraying stencils, laughing by the fire, and generally enjoying each others company. totally delightful!

on friday i drove up to bellingham for the bellingham juggling festival which perfectly coincided with my birthday this year. it was such a treat to celebrate with all my old friends that know me better than i probably know myself. dave and kelsey were my ride up, and it was dave's birthday as well! as we were riding up we eyed mount st. helen's (which erupted on may 18th 1980) and we both realized that we hadn't ever viewed the mountain that marks our birthday on our actual birthdays before. (sorry that was a bit confusing).

as we pulled up to the exit i wondered how we were going to find our posse of juggling fiends when i suddenly spied two suspicious characters stapling a sign with an arrow and the word "JUGGLE" upside down to the stop sign. it was indeed the juggling jollies on another jolly van adventure! i hopped out and the weekend began! first stop: biodiesel. second stop: super mario's burritos. final stop: the gym for juggling!

we juggled the night away until the renegade show began (for all the non-jugglers, the renegade show is a juggling show for jugglers that often entails tons of heckling and debauchery.). luke was the mc and he was his perfect hilarious self. after each act the audience judged the performance by yelling out which veggies and/or fruits should be tossed in the juicer for the performer to drink. the juice generally induced scrunched up and puckered faces, very entertaining.

river and islando started off the show with a totally absurd act titled, 'acro stallions'. it began with river and islando entering the stage in 70's style wrestling singlets and their hair in spiked mohawks. OH, but not your typical mohawk. river actually shaved (yes shaved!)a horseshoe shape into the top of his head. he calls the look 'anarcho-clown'. it's totally horrible. betsy and i stared at the thing in disgust for a good hour in jules' kitchen later that night marveling at how absolutely horrendous his haircut is. worst cut ever...guaranteed. the boys proceed to do very suggestive acro poses while a voice-over of their thoughts plays in the background. words cannot describe how hilarious this act was. it will hopefully be posted on youtube soon.

janelle (from seattle) also did an acro piece with mary lou, who was belting out laughing the entire time. their signature move was called 'the squishy squashy' and yes, it was as absurd as the name suggests.

next up after the renegade show was flaming combat, yes you heard me...FLAMING COMBAT JUGGLING!!! usually combat is played with clubs. each player has 3 clubs and whoever is left juggling at the end wins. in order to knock down opponent's clubs people will run into each other, throw triples in order to swipe at other clubs, kick, etc. this version was played with flaming torches instead of clubs, which is totally insane. the competitors were: dave clay (wearing his captain freedom outfit), jules (with a motorcycle helmet), river (in the motorcycle full body leather suit and a motorcycle helmet), emily (from olympia), john (seattle), matt (beernuts), and a few other brave ones. it was a raging success. captain america (dave) took the event with the most wins. each time he won he yelled out outrageous things like, "that ones for freedom" and "america...fuck yeah". it was awesome.

things wound down and the jolly van musical horn tooted, signaling it's exit home, this time with ME behind the wheel. it was my first time driving the 15,000 lb., 22 foot long monster, and it was really fun! we almost got pulled over (or thought we were going to) because i played the musical horn (accidentally set at a super loud volume) at some folks on the sidewalk right as a cop car passed us, he then quickly turned on his lights with no one in front of him. luckily he sped off and we chunked on down the road unscathed.

saturday was great. we attempted rather unsuccessfully to cook vegan and gluten-free (rowen was in town too!) donuts in the jolly van, which remained illegally parked outside the gym THE ENTIRE WEEKEND! we're convinced it has a built in 'police invisibility shield'.

i learned burke's burrage and constant take-outs with balls, 4-2-3 with clubs, and a few other things i'm sure that i can't remember on the spot! kelsey, emily, and i also worked on 3-person walk-around (NOT the walkabout) with 3 clubs. we laughed a lot trying to incorporate a hat. everyone covered each other's eyes with dave's over sized hats and progressively moves down the gym floor throughout the game.

charlie brown was also there! an amazing juggler, great at hat tricks and cigar boxes. a huge pile of women (kelsey, emily, bekka, me, and someone else i'm forgetting...) started playing with hats. sylus taught us a bunch of tricks and then we were blessed with the AMAZING skills of charlie brown, who is a great teacher as well as an amazing performer.

the open show was great. nanda wowed the crowd first. crystal MCed! followed my another man from seattle who has all purple juggling equipment, but isn't in the stanford research institute... dream and vern were great. daniel was very funny. dave clay has gotten SO much better on stage and people loved his performance. charlie brown did a quick bit and rhys finished it off. it was the best open show i've seen in a while, which is amazing because in general the bellingham fest is still a little baby.

