Yes, I am that awesome, thank you.

This week I took a gig at a school that's just up the road.  I live at (around) the 13oo block of 14th street, and this school is a straight shot up, on the 5000 block of 14th street - all told, just over three miles, with a nicely marked bike lane almost the whole way.  Lovely.

A quick lesson in DC city planning: east-west streets are named, A-Z (actually, A-W, but whatev), then 2 syllable words A-Z, and the three syllable words A-Z, then plant names A-Z, and that takes care of the whole city by "Juniper" or so.  (This could be a much longer lesson, of course, but that's all we need for this particular story.)

So.  I live at (near) 14th and N.  The school is at 14th and Gallatin.  Gal-la-tin.  Just under two alphabets.

Anyway, back our show... 

One of the things I love about biking is that it's almost always faster than public transportation, especially for short distances.  Going up 14th street from P, by my house, to U, for example, I pretty much always beat.  This is because the bus has to stop every block to let people on an off, and I don't.  Also, I ride like the wind.  

This morning, as I turned right onto 14th at P, there was a bus, headed north.

  

Ready, set, go.  

It started badly for me.  Apparently no one felt like getting off from P-T, and no one really felt like getting on either, so the bus didn't have to stop at all, it just bumbled along and I pedaled away behind it, watching it get two, then three blocks ahead.  

But luck was on my side once we got to U St, where tons of people all of a sudden needed a bus.  Thanks, U St.  I not only caught up, but got a good enough lead goi

ng into the hill  starting at Belmont that by the time we got to the top, in Columbia Heights, at Harvard, the bus and I were neck and neck.  The better part of a whole alphabet and still no clear front-runner.  This was set to be quite the race. 

When the light changed at Irving, I took off, legs pedaling fast, eyes on the prize, down a little hill from Newton to Perry, then up again to Shepherd, then down another little one to Upshur, and then the final big hill, from Webster to Farragut, 5000 14th St. 

By the time I pulled into the parking lot at Gallatin, the 5000 block 14th St, I had not only left the bus that had started with me at P St in the dust, but 

I had also passed the bus in front of it as well.  

All while saving myself the $1.25 bus fare.  

God, I love my bike. 8-) 

A room of one's own...

actually, a room of my own.  For real.  I, Shana, at 24 years old, finally got a room to myself.  

The big move was last weekend.  It's hard to explain how happy I am.  David was a wonderful, wonderful, completely lovely roommate.  But wow.  I feel like a real grown up now.  

I took some pictures, obviously.  You can check them out here.  OR, alternatively, you can check out this website and come see the room for yourself.  ;) 

(I really can't even think of a title here)

Last Friday I was going to write a post all about how, as of February 17, I'd had only two dollars left for the rest of the month, and about how I was determined to make it last, and about how I was actually quite successful in this endeavor, and when around rolled February 29, the last day of the month, I, having just passed go, next month's paycheck in hand, decided I'd better go spend those two dollars.  

(Except one was sitting in my dresser... it had been in my pocket, and I took it out just before sending it to its death in the washing machine - wouldn't that have been a tragic way to spend half of the remainder of my money for the month!?  and it never made it back to my wallet.)  

So on my way home from work, I swung by Whole Foods, thinking I might take my one dollar and buy, like, a can of beans, or perhaps some bulk popcorn.  I wandered around the store for a while, clutching my dollar, wondering what on earth I was interested in eating that could be worthy of my two weeks of careful saving, when I happened upon the olive bar.  Aha, I'd thought, this is what I want, I want olives!  I took one of the little tester cups and tested one, and indeed, it was a very good olive (feta cheese stuffed!), but testing the olive helped me to realize that I didn't want olives, I wanted one olive, and there, I had just had one.  So I left Whole Foods, still clutching my dollar.  Didn't even go back for bulk popcorn.

I never did get around to writing about it - busy weekend, you know.  But today I spent that dollar, plus the one I'd left on my dresser, plus a couple more from the new paycheck, on some toothpaste. 

That's pretty much the end of this story. 

Barack Obama thought you could use some chocolate. 

and less funny, but still notable: 

Hillary ate your potato chip that looked like Jesus.

I guess he finally got up.

There's a statue in the ground in DC at Hains Point, a park on the very tip of a long long island in the Potomac (which might technically be a peninsula, but I don't feel like looking it up to check) called "the Awakening".  

Rather, 

there used to be a statue in the ground in DC at Hains point, blah blah blah, called "the Awakening".  

It's not there anymore. 

It is moving.

Today.

Wednesday, February 20.

It has been moved.

It's one of those things that I've seen in guidebooks about hiking and biking  and picture-taking in and around DC, and it's always made me think, hey, that looks pretty cool, I should take a ride out there and see it for myself. 

Well. 

Of course, I have a story. 

And this is how the story goes: 

Monday morning I woke up to amazingly beautiful weather - temps near 70 (Wisconsin, eat your heart out) and a light breeze... that turned later into a strong wind and, even later than that rain, but for the morning, at least, it seemed like a day straight out of a fairy tale, especially for February.  And I thought to myself, hey, today might be a good day to go ahead and take that ride out to that statue.  

