Attack of the Singing Lifeguard

I really do wish I had a few photos to go with this post. Ah well.

Anyhow this morning I swam at the indoor pool (the outdoor pool opens at 9:30 a.m. this week, and I start work at 10 a.m., so I can't start swimming in paradise until June 1 when it starts opening at 6:30). I walked out of the locker room and onto the pool deck and there is one other swimmer and one lifeguard and the mysterious sound of Celine Dion (or maybe Whitney Houston, I get their stuff confused) a cappella really loud.

It was the guard.

For her entire 30 minutes on duty, she paced around the pool singing the best of 1990's Soft Rock. Apparently earlier in the morning, a few patrons asked her to stop. And apparently, it didn't work.

Also, the *creepiest* thing is that she is up there singing and smiling down at the swimmers while she's belting out "I will Always Love You" or whatever. Yikes. She must be on meds.

Basically Back to Normal

After a few days of being so very tired, I got my head and legs back on straight, just in time for the weekend!

So my training was actually pretty decent.

Friday was a nice run and a long course swim down in Carson, where I ran into an Exterra triathlete who lives in Incline just like me - we are going to try to start carpooling down there once or twice a week, since we seem to have compatible work schedules and 60 miles round trip alone is kind of silly. According to my mom, I can't afford that gas cost anyway (see yesterday's freakout topic).

Yesterday was just a bike day, 2:30 on the trainer with 1:45 of that being interval work. The time flew by, first due to *sigh* Jason Bourne (who BY THE WAY swims breastroke with scissors kick, JUST LIKE ME!!!! He's so great), and then due to my awesome new iPod. Why I ever defected from the iPod Classic to the measly Shuffle remains a mystery. I am glad I regained my senses.

Then today I swam in our gross dumb indoor pool here in Incline, although I was very happy to notice that they seem to be vacuuming it more these days, so there are way fewer hair clumps and bandaids than there used to be! Still a bunch of kids running around though, including two girls whose mom ignored the "no food" signs and let them open a tube of Pringles in the locker room which they promptly dropped all over the floor and a bunch of them shattered and started turning into mealy globs because of the water from the pool and people showering, then of course the trio hightailed it out of there without telling the front desk that they ruined the locker room floor for all the other patrons. Gross. Sometimes people with kids really amaze me.

And finally, today was long run day! I headed out for 90 minutes after my swim. I haven't done a long run since Wildflower three weeks ago, and technically my last long training run was 5 weeks ago, so it felt great to get out and run long after taking a break from it. I missed the feeling I get after an hour of running, when I start to feel really good and really efficient and a little dose of soreness from muscles working hard and adrenaline from knowing I still have a ways to run. Also the sun made an appearance so there were lots of tourists walking around on Lakeshore Drive taking pictures of the big houses and wearing goofy "Lake Tahoe Hyatt" sweatshirts they must have bought from the giftshop because they came here unprepared for the cold - kind of like those dinky "San Francisco" sweatshirts you see walking all over the city in July on people who are clearly out-of-towners who didn't do their research... "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." Supposedly Mark Twain said that but there isn't proof that he really did.

Anyhow, so that's that. Now I am sitting here goofing off on the internet, trying to make a somewhat cool-ish website for myself because on a whim a couple weeks ago I decided that blogger was dumb and I am sick of having two blogs and wouldn't it be way better to have just one site with my journal and artwork and race stuff all organized so I dropped more $ than I should have on all that hosting domain-name nonsense. Groan. I am determined to make it look like I want it to but it's taking me forever!

You call this Beach Weather?

I really would not have believed you if you told me that on May 22, 2008, two days before Memorial Day Weekend ushers in summertime, I would be riding my bike inside due to snow and hail and general unpleasantness. It's supposed to be like this until early next week.

The good news out of this is that I am expecting the holiday weekend to be a fairly quiet one around here, not too many tourists and beach-goers. Last year, Memorial Day was actually my first trip to Incline Village, I headed up here to spend the weekend with Greg before driving North with Hutch to the Mt. Hood stage race. A year ago, the weather was good and the tourists were plentiful.