19 burritos were ordered from super mario's for dinner! totally crazy considering super mario's is just a little taco truck in a cigarette store's parking lot.

beers were drank, juggling skill declined, and we all giggled the night away.

next day i finally passed clubs some. first with christopher (from lopez island) and reid, and then with betsy (who is turning into a juggling star. she got mills mess in about 30 minutes earlier that weekend). there was a massive influx of acro. i watched a few 3-highs (with harness rigging). this one was amazing: jules in a thigh stand on vern with ukoiya standing on jules shoulders. totally crazy.

at 4 the gym closed and we all escaped to 'cody camp' where ukoiya and islando live. we made sushi and tempura while folks simultaneously played a serious game of bite the bag. i believe that vern took the game with one phonebook and 12 national geographics. river pulled out his laser temperature gage, which shoots a laser when you pull the trigger and then the gun displays the temperature of the object in a little window. it developed into a 'who's ass is the hottest' game very quickly. i believe that misha (from nanda) won with 87 degrees! then we all partook in a giant dance party while dave (guitar), islando (drums), and a random roommate on the piano jammed in the living room.

river, being the magical creature he is, had built a fire for the sauna while dinner preparation was underway, and after our bellies were full to capacity all of our worn out bodies migrated to the sauna for a good sweat session. i jumped in the homemade swimming hole and scrambled back to the warm sauna a few times before our portland crew had to skedaddle home. it was really hard to say goodbye to such an amazing group of people that i love so much. this weekend made my such nostalgic for the days of the jugglefarm, which today i feel like i took for granted at the time.

thanks so much to everyone who was at the festival! i love you all with my whole heart and miss you too much already!

good morning!

2007-05-07T07:17:00.000-07:00

my cell phone began chiming its soft twinkly alarm at 7 this morning. as the creases of my eyelids evolved to open almonds i smiled at my life. i'd spent the whole night concocting bizarre bicycles in my dreams. they were so strange and exciting. each morning i'm greeted by the soothing patterns of the wood that serves as the foundation for my house. the yellow fabric that covers the walls results in a warm glowing morning light. it's rarely been sunny these april and may mornings, but the color of the walls can be very deceiving. i can't help but smile and feel happy each and every morning. it's so refreshing compared to living in a house.

lately i've been more and more wary of people breaking into my home while i'm sleeping. last night i am pretty positive that someone in the adjacent yard was staring at me over the fence. it was probably out of curiosity, but it still makes me a little crazy. if anything it makes me want someone else to stay with me. i feel really vulnerable in those situations. it really is just me, alone, sleeping in my giant yurt...

speaking of vulnerability...yesterday i had my first migraine. i was meeting a bunch of people for a bicycle ride to vancouver. i rode about 1 mile from my house and began getting splotchy vision. i hadn't slept much, so i tried to ignore the blurry vision. then the headache set in. i tried and tried to push through the pain and the tunnel vision, but finally succumbed to the fact that i needed help and told my new friends that i was freaking out. shawn gave me drugs and a neck rub. lots of people saw me and asked if i needed help. one awesome lady gave me her daughters cateye sunglasses and said she was going to bring me coffee, that coffee would help. the glasses really helped. it was really strange. i was in so much pain i was unable to discern what type of help i needed. or what may help me feel better. i didn't know i was sensitive to the sun until i put on those sunglasses. i didn't know that the heat from the sun was bothering me until carl moved me to the shade.

my vision was the weirdest. i was incapable of really focusing on anything. anything i wasn't looking directly at seemed in focus and then when i looked at it it went out of focus. very strange.

i was driven home by a friend of a friend (thank you carl) and i slept the whole day away. it was scary, but i'm fine now. the worst part about it was the fact that i was completely unable to help myself. i needed others to lift me and get me home. i hate that.

other things:

1. i'm going home to bellingham on my birthday (may 18th) for the bellingham juggling festival.

