Capital Bike Share & Thoughts about Thorny Political/Gentrification Issues

Like 8,000 other people, I bought the $40 Living Social deal for the Capitol Bikeshare. I feel like this key is such a status symbol now. The must-have yuppie accessory.

It's a perfect idea, though. Futuristic, even - the iPhone app has been great for seeing which bikes/docks are available. The bike sort of feels like a toy and you can't go very fast, but it's solid and so easy to use. It's a great tool to have in your non-automobile transportation arsenal.

If you can't tell, I'm sold. I've decided this is the way to travel. My poor Fuji remains in the basement, waiting for a tuneup.

I was riding a Bikeshare bike to H street to check out the $12 ramen place, possibly tweet about it - so trendy, right... As I rode down the street, I thought, "Wow, this is so pleasant....Aaaaaah!!" That was sound on repeat in my head as the bike wheel lodged itself in the trolley track on the street.

Rookie H Street mistake! I clutched the handlebars like a sea captain at the helm in a squall, careening wildly. "This is not good," was all I could think as I tried to right the bike, a look of panic surely on my face, but somehow I avoided crashing. I tried to ride off and pretend everything was cool, but a few passersby saw the whole thing. They probably keep a running tally of bikers felled by the trolley tracks.

OK, next time I'll know, stay far far away from the tracks.

Closing thoughts: I'm proud that D.C. is putting time and money into investing in this new technology and really helping it take off. The Bikeshare makes the city so accessible - everything seems within a quick bike ride. All this week, though, I've been reading about crime on the Prince of Petworth blog - shootings and stabbings during the day in crowded places like the Columbia Heights metro station, the National Zoo and 14th and V.

It's so easy to navigate D.C. streets now, but what's the point if you don't feel safe while doing so? I understand that I chose to leave Fairfax and live in the city, and I can't expect it to be as safe as the suburbs. I believe that it's not asking too much for citizens to be able to walk in broad daylight in high-traffic areas without witnessing an act of violence or God forbid, being involved. I don't know the answers to these complicated problems, but I think we should care about a basic level of civility and safety and we should expect our elected leaders to do the same.

5k Slog

I ran my 2nd race on Friday, a 5k in Crystal City. If I had run this 5k first, I would never ever have run the 10 mile race. The 5k seemed harder, for some reason. It was raining the whole time. I stomped in puddles, with my $6 Forever 21 red dress purchased for the Red Dress Run hidden behind my raincoat.

Plus the pace was so much faster and I am not a fast runner. A fat Labrador wearing a red t-shirt passed me at one point.

Here's me looking sad in a pic posted with my results (29:09 minutes, way better than my high school gym class 11 minute miles). In the end, I was glad I tried it and finished. Phew! On to the next.

Here are the girls I was struggling to keep up with:

Linda in fierce mode!

Earth Day 2011

A few weekends ago, I volunteered at my office's river cleanup event at Gravelly Point Park. Everyone picked up a pair of gloves and a grabber-picker-upper-thingy (as seen on TV). I looked around and all I saw was pristine park land. "Do we even need to be here? Is this all for show?" I thought as I picked up individual cigarette butts off the ground to look busy.

Then we got closer to the river - plastic and glass bottles dotted the shore line, along with all sorts of debris. A small patch of woods nearby looked like this:

Disheartening, to say the least. Why do people walk away and leave their trash without a second thought? Maybe they think, "Oh, those helpful corporate volunteers will clean this bottle up next year. No worries."

The woods near Hains Point must be a party spot. I felt like an archaeologist. I would clean up a pile of Heineken bottles, below that there would be remnants of the Corona era. Then a layer of leaves, and I'd discover the Coors Light eon. Artifacts from parties past.

10 Miler = Finished!

Turns out the Cherry Blossom 10 Mile race on Sunday was nowhere near as scary as I imagined. The first three miles were the toughest for me, but then the rest was fine. It was a beautiful day, and when I got to the finish line I was glad to be done but I felt like I could have run farther.That's a crazy statement for me, since I am not a runner at all, and I never even imagined I would ever be able to run 10 miles. But earlier in the fall, I talked to my friend Linda about running and she said if you can run 5 miles, you can run 10 miles.

I once ran 5 miles on the treadmill during a particularly engrossing episode of "Real Housewives," so I thought perhaps 10 miles was possible. And it was! So this is for everyone who said I could finish the race, and for the few who said I couldn't - mainly my dad, whose exact words were "You'll never do that."OK, so my family was skeptical, as their main memories are me parked on the couch eating fruit snacks. But I'm telling you, if I can run the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler, anyone who puts their mind to it can run it too!

Car-Free Living

For a good long time, I've been into design blogs. Now that I've run out of rooms in my apartment to "design" - i.e. slap up brightly colored tacky things - I am adding cooking blogs to the mix. I love the photos and the possibility of eating more elaborate dinners than a bag of popcorn, which is occasionally my go-to.

The only problem? I hate grocery shopping. Hate it. My main issue is that I live about a mile from the grocery store and I don't have a car. I was talking to a neighbor who goes to my church and she said, "I can't believe you live in this neighborhood without a car!""Oh, it's fine," I said. "Not a problem."Cut to literally 24 hours later, and after the non-arrival of the D2 bus, I'm trudging up a hill, wearing a gym bag, three grocery bags draped on each arm, a grocery bag hanging from my neck, carrying a pair of rain boots that I no longer need because it's not rainy. I might have also been weeping. Just a tad. All of the bags were arranged on my person in a Tetris-like puzzle, so that moving one bag would disturb the equilibrium of the whole thing.

Then I hear someone call "Hey, need a ride?" I look over and it's my neighbor Holley from yesterday. Yes, living in Glover Park without a car is no problem at all.She was nice enough to take pity on me and give me a lift home. I could barely climb into the car, with my Sherpa-esque arrangement of grocery bags. Thanks so much, Holley! Much appreciated!

10 Miler

For reasons that I now can't remember, I signed up to run the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler. Keep in mind that I am not a runner. And now it's less than a month away!When I first found out I won the lottery to get my spot, I had a nightmare about running.Me: I dreamed that I was back in high school, running the ticket run and I came in last.Joe: Was this a dream, or a memory?Ha, I was never last! Just second to last. Running two miles back then seemed like a daunting task. And now I've signed up for 10.Oh well, I've been training and everyone says it is doable. Joe's going to run with me, which will help since he's run the race before. But even though it's less than a month away, the whole idea seems very abstract. We'll see how it goes when I'm slogging through it.