Anyhow, in other news, my new iPod arrived today! I just ordered it yesterday, and I got free shipping! How cool is that! Now let's just cross our fingers that a. it works and b. I don't go and introduce it to any major home appliances.

Firsts

This was a weekend of firsts, in various totally exciting ways.

-I finally swam long-course at the Carson pool this morning! It was awesome.

-I rode a couple of bike routes for the first time this year - yesterday, I rode west along the lake down to Tahoe Pines and back on my TT bike. A nice mostly rolling ride which I haven't done since November - it still kills me that I can spin out on a 53x12 on a short downhill here, the air is that thin! Then today I headed up to the Mt. Rose Lookout on my road bike, which I technically actually haven't done since I visited Greg here last May, before he moved to Oakland with me. I got a few cool photos too:

Here is the view of Incline Village and the Lake from the lookout point, facing mostly West and a little South.

This is the local ski resort, Diamond Peak. The weekend was beautiful and sunny but we still have lots of pockets of snow left.

-Today was the first time I was quick enough to photograph one of the many coyotes trotting around now that the weather has turned warm! I saw this one getting ready to cross Mt. Rose Highway when I was on my bike and I managed to get my new Fuji Finepix z100fd camera out in time. Speaking of, I am so impressed with the quality of the shots - the coyote was about 50 feet away!

-And finally, I broke down and went clothes shopping for Greg today for the first time ever. That's what happens when there is a certain imbalance between people's senses of style and cuteness in the relationship! (Or really, an imbalance in the importance each person places on these things). It was fun. He's going to look super cute next time he goes out in public!

Rode the Peaks

I did my outdoor Incline Peaks ride yesterday - it was fantastic! Hardly any cars! Several friendly fellow-citizens out walking their friendly well-behaved cute doggies! I even saw another cyclist! (And, I have a new appreciation for how many pricey houses are tucked away on the mountainside, all in this one little town...)

The weather was decent but super windy. On future windy days I will avoid Tyner, the biggie that goes up to 7,600', because it's quite exposed, and while it averages a 6% gradient there are many stretches that are 8-10%. So, combine these factors with the many curves in the road and the lack of those metal bumper/fence-like thingies that prevent cars (and bikes) from flying off the road into a gulley 200 ft below, and you get a road that's fun to climb but not so much fun to descend in 15-25mph mountainside gusts! The views were gorgeous though, next time I will bring my camera.

I feel lame that I was humbled by a little steep road and some wind... What happened to the Courtenay who used to race people down the mountain? I am hoping it's just a matter of clearing out my descending cobwebs after a winter on the trainer.

Anyhow after my ride I spent 40 minutes in line at Raley's - apparently it's Spring Break for a bunch of people so they've descended on my store and wiped them out of all my favourite stuff, although I will say that Maui Melon Mint Orbit Gum is not a bad stand-in for Lemon-Lime.

After that I spent about an hour and forty minutes trying to get what seems to be a 697cc tire onto my 700cc race wheel. I tried every trick in the book shy of breaking off my carbon rim. Next up is batting my eyelashes at some big strong boys, for example Greg and our team mechanic John. And, guess what else: I get to pick up my NEW BIKE this weekend!!! I am so excited, I can't wait to ride it!

Magnetic Darts, Rice and Beans, and Drug Busts

So I only saw about 2 minutes of yesterday's swim meet, thanks to my afternoon procrastinations and my adherence to the "self centered triathlete" stereotype (i.e. finishing my workouts for the day was more important than supporting and encouraging young athletes). But I did get enough of a glimpse to deduce that cool high school swim team boys do NOT use swim hats, even in races.

Another reason I missed the meet was that Greg and I went to a real live friend's house for dinner last night! It was great fun for a lot of reasons. For one thing, Eric (the friend!) is a fantastic cook, and he provided a tasty and, for me, much-needed respite from Greg's and my regular dinner menu: either pasta or rice-and-beans.