2. i've been listening to emiliana torrini and she is the best. nice soothing vocals.

3. i'm going to start cooking more. i eat out all the time now and i think my body is starting to change for the worst as a result.

4. summer is being overwhelming to me right now.

love you guys,
kelly peach

life:

2007-04-25T19:23:00.000-07:00

1. helped build a cob bedroom. who knew that sand, clay, straw, and water could build a super solid wall. not i.

2. rode with a trailer full of chicken wire from the dirty dirty se to north ne. my legs hurt really bad and it was really late...shut up.

3. finished my bike wheel chandy in the yurt. fucking stylish.

4. ate awesome yam and onion stir-fry for dinner. thank god for soyaki.

5. rocked out to a rad bicycle rock song while making dinner.

6. planted nasturtiums and arugula starts in a recycled egg container.

7. visited my 'new' library in n. portland, way better than the stinky ol' sterile library on belmont (se).

8. got a new job: i will be the book store manager for the international animation festival in portland this summer. $15 an hour baby.

9. checked out more zines...damn addictions.

10. finished my adorable bike prom dress. watch out canada, we're coming your way. more hot women and dudes than you will ever be able to contain.

11. put down plastic and cardboard flooring. reuse is the best!

12. i'm heading off to a rad pdx film fest right now!

love,
kelly peach

oh! i'm planning a great free fun event!

2007-04-23T14:27:00.000-07:00

everyone should make plans to visit portland on MAY 31st to JUNE 3rd! because i am throwing a giant free fun festival that is going to be loads of fun. for more information check out the website:

http://ballyhoo-pdx.blogspot.com/

hooray!

love
kelly

i've got a floor!

2007-04-20T21:03:00.000-07:00

today i had a really funny conversation with a lady at new season's. she asked what i was doing this afternoon, and i stated, "i'm installing flooring in my house." then i had a really awkward time lying to this lady about what the meant. we ended up deciding that i was putting down wooden flooring in my kitchen. my excuse for the white lies: it would have taken too long for me to explain to this lady that a.) i live in a yurt that i built b.) what the hell a yurt is AND c.) that my 'flooring' consists of stapling down plastic and heavy duty cardboard on top of my sketchy pallet foundation.

i got my hands on a staple gun, which is awesome. i stapled the flapping fabric from the walls down to the door frame. i laid out amazing plastic donated by kelsey (juggle friend) and then haphazardly placed thick cardboard throughout the space. then i put down my bed and my rug! now i can walk around the whole space without having to step over spaces in the pallets and avoid soft spots. it's pretty awesome. it's now a chill space rather than a temporary housing solution.

right now i'm worried about the roof. the tarp needs some serious work. i've also bought a lock, which i'll install soon. progress, progress, progress!

i'm one nomadic lady

2007-04-16T16:33:00.000-07:00

so, last night i slept at my new house for the first time ever. on sunday a bunch of cool folks came over and helped me erect my yurt in the backyard of the kitten shak. it was a success for sure, but i still need to work on the floor. right now it's nothing but exposed pallets...not so fancy.

as i sat in bed this morning, in, yet again, a new address i tried to count the number of locations i've lived in the past 4 years. it turned out that in the past 4 years i've lived in FOURTEEN different housing situations! 14!! that's crazy. i haven't stayed in one place for more than a year since high school. when will this madness stop? or will it ever!?! i just get antsy if i stay in one place for very long...

the 'yurt raising work party' was awesome. it was beautiful out, we finished everything i could have wished for, and we even broke out the bbq. thanks to everybody that came out. i now have a house!

she rides like a dream!

