1. rengstorff
2. san antonio
3. charleston
4. meadow (not a light, but it should be)
5. oregon expwy
6. churchill + alma
7. el camino

it’s an inauspicious beginning to a very, very important week…

1. no one can see the silly getup i wear while biking (i’ve been told i look like legolas…)
2. i don’t need glasses because the air is more moist
3. i don’t get sweaty till at least san antonio
4. no cars
5. no bratty kids on their huffys
6. light at embarcadero always turns green for me
7. 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.

1. Italian Turkey (or Chicken), Bean & Tomato Soup
2. Farro Salad with Roasted Cauliflower and Butternut Squash
3. Thousand Layer Lasagna
4. Butternut Squash and Caramelized Onion Galette
5. Green Chile Cornbread
6. Pumpkin Bread
7. 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!!

1. kettle corn (quite confusing, actually. just as i started biking, i smelled kettle corn… at 7:30am…)
2. exhaust
3. curry (yes, you read that right. the bike “bridge” that goes over this little wash always smells like curry in the morning)
4. perfume (woman next to me at the intersection of oregon expressway + bryant was a little olfactorily aggressive this morning)
5. tar
6. wet grass
7. 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.

1. waterproof jacket + pants
2. fenders
3. waterproof panniers
4. shoes that dry quickly
5. socks that dry quickly
6. waterproof gloves
7. glasses of sorts so i can actually see where i’m going

so i’m a bike commuter… 17 miles round trip between my house and stanford. i can deal with it being cold, dark, or cold + dark, but i’m woefully unprepared for precipitation. seems like there’s a lot of STUFF i need to make this work. yikes.