For another thing, my incredible knowledge of sports was admired by all. I am not even kidding you. Eric, his wife, and their roommate are all from Ohio, so (cough cough) I mentioned what a shame it was that the Browns didn't make it to the playoffs this year because the Titans beat the Colts because the Colts played their second string because their playoff spot was already guaranteed.

I ALSO mentioned that I was curious to see how Tyrelle Pryor was going to do with the Buckeyes.

It was about this time that Eric's wife Nicole started getting shit for not watching Sports Center.

And it was also about this time that I decided to be the designated driver, so I got soberer as the others did not. You know how that goes. So the evening descended from discussion of Stephen King stories (I am suggesting "The Shining" for the next book club selection), to tales of Ohio's rollercoasters, to comparisons of how Eric and Greg make fun of Nicole's and My swimming (scarily similar methods), to me and Nicole comparing Eric's and Greg's P.O.S. 1991 Hondas (both of which have duct tape holding various parts on the car) and plotting how to make the damn things disappear, to looking at wedding albums, to hearing a certain someone's gross sweeping false generalizations about women, to a drinking game involving magnetic darts and some apparently gross wine called Fish Tail or Fish Sauce or something. Fish Eye I think, actually.

It was fun.

Now, you might be wondering why a designated driver is needed in a town that is about 1 mile across and has a population of approximately 5. Well, a month or so ago there was a big scandalous drug bust, side note this seems like Small Potatoes compared to some Oak-town shenanigans I witnessed. Anyhow ever since the big bust, the cops have been out in force, looking for the next major local criminal, pulling over cars with busted headlights left right and center, and stationing themselves pretty much permanently at the "less desirable" corners of town (for example, ours).

We decided last night that a. we needed to designate a driver, since it was Friday, the cops' second favourite day of the week after Saturday, and that b. it would be me since Greg has already gotten pulled over twice. He is such a baaaaddd boy. The first time was for expired tags on his car (another reason why it's a POS), and the second time was funny:

Last Saturday I was begging and begging for ice cream after a dinner of, surprise surprise, rice and beans. I also insisted that Greg come to help pick out the flavor in case they didn't have Ben & Jerry's Peach Cobbler. He drove since he thinks I suck at driving (too many blog posts attest to this for me to hyperlink to just one). The store is 1/4 mile from our house so we brought one wallet, mine, because it was all my idea so I had to buy the ice cream. Anyhow Greg pulled into the parking lot in a somewhat speedy manner, next thing you know two big SUV's with flashing lights AND sirens screech to a halt right next to us! They found Greg's maneuver to be shady and a probable inclination of shady materials in the car and shady intentions borne by the driver... The rest of the story is anticlimactic: I sat in the car while the cops walkie-talkied for a while and Greg just stood there cold and annoyed, he ultimately got off with a warning, Raley's was indeed out of Peach Cobbler ice cream, so we got Mint Cookie instead.

However, last night I did an excellent job driving us home and today everything is grand, and I'm sort of watching basketball, except I just got a call from Greg that his car won't start so I have to go get him from work. I HATE THAT $*@)%))# CAR I AM CALLING NICOLE FOR MORAL SUPPORT.

Calm Sweet Fluttery Breezes

I am now relaxing and saying OM and purging myself of all inclinations to rant, bite heads, and cause my face to get red and my brow to furrow.

My sister is forgiven. Apparently she was in the car with my mom and had been napping and my mom made her wake up and answer my mom's cell phone since my mom was too busy driving, so I can't say I blame her for being bratty.

Shoes arrived. Our UPS lady is nice and in no way emblematic of the occasional mindlessness of her company.

Better yet: shoes fit. Thusly I am less worried about having to send back the other new in-transit purchases. HOWEVER, the fact that they FIT and are a smaller size than my PREVIOUS shoes begs the question: WHY THE CRAP was I fitted in the WRONG SIZE by a CERTIFIED BROOKS DEALER?!?!?!?!

This is a question I am not going to pursue. See note above about fluttery breezes and elimination of rants.... knowing me, though, this will probably be a "redirection" rather than an "elimination".