2007-03-29T08:31:00.000-07:00

oh man i flew to work today on my fancy fixed up bicycle. i am pretty sure i got here faster than i ever have before, and the ride was super smooth and enjoyable. i am so happy with all my handiwork! next step, build a fixed gear bike from the frame up.

last sunday i went to my first zoobomb, 'my virgin bomb', as all the zoobombers say. it was totally hilarious. marc accompanied me, and we tried to ride after the MAX (the light rail), but missed it completely. it's a pretty silly sight. all these people, on their mini-bikes (many of which have smaller wheels than i ever imagined possible), take the MAX up to the top of the zoo (washington park) and bomb down from the top. the ride is super long, and you never have to pedal once. you can ride all the way down to the tram again, and then it repeats. i recognized a bunch of friendly faces at the top of the hill, which is always reassuring. my bomb was wonderful. i ended up losing marc who was running first aid, and had to stop and help a girl who broke her finger. this weekend i have sunday off AGAIN! which is wonderful. and i will be sure to be zoobombing again.

actually this sunday river, jules, dave, kelsey, and more of us are heading down to corvallis for their juggling festival. it should be a good dose of juggling, which i haven't been doing much because of all this bicycle mania.

love,
kelly

giant life choice update

2007-03-28T19:54:00.000-07:00

i'm not going to graduate school next year. yeah. crazy.

other stuff:

next week i am meeting with city repair to apply for funding for the 'ballyhoo', my free fun event this summer. jonathan, a buddy of mine thinks i have a good chance of getting money and/or sponsorship from them. if that happened the ballyhoo would fly off the charts in terms of credibility. i am so stoked about it i'm about to explode!

at women and tran's bike night i did a bunch more work on my bicycle. it is officially ridable!!! this week i changed the front gear cable and housing. adjusting this guy was really tricky. the cable tension was super sensitive because the front dérailleur was rubbing pretty bad on the chain. after messing with the limit screw (which there is only one of b/c of my crazy french bike) and adjusting the tension forever i finally got it to a good place, with minimal rubbing. first thing i did was fray the new cable by over tightening the pinch bolt. again, the dérailleur is super weird and old, so you can't see how far you are tightening it, so that was a bit of a bummer. but, salvageable. i also adjusting my front brakes. next week i'm tightening my head set!

that's all!

love,
kelly

reason kids are the coolest #11

2007-03-25T17:05:00.000-07:00

today, while biking through ne portland amid the cherry blossoms and AMAZING sunny weather i witnessed another true testament to the power of kids at play. a young boy alone in front of his house had tied one end of his jump rope to a piece of wood jutting out from the facade of his house. then he would get it going before jumping in and utilizing the house as his partner. when he spotted me watching him he stopped and looked a little embarrassed. i wanted to yell, "keep going, you're amazing!" but it wasn't quite appropriate.

as i pedaled on i reflected upon how rad and unique this scenario is to most people's daily 'adult' lives. the creativity and drive to build your own fun, with or without other was really inspiring. i was just thrilled to see this kid outside playing in the sun, rather than in front of a tv screen.

the streets of portland = constantly inspirational stuff

keep on keepin' on.

a must visit in portland

2007-03-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

this delightful friday i woke up feeling too comfortable to move. i was having strangely intriguing dreams. the ones that blend my new environment with characters from my past. it's fun to watch how my old acquaintances behave in my new life. plus, my two comforters weren't oppressively hot (as they usually are). i was perfectly content with the idea of shutting off the world for at least the next 6 hours.

however! portland opportunities are limited! i am probably heading off to graduate school next year, so i feel like i need to soak in as much of this city as possible. thus, i jumped out of bed, and listened to some terrible pop music from 107.5 MOOOVVINNN' while dancing around in my underwear before venturing outside my room.

lozito was cooking up some spicy chai, and shared a cup with me as we reflected upon our weeks. i never see my housemates anymore because i am rarely at home. it's both tragic and a positive reflection of my success finding community spaces to interact with in portland.

i often exit my house in a tizzy. i don't know why. i have this irresistible urge to blast out of my home and tear through the streets with an adventurous urgency. i'll be totally mellow up, and then 3 minutes before i decide to leave everything accelerates to light speeds.

