Matece, Michael V, and a few other people I know all drove down to [LEAF](http://www.theleaf.com/dancing.php) this weekend. Jan K was also going down from Urbana. Emily and Casey both live down there, and were also very excited about the event. All of them encouraged me to go too. I definitely considered it…
But, it turned out to be the weekend that *everything* happened. The [Hilly Hundred](http://hillyhundred.org/) being the big one, but Saturday was also the night that Ira Glass was speaking at the IU Auditorium, and the night of the [Eroticon](http://www.sensualskills.com/). Tad then scheduled his housewarming/pumpkin carving party for Friday night, and just to round things out, Mark R invited people over for soup on Sunday afternoon (which I thought was a courtesy to the Hilly Hundred riders, but I don’t actually know how much that motivated him).
Well, I decided that since I didn’t go to the dance, I’d better make sure to have a really good time doing all the things I could this weekend. Ok! So, my motto became “doin’ it all!”
It got off to a bad start when dinner and conversation with Kynthia lasted much longer than either of us really intended on Friday night. We almost missed Tad’s party! But there were still several people there when we got there, and it was fun. But, I didn’t want to drink a lot or stay out late, since I was scheduled to pick up Erik at 8am, so we were only there for a short bit. Some other people there certainly were drunk, though!
Saturday, I picked up Erik. We rode to indy together, so this was our second experience with long distance cycling together. I think we’re a good match for each other. I think I slow him down a bit, but he doesn’t seem to mind, and we have good conversation and otherwise seem to be good company for each other. Amy N went with me last year, but bailed this year because she had a wedding in MN. Sad! But oh well…
The ride went really well. According to my bike computer, we averaged well over 13 mph both days, which is far better than my typical 12 (it may not sound like much, but it’s probably a 10% improvement over last year). But, what was more striking was that I just wasn’t that phased by any of the hills. Don’t get me wrong, I certainly treated several of them with due respect, I thought a lot about strategies for getting over them and certainly had to cope with a lot of difficulty. But, almost without exception, I finished every one thinking “that didn’t seem as bad as I remembered it being”. My only theory on why is that the biking I’ve been doing has just resulted in me being in better shape/better conditioned, which is nice to think about… but so much so that I hesitate to believe it because I know I’d be biased towards believing it. But what? The size of the hills didn’t change significantly so… *shrug*
After Saturday’s ride I took a bath, talked with Sue, went to dinner with Kynthia, and then raced to the Audirium to see Ira Glass. It was good. I didn’t know what to expect, but he basically just sat and chatted about doing the show and what he thinks about it and stuff. He did an amazing job connecting with the audience, giving us all (if I may speak for everyone) the feeling that we were his friends and he was excited that we were willing to let him expound on his opinions for a while. I left feeling like if I passed him on the street, he’d recognize me… which is ridiculous of course, but that’s the feeling I got.
Of course, I’ve got my mild issues with him and his show. I was glad that he acknowledged that they should have a greater variety of background music. His descriptions of the formulas and tricks that they use in producing the shows were very much in line with a lot of the things that I’ve noticed about the show, I found it a wee bit odd that he was just unabashedly admitting to us how formulaic and “tricky” they are with it. I am a bit bothered by that kind of thing, but he obviously isn’t, and indeed seems to think that all journalism should be done that way. Of course, all journalism is formulaic, so what’s my beef? Not much, but I guess I’d like to believe that information could be broadcast in a number of effective ways that didn’t all follow some formula. Anyway, this isn’t supposed to be an entry about my opinions on those things, I’m just talking about my weekend.
After the talk, Kynthia took me to her house where I picked up my car and went home to get ready for the Eroticon. I had decided to go, but as partial compromise I’d decided I wasn’t going to spend lots and lots of time on my outfit. “Just throw on a dress and go check it out” is what I said, again thinking that I shouldn’t drink much or stay out late. So, that was the goal. I chose a dress that Sue had gotten as a DGP possibility, but that was beaten out by another possibility. A bit hard to imagine, because it was a nice dress, and I thought it fit me well. I wore a red “tissuey” scarf and that was about it… Oh, I had a funny pair of cheap but “fashionable” black flip-flops that I wore, which was good because I was worried about what shoes I might wear. The were too small, though, so they bothered my feet a bit.
The event was good! *Lots* of people there, which was nice because the last couple similar events were not very well-attended. I saw a number of people who I know (and I’m not going to try to list them in case they don’t want their attendance broadcast on the ‘net) but mostly hung out with Renee and Jeremy and some of their, uh, circle of friends. I like them, it was fun. And I did a good amount of chatting/dancing/flirting with other people. I was glad I went.
I stayed out just a bit longer than I’d intended, but I was in bed before 2a. At about 7:45 I woke up, two minutes before my alarm, and started getting ready to go. My socks and pants that I had hand washed hadn’t dried yet, which I was disappointed in because I’d hoped that the synthetic fibers would make them dry that fast. Alas. However, they did both dry incredibly quickly in the dryer. Like, less than 5 minutes. Very dry. Impressive.
Not much too different to say about the Hilly today. It was fun. I guess the biggest surprise was a rift in the usually flawless organization of the event. When we got to the lunch break after riding 28 miles and climing well over 1000 feet of hills, there was no food there! Some logistical problem resulted in the food being late. I don’t know the details, but would sure like to know what happened. If anyone reading this knows, please share! Anyway, as I suggest above, I typically think of the organization of this event as exemplary for anyone planning any major event, and this one problem is not going to turn that opinion upside-down. Still, it cannot be denied that it was a blemish on their previously (for me at least) spotless record.
But, other than that, the Hilly went well. I’m still amazed by one hill very near the end that just doesn’t look like a hill. Surrounded by farm land, it really feels like you’re on level ground. But, just as with last year, I was getting totally demoralized feeling like I was pedaling really hard and just not getting anywhere. However, it turns out that this section is a hill, similar in many ways to “water tower hill”, which is just after it (check out the Sunday [elevation profile](http://hillyhundred.org/Route.html) and you’ll see the two hills right near the end) and which we all respect greatly for being a difficult hill to climb. So, yeah, it’s weird. So, even though I was trying to convince myself of that, it was still demoralizing. Ironically, I felt much better as I trodded very slowly up water tower hill, just because I totally felt like I was on a hill.
Anyway, we finished the 51 miles of today’s ride in 3 hours and 45 minutes of biking, which felt like great time to me. It was shortly before 2p when we left the road. I gave Erik a ride to the School of Informatics and then headed over to Mark R’s for the soup/party. I was the first one there, which was surprising to me. The only other people who came were Ann and Nancy from Urbana, also fresh from the Hilly. It was fun to see them and to compare notes on the ride. And Mark’s straw bale house is really cool. And, as Ann and I independently observed, the soup really “hit the spot”! Great thing to have after the ride. I was pleased.
I came home, talked with my mom on the phone, and took a bath. Now I’m winding down and will go to bed early, aiming to be to sleep as shortly after 10p as my body wants to sleep. It’s been a busy weekend! But, I’m finding recently that I’m enjoying being busy. As much as I like being alone, it feels good to my psyche right now to feel like I’m doing lots of things. Of course, some of the things that I do are alone, not social events. So, it’s not the being with other people as much as feeling like I’m living life with lots of energy going in to cultivating joy. There are many kinds of joy, so it makes sense to do many types of things to experience it.