In refreshingly *other* news, this afternoon there is a high school swim meet at our pool! One of our swim buddies is actually the coach for the Truckee High School swim team, although her daughter swims for Incline. Vicky promised me this morning that the meet would be entertaining. I can't wait!

Stuff that's Stupid Again

I AM SO FRUSTRATED.

Incline Village is Stupid.

Specifically, it's stupid because the mailmen are either lazy or scared of the snow or too busy skiing/buying cheesy paintings of the lake/taking their dumb grandkids to play on the dumb lobster. Because for some obnoxious reason, the mailmen DON'T DELIVER MAIL to a lot of the houses and apartments here. You have to get a P.O. BOX if you want to get mail.

But you can't get other delivery services to put stuff in your P.O. BOX. No way. You have to get that at your house, a.k.a. your SHIPPING ADDRESS, where you can't get mail.

To further complicate matters, unless you want to pay $2 for an energy gel or unless you are buying cheesy paintings of the lake from local artists or ugly old-lady clothes at Christmas Tree Village where their big waste-of-electricity clock is perpetually wrong in different time increments, you are basically REQUIRED to purchase stuff on line and get it SHIPPED to you.

Everywhere else in this shoparific country, you can get both mail AND deliveries to your house. But not here in Stupid Incline Village.

So if you buy stuff online, for example health insurance or gels or clothes or cameras or DESPERATELY NEEDED SNEAKERS, the likelihood that that there will be a f@ck-up on the shipping end is pretty much 100%*** and someone will send your SHIPMENT to your PO BOX where you can't get SHIPMENTS, or your MAIL to your SHIPPING ADDRESS where you can't get MAIL. Frequently-used-by-customer-service explanations for these f@ck-ups include:

"Oh well it says your billing address is P.O. BOX XXXX so I guess that's the address we gave to UPS, rather than this shipping address."
or
"We usually don't use USPS so it probably went FedEx even though there is no indication of this on our website and I see we have an email here from you requesting that it ship via USPS, so it will get returned to us eventually, and then we'll send it to this updated address in about 2 weeks!"
or
"Well even though the zip code didn't match up UPS still tried to take it to Incline Village, Oakland California, so I guess that's why we got it back."
or the one I got today:
"I have no idea why they said there was no Apartment 24 in your building even though you are sitting inside Apartment 24 with a functional doorbell right now. They'll reattempt tomorrow."

Today, I hate it here. I want SF. I want a place where a girl can SHOP without idiots blocking her way and foibling her mail/shipments/boxes.

***Unless you buy from eBay or the used section of Amazon, where everyone uses USPS and you can go to your P.O. BOX to get your flat iron/shuffle/book club books/pedals/etc.

#500!

This is the 500th post I have written since I started this blog in May of 2006... Since today can be summarized in just a few words (overslept, it's snowing, s'posed to snow more, kitty says hi), today's post will instead be a little Courtenay's Blog Recap for those of you who weren't here from the beginning (which is probably everyone except my mom... took me a while to start posting daily with gory details all about my fascinating life!)

-I got engaged. (warning: from a gossip standpoint, it's all downhill from here...)

-I got famous.

-I stopped being engaged.

-I started documenting conversations with Mom. (see more here)

-I made a threat - little did I know it would actually happen!!

-I rode the crap out of my bike.

-I started teasing Huntress. Still haven't stopped... sorry Lisa you know I love you!

-I raced.

-Shaz and I picked the wroooong place to stop.

-ImetGregweemailedhemovedin!! (it happened so fast I didn't even get a chance to blog about it!)

-I got to hang out with the coolest massage therapist ever.

-I teased some more.

-I met Katie!

-I proved that girls love goggles.

-We moved.

-I won a triathlon!?!?

-I made tons of cool new friends (see links to the left I mean right!)


and the rest is pretty recent history...

Plotting

Yesterday I headed outside in the mid-afternoon 54 degree temps for my afternoon ride. Recently I'd heard about a "7 Peaks of Incline" bike route that sticks to quiet residential roads in town and takes advantage of the 6,250' to 7,600' elevation span between the low and high points of Incline Village. So, after a few unpleasant rides along the highly trafficked lakeside highway that heads towards Carson City and South Lake Tahoe, and after an awful reminder of how dangerous it can be to share roads with cars, I decideded to test out our residential streets yesterday.