i sort of love it.

minutes later i was flying down hawthorne with a big smile on my face and the wind stretching my blond curls. i've finally started bicycling more since i've had this car. (today is the last day i have it though. thank god.)

i went to cup and saucer for a breakfast date with revphil to discuss my 'first quarterly moon castle ballyhoo'. he is a serious event organizer in town. it seems as though he has his paws in everything fun that happens in this rosy city.

throughout the morning i gleaned some tips, and i've been directed in a few different directions. event planning is really fun because i have an excuse to meet with the people i really admire and love that i've become close to in portland since my recent transplant.

anyhow! now to the most amazing encounter of the day:

i own a beautiful little manual typewriter that has cursive type, and is a total cutie. however, it's in terrible shape. there's actually cobwebs between the keys. so, i talked to a friend who suggested i take an adventure into n. portland and visit Ace Typewriters.

i drove down lombard forever. in fact, i drove further than i imagined it could ever go. i could feel my portland consciousness expanding by the block. i am really excited about moving to ne portland because i will be more able to explore this foreign territory. anyhow, i made it to the shop.

i toted my machine in and a scruffy older man in plaid directed me towards a towel-upholstered counter. he had a soothing soft demeanor, and i could easily imagine him working with these intensely complex and fragile outdated machines in his poorly lit shop forever.

he called my typewriter a 'good little machine', which seemed like a powerful complement coming from this typewriter guru. he told me if it was red it would be worth 2,000 dollars. after examining it he offered to clean it and fill in missing parts for 25 dollars.

i asked if he had grown up in this shop, and of course he said, "yup. dad has been here since '60." his father was behind a shelf reading with a spyglass that lit up. a really special sight. his dad's desk was full of tinkering tools that i imagine have had homes on that very same desk for over 40 years. the space felt like an ancient den with years of grease and wear worn into the corners. matt (the plaid fellow) moved and adjusted my machine with a delicate, yet deliberate hand. the unique clicks and pings that emanated from the metallic components were as soothing as a lullaby. i instantly feel in love with this ageless shop. it felt like stepping back into time, when folks spent their lives learning one trade. this man's extensive knowledge of something that is technologically extinct was spellbinding. my typewriter suddenly took on an entirely new romantic quality. i was in love. i didn't want to leave. i wanted to spend days exploring these shelves and tinkering with the rows upon rows of wooden boxes full of components and typewriter tools.

he said this shop was one of the last of its kind. he also said that in 3 months this place was getting demolished. the landlord had sold the property to a company that intended to put up condos. my heart sank. i expressed my concern and asked if they would move. he said he wasn't sure yet. then, after a short silence he said, "the spirit of this city is dead." i almost started crying right there. what a scene. this craftsman's world was all but gone. a world that values quality before anything else. a man who had probably stood by his incredibly cheap prices for repairs solely on principle. when looking at ribbons he grabbed a washer to fit over the spool post. i asked why. he said the new plastic ribbons didn't fit right. i asked why they switched? he sadly explained, "it's cheaper. but, these days everything seem to be losing quality and increasing in price."

i left with an invaluable oral history of the typewriter, and a miniature portrait of the lives that were molded by this ancient technology.

is trade dying? will small craftsmen be obsolete by the time i raise my children? i hope not.

visit ace typewriters on 7433 lombard street. just to talk with matt if anything. it will be worth the trip. the old man behind the shelf told me the 75 bus goes all the way down to the shop, and in 3 months this truly historical site will be demolished.

other day details:

peninsula park looks amazing. i'm visiting it in the summer. without a doubt.

love,
kelly

bikeworks is the shit

2007-03-22T20:31:00.000-07:00

so, last night was another episode of bicycle mechanics at n. portland bikeworks during the 'women's and trans bike nite'. here is a list of the latest bicycle updates:

1. a) i used a chain breaker to remove my chain for cleaning.
1. b) using de-greaser i rubbed off a bunch of the grim and rust of my chain with wire brushes.
1. c) i successfully replaced the pin on my chain, thus reattaching it.
2. i also took the wire brush to my cogs to get rid of the rust there as well.
3. i replaced my derailer (yikes!) one of the pulleys on the previous one was missing a bunch of teeth and it was also crappy and partially plastic. my new one is the same brand, but it's all shiny and metal. and used! hooray for cheap used parts.
4. i replaced my rear gear cable that was all gross and fraying.
5. i also learned how to adjust my limit screws, and now i can go into all the gears that i couldn't before!

that's all!

i can't believe how much work needs to be done to my bicycle. it's funny how much gets neglected when you have no idea what type of work your vehicle needs. i rode it for 2 years without doing any maintenance, and now i sure am understanding what the implications of that are! so much to replace and buff up. i am learning so much though, which is really great. plus, being in a shop full of rad ladies cranking away the nite feels really good. the energy at n. portland bikeworks is exquisite.

NON-BIKE RELATED NEWS:

1. i am planning a massive free fun 4-day event from may 31st to june 3rd. it is going to be amazing, and all of you should mark that date on your calendar so you can come and visit. i am going to be living in my yurt, and everyone can stay on the floor in the greatest cuddle puddle of all time.

the event is titled, "the first quarterly moon castle ballyhoo (a modern day hullabaloo)" and here is a sprinkling of some of the fun activities:

*wacky haircuts/head shaving
*blindfolded face painting
*sidewalk chalk and genitalia pretzels
*daily theme parades
*conquering local mountains
*bike in movies

just this tuesday i met with 'dead letter b' at a cool warehouse space (called the watershed) where he said he would host the party for saturday night! there will be bicycle fun all day and loads of debauchery all night. i'm building up energy slowly. i have breakfast dates with loads of people who know how to run events this week, and i think people's excitement will only help fuel the ballyhoo fire. we will create a community building monster!

2. i started binding books again at the iprc. so far i've build a neat sketchbook with envelopes built in for taking all my lists and mini-drawings with me. the iprc (independent publishing resource center) seems to have an endless supply of resources for me as a creative being. it has opened up so many doors since i've been here. i would never have printed w/ gocco, made a zine, read zines, met funny geeks, bound books and journals, or stayed up too late without the iprc.

3. i'm no longer sick!

4. i went out to dessert with will last night at the pied cow and it was absolutely delightful. i had a slice of marionberry pie and a honey lavender milk steamer. i was in heaven throughout the entirety of the visit. warm milk drinks, funky interior design, and low lighting get me every time.

5. i filed my tax return online...i think. all that mumbo gumbo is too much for my brain right now. right now i have "8453-OL form by oct. 15" scrawled on my arm right now. it's apparently a form i need to fill out? what? where do i get it? if i don't fill it out i guess they deny me access to online filing next year. at this point i could care less. sometime i will get 47 dollars in the mail. or so they say...

that's all. i am tired. i am going to sleep like a little baby tonight. then meet with revphil and talk 'business' tomorrow at the good ol' cup and saucer (amazing portland breakfast place). world famous veggie scramble here i come.

yum.

face smashing...overhauling...bag pipes.

2007-03-18T13:41:00.000-07:00

i'm still under the weather, which is really getting me down. mainly because i was given a car for two weeks, and really didn't want to drive it all the time, but since i've been sick it's really easy to just grab the keys when i run out the door. i've found that driving leaves me in a terrible mood, and i can't wait for the car to be taken away this thursday.

however, neat things i've been able to do because i have a car:

1. pick up big black food composter for the kitten shak from swan island.
2. see my sister's tennis match before work (she attends Lewis and Clark, which is too much public transit and too far a ride right before work).
3. went dumpster diving all over ne.
4. was the 'hot lips bus' for all my coworkers at the end of long nights, making everyone's life a little easier.
5. i've been a pizza fairy all week, dropping off pies to friends all over town.
6. i drove my out of commission bike up to n. portland bikeworks for women's volunteer nite.

crappy things about the car:

1. paying for gas
2. paying for parking
3. being in a car
4. being angry because of traffic that i know i could avoid on my bicycle.
5. not being outside with the wind in my face each day.
6. not exercising because i don't have to ride to work.
7. being everyone's ride bitch
8. adding unnecessary pollution to the atmosphere
9. feeling guilty all the time about #8.

memorable event recap for this week:

1. at women's bike nite i discovered that my road bike needs A LOT of work. i was going to true the wheel, but the rim was busted so i had to get a new one, as well as a new tire. i learned how to transfer my freewheel to the new wheel. i also replaced my brake cable and its housing. i replaced my back brake, and transfered my brake pads. it was really neat to do so much, not to mention the fact that all that only cost $66 because n. portland bikeworks is so cool.

