Ice cream!

It's gorgeous out today.  Good ice cream? Totally there. 

After the 30 miles round trip for me,  the knees seem to be doing okay so far.  I am really hoping that all the foam-rolling and stretching will help me keep tendinitis from returning.   The hardest part from here to Chicago is the first 200 miles!

Switching Gears

photo: Herbert Chang

After 8.5 years at my company, I've decided to leave the working life for a while to pursue other interests and reflect on my life.  It's not hard to cruise along and go through the routine once you've built up the momentum ... but sometimes it's good to stop and check that you're still heading in the right direction and moving towards your destination.  Well, that time is now for me.

What that means:

1. I'm going on a long bike trip soon.
2. I will be posting on this blog while I'm on the road.
3. What will I do after the trip? No idea. For pretty much the first time ever, I'm planning to be spontaneous. 

Nova Scotia

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Old and new

Cape Cod Rail Trail

I'm finally done with school! The first thing I did on my first "free" weekend was to put away the trainer and gave my bike a good cleaning outside. Polishing it made me realize that this bike has been though quite a lot. Scratches here and there remind me of the various crashes I've subjected it to. I recall all of them, too: the first fall not being able to clip out in time right in front of the Broadview, riding into a ditch while out training with David, then the infamous accident in Sandusky, OH, one riding out of Yosemite, and then on the same day on a really sharp turn which led to my first flat ever with 2 more days to finish the 4K. Then last year I wiped out on wet road at the ALA autumn escape. It's been almost four years and I'm glad The Juggernaut is still in good shape despite all the mishaps.
On Sunday I drove down with L and K to Cape Cod to do the CCRT. 2 miles in, we took the wrong turn at the rotary and ended up in Chatham. It was a completely subconscious move by L and I... we simply followed what we did last October during the ALA ride. This added 20 miles to our planned ride. Surprisingly the trail was pretty empty for such a warm day. This was my first ride outdoors this year and it felt great.
Lunch at Catch of the Day was satisfying. On the ride back I thought that name would be brilliant as our Wildwood team name...
Somehow the 22 miles back just flew by. Maybe it was the tailwind.
I reset my odometer before we started in the morning. Logged 61 miles today. I thought about setting a milage goal for this year but decided against it. I'll just ride.

Home again

So after 21 days and 6 cities, I am back in NY from my first "vacation" abroad since I started working. I think I am going to do this quite out of order - ideally I would have liked to record the planning before the trip, made a few en-route posts with pictures, and then follow those up with a proper conclusion (possibly with detailed list of expenses in a spreadsheet) afterwards. Well, since I was 1) in a high frenzy prior to departure and 2) too cheap to pay the 1 euro/15 minute to post while on the road, here I am trying to make up for all of that now, after my trip has ended.

I spent 12/14-12/25 in Italy, then 12/25-12/30 in Athens, and 12/30 - 01/04 in Istanbul. This trip was meant to be my first step to fulfill my childhood dream of seeing the world. I don't have long periods of free time, so I figured I could do this a little bit at a time. These three precious weeks were right in between the end of finals and the beginning of the spring semester. I planned the trip with small time margins and hoped to fully utilize my free time. It turned out that things barely fell into place in time, and that by trying to predict things that I could not control I had caused myself considerable stress and aggravation. This was especially true before the trip, with last-minute visa applications, snow storms and whatnot.

I followed through my plan of sleeping through the entire flight to Rome, thanks to the lack of sleep on the previous nights. Was not jetlagged at all. I had deliberately not planned out many things and wanted to give myself some freedom to be spontaneous (gasp). In retrospect this worked out well - I don't feel that I missed out on many things during trip, and for the few things that I did miss (like the Christmas Day Mass at St. Peter), I did so by choice.

I was quite wrong in my initial hope to escape the New England winter by going to the Mediterraneans region during winter. Venice was cold, and 2 out of the 5 days of my time in Istanbul, it snowed. Hence I always wear the same thing - the jacket - in all of my pictures. It was great not having to deal with the crowd however.

