palace of winds

08/19 Sun: rest
08/20 Mon: riding
08/21 Tue: riding
08/22 Wed: 40 min S
08/23 Thu: rest
08/24 Fri: biking
08/25 Sat: riding

Four days!! (From today, Monday, that is.) So much to say, no time to say it…

08/05 Sun: zoo (walking & toddler-toting)
08/06 Mon: riding
08/07 Tue: riding
08/08 Wed: biking (40 min)
08/09 Thu: riding
08/10 Fri: rest
08/11 Sat: rest

08/12 Sun: biking
08/13 Mon: rest
08/14 Tue: riding
08/15 Wed: 40 min biking
08/16 Thu: riding 60 min walk
08/17 Fri: biking
08/18 Sat: rest

In 15 days, Bryce and I are off to Peru. Which has just suffered a massive earthquake.

My heart goes out to everyone there. It sounds utterly devastating, and they’ve only just begun sorting out the mess. The epicenter is a good 100 miles south of Lima, the city we’re flying into two weeks from tomorrow. I don’t expect trouble with our plans — the village where we’ll be volunteering for the first week is north of Lima, and afterwards we’re flying to Cuzco. All remains to be seen, though.

I feel a bit weird about talking about the trip in the wake of all this, but I am also still unbelievably excited to be going, and I think bringing tourism dollars into the country is a positive thing — just like I think it’s important for people to visit New Orleans if possible. So, in light of that, a request.

For my birthday Bryce hooked me up with this incredibly awesome little mp3 player, the Creative Zen V Plus, which is beautiful and wee and which has made biking much easier (to bring my ipod I had to also bring a bag to carry it in, and then I might as well throw my wallet in, just in case, and then I have to bring my bike lock along as well, because I’d need to be able to secure the bike if I decided to stop to buy something…). Ahem — and Y!Music-to-Go, which I can use to put almost any song at all onto said mp3 player. So what songs should I take to Peru? Like I said, I can get almost anything at all. Right now I’m specifically interested in the songs that make you groove. I want to feel compelled to dance the entire two and a half weeks I’m there, so lay ‘em on me.

Oh, and I chopped my hair again last night. With no hot water for our first week, I want it to be quick to wash. Before and after (forgiving how my hallway’s lighting always makes me look exhausted):

07/29 Sun: horse show
07/30 Mon: 55 min walk
07/31 Tue: riding
08/01 Wed: riding
08/02 Thu: rest (track night)
08/03 Fri: rest
08/04 Sat: 40 min S

Early last Saturday morning, in continuance of tradition, Bryce and I headed out for pancakes and an omelet at Al’s Breakfast in Dinkytown. I’m notorious for getting lost every time, either coming or going (but somehow usually not both), but this time I’d been smart and remembered to print out directions (it’s only when I print them out that I don’t need them) — only to discover upon arrival that 35W was closed. So we had to figure out some other way to go, and I only made one pointless circle, and the wally blues and Mexican omelet were delicious as always.

And that was the last time I thought about 35W until last night, when my sister told me it had collapsed. My family’s all accounted for. It’s still surreal, thinking about it, trying to reconcile the news images with my mental picture of that area. I’m going to try to go donate blood tomorrow, I think.