I did an hour and a half, which included about 2,000' of climbing and about 10 cars total. Maybe a few more actually, but still the vehicular traffic was blessedly light, the views of Lake Tahoe reliably gorgeous, and the climbs steady and sufficiently long for some future intervals. Jackpot! Then today I consulted a map, which I should have done yesterday but the adventure was kind of on a whim... It looks like we have at least 5 good climbs on hand, 3 of which have at least 1,000' of elevation gain, and I can avoid the busy roads almost entirely. Yesterday I did two of the 5. Here's an interactive map, and the streets that are likely candidates are Tyner, Jennifer, Country Club/Eagle, 1st Green/Fairview, and Ski Way/Tyrol. Google Earth might be a better illustration but I don't have it on this computer.


View Larger Map

On Thursday I am testing out a longer route - 2.5 hours may require a couple of the roads to be climbed twice. I am looking forward to it.

3rd Birthday

Today my boss's son Jack had his 3rd birthday party at the Rec Center, which coincidentally and conveniently is also where Greg and I swim and work out. They had a bouncy castle in the gym for an hour, then toddler swim hour in the pool, followed by cake and snacks and gifts.

The swim part was SO CUTE. Yeah I know in the past I have bitched about kids swimming, but:

1. My boss's kids are really cute (see previous description of the Cuteness Dichotomy)

2. The party-goers were too small for the lobster, so no need to deal with that annoying and large reminder of how stupid IVGID can be with their money and decision-making.

Little Jack had to put on his swim trunks in the women's locker room with his mom (they had little sharks! so cute!), and I was heading to the pool to do my swim workout at the same time.

"COTE-knee, I'm going SWIMMIN!!" smiled Jack as we headed through the door. He made my day! And after an hour of swimming with his dad and jumping into the water more and more bravely, he was NOT interested in getting out of the water and going to have cake.

My kind of kid.

On a separate note, the lake looked pretty cool on my drive home from work yesterday:


(and thanks for the comments regarding yesterday's survey - looks like i will be buying a new camera soon!)

Chronicles of the 4th Ginormous Snowstorm

We got nearly 2 feet of snow this weekend!

Here Greg is wiping off the car before we left the gym tonight, and here the big snow machine is clearing the way for us as we drove home!

Other notes on the day and weekend:

-Bike racing: no need to rag on Levi further, although I WILL SAY that I found it hilarious that they played music really loudly during his post-race interview with Bob Roll so you didn't have to listen to him whine if you didn't want to! Ha HA!

-More on bike racing: Go Katheryn!!!

-My toes are killing me even worse than last week. I took a photo again but I will spare you the sight of my mangled pinky toe! I guess it's time for new running sneakers, this time perhaps a size smaller? Oh darn I guess I have to go shopping.

-There is something wrong with Charlie. Twice since I got back from camp he has PEED where he is not supposed to! The couch and on the bed! And of course when I sit there and try to scold him, "bad kitty! bad kitty! you are a bad bad kitty!" all he does is look up at me, blink, and purr. The message is not getting through. Anyhow I am hoping it's something like an allergy to the wet food we've been giving him, or something like that, because he's not showing any other signs of stress or pissedoffedness. Rest assured I will keep you all updated.

-Starting tomorrow Greg and I both have rest weeks! Woohoo! Time to catch up on stuff for example the laundry and correspondence.

Introducing the Rec Center Lobster!

Today I am back to making fun of things that are not me.

The Rec Center is where I swim and work out here in town, it's the only pool in the area and it's actually a pretty nice one. Anyhow, if you ask me, there are always tons of kids running around, playing basketball, taking swim lessons, walk/running on the treadmills in jeans and casual sneakers, playing air hockey, screeching, etc.

