The best thing about using a bicycle for transportation is that you are guaranteed to get to ride a bike every single day, except for those days where you stay in bed all day until you move to the couch and then back again. I didn’t have time for a ride to nowhere today, but I did need to get myself to campus, so I hopped on the Surly and headed that way. Continue reading
Mary Gray and a Giant Powerpoint Presentation at Tulane
Today’s ride was nothing but the commute, and the workday was long. I taught three classes with a short lunch break, which I used to eat both potato soup and mashed potatoes in the Faculty Dining Club. After my seminar I headed to dinner with some professors, a student, and tonight’s guest speaker. Continue reading
Student’s Mingling After Tulane’s Production of The Vagina Monologues
Today’s Sunday bike ride took me over to Mid-City for an iced tea and a vegan oatmeal raisin cookie (that actually turned out to be kind of good) with S., who is leaving town soon to spend some months farming in Fairbanks, Alaska. How awesome is that? I’m already scheming how I can go visit. I took the long way back Uptown to meet friends for dinner and then pedaled against the wind to Tulane to check out this year’s student production of the Vagina Monologues. Continue reading
Candy Bars at the Discount Zone on Magazine & Washington
So I took a picture on my ride home tonight, but it wasn’t in my phone when I got home, so let me describe it for you. It was a picture of row after row of candy bars at the Discount Zone on Magazine and Washington, so many choices. I stopped there on my way home from the show, following a whole lot of dancing with students and friends and a couple of slices of pizza. The ride home was perfect–slow, fresh asphalt on Magazine, cool night air, empty streets. I’ve stopped at the Discount Zone so many times after nights just like this one, and sometimes the vast array of choices is dizzying–even if it is all kind of just the same couple things over and over again in different shapes–but tonight I knew just what I wanted: a Kit Kat. Not the white chocolate one or the dark chocolate one, and not the King Size one either, though I hovered over that one for a a hot minute–just give me a regular old Kit Kat. That’s what I wanted. And next time I forget, please remind me that along with Kit Kats and nighttime bicycle rides, I also want to dance. What a lovely evening.
Hornets vs Grizzlies From Section 318
I am feeling so much better. Today I actually felt like myself again–the self I like hanging out with. I happily got on my bike and headed up to campus to meet with students and do a little grading. After a quick stop at home and an early dinner with R. I headed down to New Orleans Arena for the Hornets game, locking up to a kick-ass rack right by the doors. Continue reading
Dead End at the Industrial Canal on Galvez & Japonica
I don’t know when it happened, but I just hate being inside. Sometimes it’s because I’m afraid I’m missing out on something that might be happening out there, but more often just because I like to be outside. I’ve been sitting at home being sick and tired since Saturday: not ok. Thank goodness I woke up feeling considerably better, and J. and I were meeting at 1:00pm down in the Bywater–bike ride! 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
Lights at Comiskey Park at Jeff Davis & Baudin
I’ve been under the weather this weekend. Maybe allergies, maybe a spring cold? I don’t know, but I do know that I’ve been sick more often in New Orleans than any other place I’ve lived, and I think that has something to do with the environment. It’s not safe here. I love it anyway, but the people who live here deserve clean air, water, and soil. The weekend’s malaise kept me off the bike, but I had a dinner party to attend in Mid-City this evening and after a day spent fantasizing, I really needed to get in a quick pedal. Continue reading
Cargo Bike at Jackson Square
Today’s ride took me down to Jackson Square where I met I. to help her out with her bicycle survey that she’s doing for the Metro Bicycle Coalition on bike parking. There are no bike racks in the Quarter, and parking down there is way too much of an adventure. I know that, but do I really *know* that? Where do peoiple want to be able to put their bikes? Would our bikes be safer if we locked them up to racks? How far are people willing to walk from rack to destination? I asked a lot people those questions today, and I had a lot of people pretend I didn’t exist as I attempted to flag then down. It is an odd sensation, having people make eye contact with you but refuse to even suggest they hear you or recognize you as a fellow human being. How’s about we not do that, even if we are tired of being asked? It must be much, much harder to ask. Anyway. I saw lots of bikes and lots of bikers today, including this one in the Square. That guy’s towing some serious cargo. I want there to be room for everybody’s wheels. I sat on the steps of the Cabildo for a break, watching Critical Mass gathering, listening to a surprisingly good band, and counting the number of folks who wanted to pet that one dog–what is it about jowls? I do so love living in a world with so many different kinds of people, many of whom will wander through the square on warm spring days like this one.
What I Saw Riding My Bike Around Today 