I’ve been a little down lately, I’m not going to lie. Too many endings all at once have me in a little bit of a spin, so I figured the best thing to do today is what I usually do, because usually, I feel pretty good. I woke up after a full 8 hours of sleep, read a bit of a book I need to review, wrote 300 words (gotta ease back into summer productivity), and then it was time for a bicycle ride without a particular destination. Continue reading
personal
Playing Pool at Dauphine & Gov. Nicholls
I didn’t think I would end up riding my bike today. I drove to the suburbs for an errand and then it started to look like I would just spend my day at home with my cats, trying to decide which is better, Ken Burns’s America, or American Experience. But it was the kind of day that demanded a bike ride, so I got on and headed downtown to see friends, because sometimes that’s just what you need. I stopped for dinners and then headed over to S.’s place before we went to the bar to drink a few drinks and play a little pool. I snapped this picture while waiting for R., who we just happened to run into, to make his shot. I like this part of the small town, where you kind of just need to see some friends, so you head out, and that’s what happens. A lovely evening, indeed, topped off with a cafe au lait and some beignets and a bike ride home in the still-cool air. Things could be worse, things could be much worse.
Stop War Sign at Coliseum & Robert
I spent most of my day at home, reading, grading, and organizing. I finally peeled myself off the couch and on to the bike to head to the office and put this semester to bed. The streets were mostly empty, and campus was a ghost town, so I took my bike inside and spent a lonely couple hours making sure all my ducks were in a row before hitting enter on those final grades (and no, students, I don’t round up). There’s a bittersweet feeling at the end of the term when you are just done, at least for me, as my students and I are all on to the next one, on to the next one–and I won’t be at Tulane in the fall–that’s starting to actually hit me. I took my sad sack self and my bike to the pizza place for a couple slices and a soda and then got a couple cookies for a treat from the grocery. I pedaled through the just-cool-enough air home, stopping to take this picture of a stop sign on Coliseum and Robert. The pedestrian graffiti turns it into a STOP WAR sign–not the cleverest, but a sentiment I can get behind. It is eerily easy for lots of us to forget that we are at war right now. Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight–oh, wait, that was what they said about the Confederacy during the Civil War, not any of our current wars. I’ve been thinking about wars a lot lately, and summer means I have a lot more time to think about what I want to think about. I will now raise this glass of wine and toast the start of summer, which promises many sweaty bike rides and the time to think about what to do with yourself when you can’t un-know that we are at war and you are quite sure we should STOP WAR and you also know that we largely don’t see the enemy in our battles anymore, and that’s dangerous. Shots are fired in Florida that kill in Afghanistan–that’s not a war, it’s a video game. We best figure out how to stay connected to the inhumanity of war, or we just might keep starting them. Yay summer vacation!
Cinco de Mustache Sign at the Arabella Whole Foods
Yesterday I had the worst headache I can remember having. It was like somebody had a little sledgehammer and had taken up residence in my left temple, thumping away and sending pain down through my neck and shoulder. It finally broke last night, but I still have lingering pain in my neck and shoulder. When I got on the bike and headed to campus this afternoon I could tell it wasn’t a biking injury. It felt good, after a day off, to be back and spinning mindlessly. It didn’t take long to remember that it’s Cinco de Mayo today. Superior Grill was blocking off the street for their party (Dos Equis bottles for $4, fyi) and as I entered campus, I already saw students carrying those foam cups with red straws–tell-tale signs of frosty drinks. I got to my office and settled in with a stack of papers, pen in my right hand, head cocked to the left. Oh, that’s what hurts. 15 to go, and I can give my body a break. I got back on my bike and headed to the grocery store. Apparently I missed the mustache-and-sombrero competition they held earlier in celebration of Cinco de Mayo. Am I the only one who is kinda creeped out by this “holiday” that just seems to traffic in weird racial stereotypes? I was happy to ride home, turn on some baseball, and cook myself up some broccoli and tofu, avoiding the crowds of drunk people. Sometimes I just gotta be me.
Open Mic at the Gold Mine Saloon at Dauphine & St. Peter
Oh, that was a long time away from my bicycle! I spend every single day on that thing, and then I had to spend an entire week away–I didn’t properly prepare for that, not at all. I got on my bike this morning and just went ahead and pedaled myself back to myself. The rides from here to there today were just exactly what I needed. Using the bike to move through space, that’s what I do now, and it was good to come home. Continue reading
Warehouse Door at Laurel & Bordeaux
I spent another hermit-like day inside, watching baseball, reading the Times book review, and fantasizing about my reading lists. I didn’t feel motivated to do anything at all, but I did happily pry myself off my couch to head Uptown for L.‘s birthday party at the cigar bar. Continue reading
Early Cat’s Claw Blooms On a Shed on Saratoga & Foucher
I am still not feeling well. I’m so, so bad at being sick–I tend to just pretend I’m fine and go about my business and hope the cold or the flu or the whatever just disappears. The first time I dislocated my shoulder I remember pleading with my hosts to just take me home so I could ice it–I don’t want to be any trouble! But I’m just going to admit it. It might be allergies, it might be a cold, it might be some other throat thing, but whatever it is, I’m tired and worn out. Continue reading
Snapdragons at Audubon Park’s Main Entrance
I had one of those incredibly long days, the kind where you are working from the second you get up in the morning through to the evening and you can literally count the number of minutes where you weren’t doing something for the job. Fortunately, I love my job and working all day, while exhausting, means I get to think about a lot of different things in a lot of different ways. One of my students asked in seminar this afternoon how you tell the difference between the self you perform and the self you “really are.” Oh my. Continue reading
Birds in a Tree at Lake Pontchartrain
Five years ago I quit smoking. The first three months were terrible–lots of crying and worrying that I’d be logged on to my support site for the rest of my life and feeling like I’d accomplished some amazing feat by managing to wait 40 minutes for an oil change–how do nonsmokers wait? That seems like a zillion years ago. Continue reading
Riding Around Town in the Cold
I sat around my house today, waiting for the HVAC guy, considering some major Life Decisions, vaguely remembering earlier this week when I had heat and my pipes weren’t frozen and I had running water. He finally came over, fussed around with the unit, called somebody at the office. I heard sentences like, “This thing looks crazy,” and “I sure got the short end of the stick on this one.” He had to go get a replacement part to replace the replacement part he got yesterday, over on the West Bank. I ate a sandwich, sent some Life Decision related emails, and then it was time to get on the bike and head over to the Regional Planning Commission offices for tonight’s League of American Bicyclists League Cyclist Instructor training session. Continue reading
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 