Breaking out of daily routines was great. One of the best thing about traveling was simply the feeling that one has endless options and can do virtually anything. Not that I actually did anything crazy (which is all relative depending on who you talk to...), but just having that idea was awesome. Traveling alone gave me a lot of time to feel, to wonder, to delve into old memories, and sometimes just let my mind go blank. For the first week I kept on wanting to turn off my cellphone whenever I walked into a quiet place like a church, only to realize repeatedly that I don't have the phone, and that I have no service abroad anyways. It was quite funny though, how it kept happening, like a reflex.

It's good to be back. Next I think I'll write about the foods.

Transitions

Today officially marked the end of the frisbee season for me. After frustrating pool play in the wind all day yesterday, my club team fought hard today and ended up taking division 4. It was a great time. At the second half of the championship game, the fatigue really set in. However, as I struggled to play defense, sucking air and pushing hard to bridge the gap between what I want to do and what my tired body can do, I had this amazing feeling. It was probably all the adrenaline talking, but in the midst of all the frantic movements, I realized that "This is awesome. and THIS is why I play." It was one of those random thoughts that just make you smile out of nowhere. I really wish I was more eloquent... maybe I can then do a better job with trying to capture that moment.

That being said, I am sad that I won't be able to play with TBD in the fall. I'll be starting part-time graduate school in a couple of weeks. The plan is to take two evening classes in the fall semester and try to finish the program in two years. Sounds like some rough time is ahead....but for the time being, I will try to exploit the rest of the summer as much as I can. Now that frisbee is done, I can finally focus on training for the half-marathon that Jen has talked me into doing.

to be continued....

Ties

Last night I went to my cousin Dennis' wedding. Congrats to Dennis & Geneva!

As much as I cringe when I hear about classmates and peers getting engaged or married, this wedding left me feeling warm and fuzzy. I still wonder about the concept of two people becoming joined as one... do couples naturally gravitate towards that goal? Or is some of it the outcome of a push and a nudge here and there by the rest of the world? I guess I'll figure that one out when the time comes.

Weddings are one of the few events (in adult life) that brings everyone together. It was so good to see my cousins whom I haven't talked to in years and catch up. I was both surprised and delighted to see Mr. P, a family friend who brought Sean, Cathy and me to start at our respective schools when we first moved to the States eleven years ago. We've all come pretty far since that day, and even though we only spoke briefly, I know Mr. P is happy that the three of us turned out "alright".

Ah, must comment on the dancing. Jennifer dragged me onto the dance floor. Not gonna lie, I felt quite self-conscious dancing in front of my grandma, father, aunts, uncles, and everybody else. Much of the anxiety over dancing in public, which first manifested itself before high school prom, has subsided over the years (thanks to various things and people), but it's still there. Afterwards my brother, who refused to join us, called my moves "awkward". Whatever. I don't dance to entertain others.

Los Angeles, CA

To celebrate my birthday I decided to take a couple of days off from work and visit Cheng and Maggie in LA. Wendy also made it down from Saratoga to join us for the weekend. Getting there was a bit of a pain (UA moved my flight which resulted in a 4 hour layover), and my hopes of escaping the New England winter for a few days was thwarted by record-low temperatures in LA, but I had a great time nonetheless.

As I grow up, it becomes increasingly more difficult to make very good friends. This is partly due to the fact that I've become more private after college, and don't spend enough time with the new people I meet to really develop strong bonds. I'll admit that my being opinionated is also to blame - I am more critical nowadays. That said, I'm happy with the way things are. My handful of close friends are spread all over. We may not hear from each other often, but when we do, we never have difficulty getting worked up in our long, animated discussions on random things. Maybe I enjoy aged friendships so much that I feel the need to brew new ones.

It was comforting to see that my friends here are all doing well and nearing the turning point in their lives. Mid-twenties (shudder) is such a happening time! Ending one thing and starting another is never easy, but I guess youth is a powerful enabler... and so we dive in fearlessly. What a luxury. I wonder when I will start experiencing the reservation that comes with age? Hopefully, never.

I didn't intend to ramble like this... it's a travel journal, after all.

I find California quite exotic. The idea seems almost irrational to me, however. On the flight from San Francisco to Burbank, the woman sitting behind my row was going to the Xena convention. I was like whoa. I used to (like, 10 years ago) want to go so badly!

