seven lights i missed this morning
- rengstorff
- san antonio
- charleston
- meadow (not a light, but it should be)
- oregon expwy
- churchill + alma
- el camino
it’s an inauspicious beginning to a very, very important week…
seven things i love about biking home in the dark
- no one can see the silly getup i wear while biking (i’ve been told i look like legolas…)
- i don’t need glasses because the air is more moist
- i don’t get sweaty till at least san antonio
- no cars
- no bratty kids on their huffys
- light at embarcadero always turns green for me
- it’s just me and the road
i know it’s not the safest thing. i know it’s not great that i’m leaving work at 10pm. granted, at this point i’m working on research proposal-writing, so it’s not really work i’m doing that late. but i reflected last night as i biked home how much i enjoy riding late at night. i’m exclusively in residential areas, so i’m not in danger of being hit by quickly-moving vehicles… it’s just very peaceful. i take my hands off the handlebars and coast for awhile, and i’m happy. it’s a nice way to end your long day.
seven recipes i want to try
- Italian Turkey (or Chicken), Bean & Tomato Soup
- Farro Salad with Roasted Cauliflower and Butternut Squash
- Thousand Layer Lasagna
- Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette
- Green Chile Cornbread
- Pumpkin Bread
- Orzo Stuffed Bell Peppers
not that i’m doing much cooking these days. if i’m home early enough, dinner is usually some form of stir-fry or trader joes marinated fish (amazing! can’t say enough about it! pop it in the oven and… BAM!)
but a girl can dream, right? i’m actually really missing my CSA. i can’t justify it, though, with my schedule and the fact that i bike to work and would have no way to transport a giant bag full of produce 9 miles. i wouldn’t have time to use all the lovely veggies, and that would just kill me! but i do remember last year at this time how one of my roommates would always make pumpkin bread, and i’d make all kinds of squash recipes — like muffins, risotto (the recipe made enough for… oh 80 people… quite silly actually!!), soups, etc… we’d get at least one squash every week. and we’d just *have* to use it. it was fabulous. anyway, living off campus but still having more or less the schedule of a student has proven difficult… and it’s really cramping my previous style of spending a long time cooking dinner and really enjoying it. i’ve been frequenting the treehouse, and it makes me sad!!
seven scents of my morning
- kettle corn (quite confusing, actually. just as i started biking, i smelled kettle corn… at 7:30am…)
- exhaust
- curry (yes, you read that right. the bike “bridge” that goes over this little wash always smells like curry in the morning)
- perfume (woman next to me at the intersection of oregon expressway + bryant was a little olfactorily aggressive this morning)
- tar
- wet grass
- coffee!
my commute always culminates in my walking through the doors of the d.school… which unfailingly, in the morning, smells strongly of coffee! i didn’t realize until this morning how many distinct smells i take in each morning. i think it was the kettle corn… which i’m still profoundly confused about. anyway, usually my nose gets runny when i bike, but this morning i paid special attention to everything i was smelling, and it was bizarre when i passed over the bike bridge — and i was finally able to place the smell. curry. i know i’m not actually smelling curry, it just really reminds me of curry. certain smells take you to very specific places, and that smell takes me not to a place, but to a thing… or at least, the idea of a thing. songs do that for me, too. i love it. i have this smell i’ve been experiencing sometimes at work that reminds me of a very specific my little pony i had when i was 4. my mind works in strange ways.
oh, and yesterday, the true statement was that… we’re getting the internet at home. what was the rush? oy.