2. i found out that i can move out on APRIL 16TH!!! so i will be moving into the kitten shack next month.

3. nickey, helen (new roommates!), and i did yard work all saturday morning. i really miss working in the garden. however, doing so brought up a bunch of memories from the farm, which lead to missing lebn, which was aggravating. i wish i could contact him, and let him know about my life because of all the people who would appreciate everything i'm doing, he's #1. but, i still have lots of issues with our ending, and i think it would probably be healthy to stick out the year without talking to him, unfortunately. i really miss my best friend... anyhow, we cleared black berries, ripped up the old garden, prunned the trees, and generally kicked ass all morning. the weather was sunny and amazing. summer in portland is going to be unbeatable!!!

4. i went on a delivery yesterday night, and it was totally absurd. after knocking a cute pooch jumped up on the door barking up a storm (dogs LOVE pizza). the owner grabbed him frantically, and he attempted to open the door, and while doing so simultaneously slammed himself in the face. yup, opened the door into his face SUPER HARD. he let go of the dog for an instant. it tried to bolt, so he tackled the dog which almost bowled me over. finally he shut the door after restraining the dog, and i asked, "are you okay!?!" to which he responded, "NO, i just got hit in the face." he handed me the cash, didn't say anything else and went back inside. it all happened so fast that i had no idea how to react. or, if there was something better to have done. i imagine it was rather embarrassing for him, although the pain was obviously worse than the embarrassment. bottom line: it was totally crazy.

5. i called a buddy who i was sort of seeing for a while to get a pint of guinness after a long day at work on st. paddy's day only to receive a pathetic request to pick his drunk ass up from downtown. i figure i have a car, and i would really love the help if i were in his position, so i drive down to pick him up. it's a huge hassle to find him, and he is beyond wasted when he gets in the car. he's hollering out my window and being a total jackass during the ride. i decide he can walk his stupid ass home, and head to my house (which is close to his). i realize he's so drunk the only thing to do once i get home is bolt out of the car, slam the door to my house before he can come in, and then he can wander his way home. well, i try to get out, but he is hanging onto me. i tear him off of my arm, and start running for the door.

i know, totally ridiculous.

he bolts after me, straight towards our 3.5 ft tall slab of concrete that we call our 'porch'. safe to say, he eats it...hard...face first into the cement. he starts moaning about losing his teeth. i am furious inside with all of my housemates looking at me like i'm a heartless bitch for not helping this drunk fool. i go out, and he hasn't knocked out his teeth (thank god), but he's torn up his lip pretty bad. i am ready to send him on his way, but my housemates suggest we drive him home. i suggest we go get a pint of guinness and leave him at the bus stop. once he hears that he charges off screaming, "why do you hate me!!" "my fucking face is bleeding"

i chase him and get him in the car. good ol' lozito sits in back with the raging douchebag who is muttering all sorts of ungrateful bullshit at this point.

we got him home, and the ladies kindly accompanied me to 'zack's shak' for hot dogs and that pint of guinness i've been aching for all nite. i fellow in all the garb even came by and played the bag pipes, which was rad. all in all it ended up being pretty funny. safe to say i won't be calling this dude ever again. by sara and lauren's suggestion i've changed his name to 'fuck face' in my phone, so as not to be confused if he ever attempts to call me again.

WHAT A NITE!

lessons learned: a. i'm too nice. b. angry drunks are horrible people. c. men who play the bag pipes are totally hot.

how everyone had a better st. paddy's day than i.

enjoy the sunshine while it lasts!