personal

At some point last night, I got the crazy idea that it would be fun to ride my bike into work in the morning.

Fun.

Now, I’m no stranger to cycling, and I do love tooling around the seawall or taking long rides through the country on my bike. For the most part, I’ve never ridden in heavy traffic, save for the traffic that crawls along W. 10th Ave. between 4:30 - 5:30 pm each day. The thought of riding through traffic, or worse still, trying to cross one of Vancouver’s bridges on my bike kept me from venturing downtown on two (self-powered) wheels. Put me on my scooter and I don’t think twice about it, but on a bike? The best way to describe it would be white-knuckled fear.

Today I decided to face that fear head on. I suited up, inflated my tires, packed my laptop, makeup, a change of clothes shoes, and gathered up every ounce of reserve I had to make it across that bridge, and you know what?

view from the Cambie Street Bridge, Vancouver

It  wasn’t that bad. In fact, it was quite good.

Other than a few wrong turns caused by poor signage and construction weirdness, and a pushy woman in an (ugly) yellow Miata who cut me off because she was in such a honking hurry to make a right turn, the ride went smoothly.

Of course, this was at 7:45 am - there’s no telling what I’ll be in for during the ride home at the height of rush hour.

Do you have any bike commuting tips to share with this newbie? Have you had a close call (or confrontation) with an irate motorist? Do tell!

I’ve been everywhere and nowhere the last few weeks. My attention has been diverted elsewhere; namely with Plurk and FriendFeed. I’m a bit over Twitter, but rooting for it to get up off the ropes and deliver a knock-out punch to the upstarts.

I spent a little time in Seattle with friends old and new. Each time I see these people I come home a little sadder than the time before. There was once a time when I used to make excuses for my largely online social life, but I’ve come to understand that reality is relative: if these people feel real to me, if they return the love I give out, if they spend the time either virtually or in person, then they’re every bit as real as people I’ve known for most of my life. Friends are friends - they don’t need modifiers.

And yes, I’m determined to become more involved with the Vancouver bloggers scene. Next Tuesday I’m going to a Vancouver Bloggers meetup that Raul is organizing. He’s one of the first Vancouver bloggers I reached out to who actually reached back. He’s a great writer, a recent Ph.D. graduate, and seems to take an interest in other people, something I’ve found lacking in the seven-plus years I’ve been here. Of course, it could be my introvert talking, and we all know she’s an unreliable narrator.

Update: it seems Raul has accepted a challenge to eat at The Brave Bull, a legendary (and I use that word loosely) restaurant on Vancouver’s East Side. Seeing as how he’s eating there on Monday, I’ll have to watch his blog to see if he lives long enough to make it to the Vancouver Bloggers meetup on Tuesday.

These photos prove without a doubt that I work for the coolest library system on the planet. As part of our “One Book, One Vancouver” city-wide book club, the library staged a boxing demonstration on Library Square this afternoon. Author Karen X. Tulchinsky was also in attendance, and not only did she read from her novel, she threw a few practice punches as well.

My mind has been floating all over the place the last few days (weeks, really). I have so many half-baked schemes and plans scribbled down on scattered pieces of paper, but I don’t seem to have the wherewithal to put them into any organized plan of action.

I blame the lack of sleep.

Still, maybe if I write them here, if I offer them up to the universe, as it were, I’ll be more inclined to actually get off my butt and do something about them. You’ll be my cheerleaders, my butt-kickers, my drag my ass off the couch-ers, won’t you?

• Ever since reading about Brian Matthews’ job as a user experience librarian, I’ve been trying to figure out a way to finagle a similar gig for myself at my new place of employment. Matthews seems to focus more on physical spaces and the user experience in libraries while I’m more focused on the end-to-end user experience that touches on physical spaces, personal interactions, and the way people use and make sense of the library’s resources. I know I was hired primarily because of my tech and user experience background, and I have had to call on my IA skills more frequently than I anticipated since taking the new job, but I’d be lying if I said that I was satisfied with part-time employment and that I wasn’t looking to land something more permanent. All I have right now is a half-baked notion of what I want to do, I just need to figure out the best way of articulating these ideas and wowing the right people.
• I’ve come to a point where I can’t stand to look at pictures of myself from about four years ago, because it only reminds me of how thin I was and how thin I most certainly am not now. I’m thisclose to either deleting them all from my Flickr archives, or — sadly — throwing even more money at the mega-billion diet industry machine, even though I’m living proof that unless I work out for 2 hours a day, six days a week, I’ll never look like this again. Yes, that’s what it took. An hour in the gym, an hour on my bike, and walks everywhere in between, plus turning down social invitations because I didn’t want to look like a freak for only ordering club soda with lemon and a green salad when everyone else was having pizza and beer. I don’t like feeling like I’ve given up on myself, but at the same time, I don’t like being in this frackking shame spiral, either.
• I worry that I’m not supporting Obama for the right reasons. So far, my primary reasons are (1) because John Edwards is no longer in the race, and (2) because of the dirty pool the Clintons have been playing during their campaign. I’ve made two donations to the man’s campaign, not because of what he stands for, but because he’s the only thing standing between HRC and the nomination. It doesn’t sit well with me, and it’s a hard thing to admit, but there it is.

That’s but a small sample of the notions that have been clanging around in the airplane hangar called my brain over the last few weeks. There are times I wish I could dig it all out with a spoon, and then there are days that I know I’ll get distracted by something shiny, or by Ewan McGregor, or by Ewan McGregor in something shiny, and all will be restored to its normal state.

It seems I’ve caught this flu bug that’s been going around. I’m not sure it’s SXSars, what with it being more than a month since I was in Austin, but it does feel like whatever this is is kicking around in some cowboy boots, having a grand ol’ time with my immune system. 

Last night I was thinking about my mom and how she used to take care of me when I was sick. She’d bring me cranberry juice and fruit, and put the remote right next to my pillow so I wouldn’t have to sit up to change the channels.  For those times when I felt like my skin and my feet were on fire (something that still happens when I’m really ill), she’d give me rub downs with mentholated alcohol. Those massages were heavenly, not only because they cooled my feverish body, but because mom was actively soothing me, her caresses bringing us closer together and reinforcing the mother daughter bond. She’d start to sing or hum a gospel song and in no time flat I’d be sound asleep. 

Sometimes I wish I were 8 years old again.

I’m about to show something that I’ve never shown to the world. Are you ready?
[click to continue...]

I was filling out the profile form at WorldCat the other day when I had a moment:

Uploaded with plasq’s Skitch!

Check out what it says next to “My Occupation”. After three and a half years (the amount of time passed since I got my degree) it feels so good to finally call myself a librarian and mean it.

[click to continue...]

I had my first physio appointment this afternoon. Toward the end of it, the physiotherapist hooked me up to this beauty. She attached suction cups to my knee, turned a few knobs, flipped a few switches and then the fun started. Not only did the thing suck on my knee like a drunken frat boy sucks back Rolling Rocks, it tingled while doing it.

This thing would’ve been a heck of a lot of fun on a date.

Creepy physio machine from Cecily Walker on Vimeo.

This pretty much sums up my morning:

Nothing to worry about, just some routine tests. Still, I understand how it must feel to be a pincushion.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }
.flickr-yourcomment { }
.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

peek-a-boo, originally uploaded by cecily.

I married him seven years ago, and he’s still the biggest dork I know. And that’s a good thing.