However, apparently the rec center staff feels like they need to attract even more kids and families. We now have the "Rec Center Lobster" in the pool on weekend afternoons, which I find problematic because I like to sleep in and leisurely make my way to working out on weekends... not any more, because the when the lobster is set up there are only 2 lanes for lap swimming, as well as too many hilarious distractions in the form of slippery fat kids spending like half an hour trying to get on the lobster.

(not the greatest photo but you get the idea)

Additionally, these lobsters cost something like $4,000!

Everything counts in large amounts

I'm getting a little weird up here in the mountains. (ps no peanut gallery comments about "getting", please)

- I count stuff all the time. Every swim stroke (~14 per length usually, the way I count it), every pedalstroke (~70/min during big gear, ~95 otherwise), footsteps (90 per minute), breaths (counted in 20's), reps (12 is my favourite)... my workouts are a series of numbers and I find it comforting and nerdily inspiring.

- After literally 15 years of eating salad at least once a day, I quit. I can't deal.

- I have only purchased one item of clothing for myself in the entire last 3 months. These really cute snow boots which I totally need.

- Suddenly the idea of getting a boob job seems cool rather than disgusting. Thoughts? I am envisioning a nice C?


I blame it on a. the snow that's making me walk like a toddler and b. the proliferation of people in this town who WILLINGLY change the gym TV channel to FOX FREAKING NEWS of all things. Fox News! For pete's sake! It's all their fault. Like my grandmother used to say, it doesn't matter what happened as long as you can place the blame.

Happy New Year!

Well, after a CRAZY and PARTYLICIOUS New Year's Eve, I am finally finally feeling coherent enough to blog.

Psych.

Our NYE was totally boring yet totally perfect. Healthy dinner, some netflix, and then we passed out at 9:30 p.m. I am still feeling sleep-deprived after lots of late nights and early mornings on the east coast (basically midnight-8 a.m., nothing drastic but Cour10ay totally needs her 9+ hours in order to be remotely nice/charming), so this was the best possible evening for me!

On to other peoples' more interesting lives...

I recently learned that, in the Reno hospital system, health-care workers are not allowed to call overweight people obese, overweight, fat, etc. The term is now officially "bariatric" (like geriatric but with a b). And, the hospitals have special 4XL-sized toilets (the size of a small hot tub), wheelchairs, beds, doorways, the list goes on. I guess this is important in Reno, where 55% of the population is "bariatric". If you don't believe me, just hang out for 10 minutes in the Trader Joe's/Big Lots parking lot.

I also recently learned one reason why the McMansion Explosion is so huge in Anne Arundel County, Maryland (and probably more than a few other counties). Thirty years ago, there were hardly any developments in the whole county. Basically everything that wasn't a town was farmland. Then farmers began to sell to developers... My mom's friend Ricky Davis had a farm where he raised cattle and crops, and hosted Future Farmers of America events. The farm was in his family for over 200 years. Recently, Ricky's neighbor farmer died and none of his family wanted to keep up the farm, so it was sold to a developer who put up 15 or so monstrosities with crappy landscaping (read: no trees, so everyone from the road could see how ginormous the houses were). The people who moved in started going over to Ricky's, complaining that the cows smelled, the farm machinery was unsightly, the FFA events were disturbing them, etc., and he needed to stop doing all that. Ricky fought back for a while but eventually he saw that things were only getting worse, so he too sold out to a developer and moved to Iowa (to farm in peace, I assume.)

It all makes me cry. It feels so unsustainable to me - continually bulldozing over land to make it into strip malls or housing developments where everyone gets a 4 car garage with a couple of acres of land. In Reno, which p.s. is in a DESERT, this land is usually landscaped with all kinds of east-coast plants that require lots of water, which by the way doesn't really grow on trees in the desert, so to speak. In Maryland, it's just making everything ugly, and contributing to the death of the Chesapeake Bay, which is another rant of mine that I will save for another blog.

At the moment I am quite happy to be in Incline, where homeowners have to jump through twelve hoops to do anything to their houses lest they adversely affect the environment (or their neighbors' lake view).

Whoa.... where did the "happy" of my post-title go?!