In lieu of a birthday cake, we had Beard Papa's cream puffs (ha! take that, phantom gourmet). Calamari sandwich on the wharf at Santa Barbara was great too, as was the chicken meatloaf at Doughboys. The trip ended with a ritual trip to IN-N-OUT, complete with animal fries and lots of reminiscing about the "good ol' days" (when exactly that refers to... changes every time though).

Deep Sea Fishing

I went fishing for the first time yesterday!

A group of us from work went out as a part of a group of 50 from Plymouth. I was a bit "bleh" for having to wake up at 4am to drive down, but in retrospect it was only a small price to pay for a rare experience. Funny how 75% (?) of earth's surface is covered with water and yet how most of us confine ourselves on land?

Right after we anchored about 2 hours out of Plymouth, we saw a curious baby seal stealing looks at us about 10 yards from the boat. It was sooo cute that I decided that even if i don't catch any fish, seeing a seal in a natural setting was worth it.


Sorry for half-assing this one, but long story short, I *sort of* caught an eel (eeek!) as a part of the claustrofuck that was a mess of tangled fishing lines. The crew boy just gave me the ugly one. It was good though, I cooked it with ginger. The anterior half is still in my freezer.

Acadia National Park, ME

July 1-3

Went camping with friends from Tzu Chi. It's been a while since I last participated in this asian family style camping (ie. food preparation and eating all day, punctuated by chaning of eating locations). Cheng asked if I pitched the tent like a pro. Of course. I've grown so accustomed to the no-nonsense 4K style of camping that this past weekend I found myself impatient most of the time and had to mentally remind myself to relax (esp. when they were packing vans). Well well well, I think the more you go out, the less stuff you bring... but of course efficiency is virtually impossible when you go camping with toddlers.

This was my second time at Acadia. I went there last year with Dad, Cathy and Sean as part of our New England roadtrip. This inevitably led to more comparing in my head, which is never helpful when you're trying to have fun. I did realize how much I miss hanging out with family and being able to say whatever silly things that come to mind out loud all the time. There are only a handful of friends with whom I feel comfortable enough to do that.

The highlight of the trip was our short hike up Beehive on Monday morning. I'm glad that the weather finally stopped being icky... otherwise it whould have made the trail very slippery and climbing wouldn't have been possible. The ascend was a lot of fun - it definitely required being on all fours - and the scenery was spectacular. Something about being high up gives me a rush.... maybe it has something to do with being able to see far, far away and knowing that I've worked myself up there.

I miss those family hiking trips that we used to do in Taiwan. I wonder if it was back then that the restless outdoorsy seed was planted in me?

Cape Ann

After about 2 weeks of rainy weather, we finally got some summer weather this weekend. It made me feel obliged to go out somewhere... just so I don't let the sunshine go to waste. Or maybe I felt that I needed to compensate for those lost summer days.

One co-worker suggested that I go to Cape Cod. Immediately, images of beach traffic backed up for miles come up. I then came across the massbike listing of routes, which led me to finding this article through google. Scenic route along the shore? I'm so there. To dodge the heat and traffic, I left at 8am (still much later than original plan of 6:30), parked at the Stage Front Park, and headed north on 127 to circle the Cape. I'm glad I listened to the lady at the visitor center and took S. Main street. Atlantic Road (pictured above) was right along the shore. Great view. The sea breeze (or maybe it's just because I was moving) made the heat bearable. I hit beach traffic (as in I zoomed by maybe 100 cars) as I headed towards Rockport. Once I got further north, the road stopped running along the shore. The rolling terrain definitely worked my legs, and reminded me that miles and miles away, the 4K riders are probably working just as hard (if not harder) that very instant.

Bearsink Neck, looked .... like a very typical New England shoreline tourist stopping point. Small boutiques and ice cream shops all around. Like Bar Harbor. I've always wondered how it works here - lots of tourist attraction in the US are just like this.... the lack of the one distinct landmark/legend/feature always makes me unclear about what exactly is being celebrated at this particular location. Or is the local economy simply sustaining itself based on the fact that they are there and that people do stop to spend money?