But first, of course, pancakes and coffee.

By the way, yes, this was Monday.  In DC, when a day is a federal holiday, like, for example, President's Day, it's not just bank and postal employees who get the day off (rest of the country, eat your heart out).  

So I fixed some coffee and whipped up some "just add water" pancakes (very tasty), dumped some applesauce on top and opened up the Sunday paper, and what do I see but the following headline: 

One Last Climb Before Big Move: Sculpture Headed to PG County

It was moving.

Wednesday, February 20.

Today.

Moved. 

But this was Monday, when I read about it in the paper.  Coffee-pancakes-applesauce-paper-Monday, so I had time.  You know, like, 48 hours.   Or 36.  You know. 

And I actually didn't get out there on Monday, because that would've been too easy, and you know, I thought about the issue thoroughly and determined that since it was a holiday, the crowds would be intolerable, and, since it was a holiday, I would 

be needing an afternoon nap.  So I decided in favor of a Tuesday-after-work visit instead.  

Tuesday after work it was.  'Round about 5 o'clock yesterday I made my first-and-last-ever pilgrimage 

out to Hains point to bear witness (and lots of pictures) to the Awakening before it moved to Maryland.  

I was fortunate to arrive at the exact same time as a bus or two full of unbelievably/remarkably homogenous 14 year-olds from somewhere-that-wasn't-DC.  Once they (and their teachers... it was kind of cute) all had a shot and climbing up at sliding down the giant knee, I got my own chance, first and last:

 

definitely worth it.  Worth, even, the freezing cold ride home in 30 degree twilight weather with gusts of wind up to 30 mph.  In my face.  You only regret what you don't do, right?  Frozen misery lasts a half hour, but not sliding down the Awakening's knee, not biking to Mt. Vernon in January, not canoeing around that last corner, those things last a lifetime.  

More of my pictures from last night are here.  

I made two friends on my trip: one, a former pro basketball player for San Antonio and then for DC who these days keeps in shape by cycling laps around Hains Point after work.  He was on his way home as I was on my way home - apparently the wind sent him packing early, as he usually does significantly more laps than he did last night.  But he kept me company on the mile and a half back into the city, and thus helped keep my mind off the wind in my face.  And that was nice.  

Apparently there's quite a bike culture at Hains Point, a whole group of people who go biking laps around at various times of the day.  Interesting. 

I learned this from the second friend I met last night, one who had ridden down not to bike laps but to, like me, photograph this giant piece of aluminum one last time before it was to be carted away by cranes and trucks.  Unlike me, however, he had been there every day for a week, making sure he got that last perfect shot... 

As it turns out, this guy is an avid photo-taker, biker, and DC blogger.  And he's got some really great (read: better than mine!) Awakening shots, like this one, and this one.  Cool, hey?  I like them.  He even posted this one, which I am proud to have taken myself.  :)  Of course, he returned the favor by taking these shots of me.  Shana climbs to the top of something cool - classic:  

(He was there this morning too, and he's got some cool shots of the the Awakening being carted away to Maryland on his blog.  The Washington Post had a little video too, which was also kind of fun.  Other people have remarked, and I agree that I also would've kind of somewhere expected to find a whole body under those woodchips... )

At any rate, I'm kind of excited to be plugged in, at least somewhat, to the "DC-biker-blogger" scene.  I mean, this guy, my new friend, has a link on his blog to the folks who sell the "you'd look hotter in a helmet" bumper stickers.  That's big time! 

I've been up to a couple other things since my sister Cassie left, like this bike trip down to Alexandria, a thinly veiled attempt to keep myself from getting totally depressed that Cass wasn't here anymore.  It served its purpose for a while, but in the end I got totally depressed anyway.  No bike trip can replace a fun/adorable little sister.  

And Skippy, in case you're wondering, is still holding nice and strong.  Heck of a bike, I tell ya.  30 mph gusts of wind, here I come.  Eat your heart out. 

(I don't even know what that means.)

Best weekend ever!

Cass came to visit me in DC.  

It was so so so fun/perfect.

 

We borrowed my friend Megan's bike (Pauly - now bffs with Skippy, of course) and rode all around the city visiting museums, monuments, memorials, markets, important buildings, cheetahs, and fun people.  We saw everything, AND ate our weight in cheese fries to boot.  If that's not fun/perfect, I don't know what is! 

It was all of the things I love all at once: biking, DC, good food, 

cookie decorating, picture taking, all my friends, and of course, my lovely sister Cass. 

The pictures are here. 

When she left, I was very sad. 

BUT I think chances are good that she'll come back sometime... 

how can you say no to a second chance at such a great time!  

And now I'm getting ready for when Caitie comes to visit,

 which will be soon, right, Caits?  ;) 

and THIS is what it looks like...

... when your wonderful co-workers buy you a brand new lock, the most hard core bike lock money can buy:

and THIS is what it looks like...

when you get a new bike.

Ladies and gentlemen, meet Skippy.