Last Night was Book Club!

Well, despite
1. Not finishing the book
2. Talking a lot, including an unsolicited 15+ minute ramble about the cat and how he likes this cute bed I got him last week and how he layed down in his [clean] litterbox when he was soaking wet the other day and how he's so cute and shit I have become a CAT LADY!
3. Being part of the 75% of attendees who brought cookies and sweets, 85% of which remained untouched because we all apparently wanted real food
4. Bringing a recipe for a different cookie than the variety I actually brought, and in fact someone else actually made the cookies for which I brought a recipe
However, 4. b. I tasted hers and my recipe is way better, for one thing I use butter instead of margarine

despite all these things, I had fun and I actually am pretty sure I made some friends!! A couple of whom want to ride bikes together and maybe check out bike racing, one of whom moved here from Europe 13 years ago and said she cried every day for six months out of loneliness (I can relate), and all of whom I liked. Phew.

The Lost Month

GUESS WHAT IS BACK?!?! Beloved 'puter. Not only did they replace the hard drive, but they also cleaned it and fixed a dent or two!

Anyhow here's a pictoral account of all the exciting Incline happenings of the past month. (Note there are no people in the photos because, sigh, I still have no friends.)

The sun rose:

The cat got some baths...
...and survived:

It Snowed:

And the sun set:

Be My Friend

No I am not talking about Myspace or Friendster Facebook. I can't ever get on those sites anymore anyway and according to Jandy, who is probably right, I won't be able to get on them for a long while.

I am talking about REAL LIVE IN-PERSON FRIENDSHIPS. I realized today that my closest friend here in Incline Village is my boss's wife. I met her 3 days ago. She's super cool but a. I have talked to her for approx. 10 minutes total and b. see prior comment regarding length of friendship.

How does one meet people?!

Why do I even need to ask that? I have been the new kid countless times in my life. My dad was in the Navy, I went to 7 schools by the time I was 14, I up and moved to San Francisco without knowing a soul and left with tons of friends, so why am I having a hard time here?

I have (probably unfairly) decided that it's because 65% of the Incline Village population is either 55+ or in middle school. I can't relate to either group. Nor can I relate to the 20% who are babymamas and babydaddies with strollers and stuff, or the 20% who are high school students or Sierra Nevada College students (YES I am an east coast snob and I am having a hard time viewing that as a real school even though it's supposedly great and the students love their professors and etc. etc.), and 5% are about my age. Greg and I comprise at least 50% of that 5%.

Yeah so my math skills smack of overgeneralization and so do my social profiling ones. I need to stop whining and just get out there and smile at people. Look out Local Starbucks, look out Local Library, look out [wherever else there is to hang out], here comes the New Girl.

I'm Back!

Yay we have internet now! I am so excited! Now I get to spend the day "researching diesel engines", "catching up on correspondence", "perusing job classifieds", "etc." (meaning: I get to spend the day shopping on line, facebooking people, looking at a week's worth of cats that I missed, blogging, and generally being sedentarily productive.)

Anyhow, I guess task numero primo is to drag this blog out of the boring ages.


STORIES:

1. I got a suspicious email from my mom, Sal, wherein she used the phrases "Howzit going?" and "Thanx!". Hmm. Who stole my grammar policemom and replaced her with a tweenager?

2. The recreation center here (which is actually the gym, pool, etc.) is HILARIOUS. For one thing, there are signs all over the women's locker room about current and upcoming group-fitness classes. My favourite is "Walk the Gym!" - apparently if you walk around the basketball courts 22 times you've gone a mile, and people get together from 6-8 am and keep track of their walking miles.

2.b. My favourite pool quote thus far, spoken by the local I.V. Ice Queen from the 90's (if you don't get it ask Martina): "This suit is just awful. It adds at least 5 seconds' worth of drag." My resident swim-expert tells me that you'd have to put a bucket on your back to get 5 seconds' worth of drag.

3. Greg and I have rekindled our love of solitaire. Yes, the card game. So far we have won at least 6 games.

Speaking of which... it's my turn to play.