I'm tired. And I think while the ride itself was decent, there was way too many potholes for it to be really enjoyable. The article was right, that rotary did give me a hard time. Don't know if I'll go back. I'll give it 3 stars out of 5.

Soreness! and Travis!

Finally, after two weeks of rain, some sunshine during the weekend. I went to play pickup at Magazine Beach (right across the river from BU) Saturday afternoon. Well, I needed to ease into playing again and get ready for hat league, which starts in June. I definitely felt slower than my peak days back in college, but still, it was great to run around, sweat (yes... how ungirly), and then just sit on the grass and enjoy the breeze.

I was so hungry for more time outdoors that I went out for a ride late Sunday morning. I went through JFK and got onto Memorial Drive. They close a section of it in the summer on Sundays for people to jog/bike/rollerblade! Awesome (all 0.5 mile of it). Well, I went along the river towards Watertown like I did last time, and went a bit further. The trail is pretty entertaining, actually. There are these tiny outlook platforms right over the river. As I biked by, I saw people standing in the water & fishing. I wished I could have gone further. Well... there's plenty of time to do that in the summer.

I got to see Travis that afternoon. =] He's just finished his training on an island near Boston. We met up in South Station and went to Chinatown for pho before T-dogg's bus ride. It was great to see an old friend. I'm so happy (and a bit jealous) that Travis is going to see all these places and have even more adventures. A part of me want to follow suit but my inner voice of reason tells me that I can't... at least not right now. Is this what working life comes down to? It's a trade off. Security vs. freedom. synonyms or not? Depends on how you look at it, I guess.

The Second Sunday of May

I've decided... that Mother's Day no longer means anything to me now. No, I'm not bitter about the commercials revolving around this once-a-year occasion to tell your mom that you love her, and I'm not jealous of people who can still celebrate their moms this weekend. I miss my mom everyday. All the time, I wonder how she'd think of me if she can see me now. So why should life during Mother's Day be any different?

Maybe this is just a defense mechanism. Call it whatever you want and carry on.

Homewood, pt. II

I think I'm addicted to traveling. I went down to Baltimore again this past weekend for the Alumni game/party. It was awesome to see my old teammates who have graduated, friends still in school, and the new players who I've gotten to know briefly from the two times that I played with the team in the fall.

The trip in brief:
Friday
6pm - got the next to the last seat on the chinatown bus. last row, in the middle between ipod guy and PSP guy.
10pm - got the next to the last illegit seat on the Chinatown <-> Flushing shuttle. I sat on a tiny fold-out chair right next to the driver and hoped that I don't die.
10: 40pm - home

Saturday
6am - LIRR train to Penn Station
6:45am - Amtrak to Baltimore
9:30am - cab to Charles Village
9:40am - found Kaplan's house but could not enter... no one's awake.
noon - Alumni game at BWI, complete with mud and lots of heckling. We had our own Women's game too. It was awesome.... except for the sprained ankle.
11pm - Alumni Party. was great.

Sunday
2am - sleep
5am - woke up
6am - on a 7hr train ride back to Boston. I slept well past Conneticut I think.

Call me crazy, but I really enjoyed my brief stay... and did not mind the long travel. As much as I miss college life, the working life ain't half bad either...mainly because I no longer have to squeeze every penny as hard I guess =]

"Can I have some Ibuprophen?"
"Sure. Wash it down with a drink?"

Homewood

I flew down to Baltimore last weekend to see my buddies. It was pretty spontaneous decision... thanks Jess and Weijie for bringing up the idea! Every time "Baltimore" comes up in conversations at work, collegues either ask me "how is it" (read: "I heard it's really sketchy, how ghetto is it"), or somehow casually mention how they saw three murders on the news during their last trip down there. Yeah. I must admit, as much as I wanted to defend my silly B'more / Hopkins pride, not gonna lie, the city as a whole does not even come close when compared to Boston, or even Cambridge, if you will. That said, being back in Baltimore still made it warm (hahah) and fuzzy. I guess that's what nostalgia is all about.

The 4K05 crew met up in Mughal Garden on Saturday for buffet, just like the old days. Everyone seemed quite settled and happy with their lives back in the real world. I'm glad. I remember how during our nightly presentations, half of us would nonchalantly tag on ".... I just graduated too, and I ALSO don't have a job yet. (hahah)." in our personal introductions. We've all moved on since then. Some of us started work, some are looking forward to grad/med school, while some have their hands full with a double dose of orgo/biochem and all that premed goodness.

It was amazing how we still vividly recall random fragments on the trip and still find the stupidest details so funny. I love it. I also love how we all know that the stories will never get old (maybe only better) and that we'll continue to talk about them for years to come... like how old veterans remember their days of glory.

I got to see Kat, Devin, Jenny and Wendy too! Jenny, Wendy, and I got Indian food for dinner (a few hrs after buffet at Mughal, yes). Jenny's place is so nice! Personal washer/dryer! I'm so jealous...my laundry facility is 5 blocks away. booo.

Pho on Sunday with Devin, Wendy & Jenny for lunch! And then Devin dropped me off with his new car at BWI. Back to the work week!

Minuteman Bikeway

The rare warm weather on Friday was way too enticing. By the time I left work I was set on going out for a ride today. I even planned on waking up early to minimize the amount of traffic I have to deal with (yes, early, on a Saturday... after a hellish week at work) A co-worker told me about the 11-mile Minuteman Bikeway which starts near the Alewife station in Cambridge and ends in Bedford. Sounded classic (as in historic).

So this morning I busted out the spandex again (plus my yellow windbreaker & legwarmer) and set out when the temperature was in the high 40s. Once I got to Alewife station, it took me a while to find the actual bikepath, as there was one going the opposite way and took me to Davis Square. However, once I got on the path, the fun began. Frankly, the bikepath was pretty much what I imagined: flat, and almost monotone. It didn't compare with those scenic ones (esp. the one along the river... sigh I'm losing the specific details of my 4K memories, NOOOOO!!!) out west where every turn reveals a view that would prompt me to tell myself to take a mental snapshot and hope that I'd remember it forever, but it was definitely a comfy setting to just ride and not worry about the possibility of getting run over by cars.

There were tons of people out on that path today. Families with children biking together remind me of our family bike trip in the Poconos. That 25-miler took us through valleys, old railroad tracks, frequent breaks, and lots of grunting. I guess it's yet another memory that has become more meaningful only in retrospect, and once that happens even the trivial details grow into glorified bittersweet moments that will haunt me at the most unexpected times.

PS. no pictures taken today as everything was still dry and brownish-looking. I think this will be an awesome ride in the summer though, when everything is green (bushes are important, yo).

120 Psi

It's been two months since I moved to Cambridge. I must admit...shamefully...that I have neither been playing ultimate nor biking. The closest indoor ultimate is not accessible w/o car, and apparently pick up goes on during the week before I leave work. BUT. All this un-fitness and inactivity is gonna change!

I've finally gotten my shoes and shorts and other gear from NY this past weekend. Bought a floorpump and new tires too (will only ride on Continental Ultra Gatorskin from now on. If I didn't wipe out on that turn into Groveland I would have made it through all 3,700 something miles without one flat.) Can't wait to get back on my LeMond (yay blue bikes!), feel the wind blowing into my face and listen to the wheels roll against the road. I'm sure there will be some huffing and puffing. But that's why it's fun.

Riding solo is different, though. I'll have to cheer myself on and get used to not having pals to yell "car back" all the time.

I'm seriously considering blowing up that picture of me on the Rockies and hanging it on my wall. Maybe I'm in need of some visual reminder of how awesome it used to be.

Cambridge, MA

...will be "home" for me indefinitely from now on. Hopefully when it gets warmer I'll get to explore Boston more and take more pictures.

Life after 4K

It's been two and a half months. Still in the process of switching gears in life. It's kind of feels like the feeling you get when you see a red light ahead, but you don't want to unclip and lose your momentum so you stop peddling and just roll with it from a distance. And the likelihood that the light is gonna turn green increases as you get closer and closer to the intersection.

Well, where's my green light?!

Just saw Elizabethtown. The roadtrip part brought back fond memories.