The Race from the Roadside

I wasn't sure what to expect when I dragged my friend to see see Race Across the Sky, the documentary about the Leadville Trail 100 race (okay not dragged- she volunteered). All I knew was that I love documentaries and racing and this was both! And it didn't disappoint!

To start with, the scenery was beautiful and the cinematography was stunning. Then, the KILLER course makes for awesome race drama. The fact that it's a round trip course makes it even more brutal, as anything that was “easy” on the way out gets them on the way back.

Then, I was really struck by how much it resembled a road race. I don't know much about mountain bike racing and was surprised how much the tactics were similar to road racing (at least in this race)- the breakaways, working together to draft, attacking to develop gaps, etc. In addition, I had always thought of mountain biking as a solitary thing. And I guess by the time many reach the finish line, it's down to small groups. But for much of the race, it seemed like the majority of the racers were riding as one big group.

However, the best part of the documentary, no question, were the two different plot lines playing out during the documentary. One plot line was the race- those racing for first place. The other was the racer vs. the race, the racer vs. himself, the racer vs. the clock – the human, individual stories of the ordinary people who ride this race to prove something, to heal, to overcome. For most who did this race, it wasn't about anything other than how cycling can heal and change lives.

My friend remarked at how many of the riders trained to heal – how the intense suffering of training helped to calm the mind, sort the mind, free the mind. I think many riders, even in the pro circuit, use cycling for healing and, once they got into cycling and realized how it helped them mentally, got addicted to the effects intense cycling has and weren't able to/interested in stopping! This is why I think so many cyclists do what they do. Pro cyclists have to be passionate about what cycling stands for, or how it helps them, because they sure aren't doing it for the money or job security! When I read interviews with cyclists, the one thing that stands out to me is how much many of them marvel at the fact that they get *paid to do something they love. And that's one thing that makes cycling, for me, so great to watch and follow. It's the passion that is necessary to succeed as a cyclist that keeps drawing me back in.

There is one scene in the movie which illustrates this point brilliantly. As one rider is inching his way painfully up the Powerline climb, pushing his bike as though it weighs 100 pounds, he suddenly veers over to the side, lays his bike down, and sits down on the side of the trail with his head in his hands. I was embarrassed that we were witnesses to his defeat and saddened that his journey was over. But then, he gets back on his feet and starts pushing his bike up the hill again! And I thought, wow, this is cycling. This is why this sport is so compelling for me. You can just feel his exhaustion and the strength and determination it took to get back on the bike again is what gives cycling its heart.

In the end, what sticks with you is the stories. Sure, the trail is epic, the struggling never-ending, the day LONG, but because the documentary focuses just as much attention on those who finish the race in 12+ hours as those who finish it in 6, those stories of how and why ordinary people push themselves to the brink of collapse just to finish a mountain bike race are what get carried home.

 So. I know there are a million and one blogs out there which deal with cycling already. And I know this blog has never addressed cycling before (so don't go looking at past posts expecting anything interesting). And I know that I haven't posted on this blog for over a year. However. This is my blog and I can do what I want.

Very briefly: why I'm writing about cycling..

• As someone who's new to the sport of road race cycling, I hope I can bring a new perspective.
• But mainly I have no one to really discuss cycling with where I am. While I have friends who do cycle, no one follows road racing like I do. And I need some release for my opinions/thoughts!

Why competitive cycling when I don't even own a bike? (at least not yet) Tour de France, 2010 edition! It was on TV, I had nothing else to watch. Then I realized Andy Schleck was from Luxembourg, which is where my mom's family is from. Then I realized Andy was cute! And I was hooked.

So onto the opining.

We all know what the biggest story of the cycling world is right now: doping. And who would I be if I didn't have an opinion?

Do I like Contador? No. Did I want Andy to win TdF 2010? Yes! More than anything.* But do I want him to get the yellow jersey this way? Absolutely not. And I don't think he'd want to get it this way either. I don't know whether to believe Contador or not, but it's not looking good for him at this point.

*omg when Andy's chain came off, I just about had a stroke! Then they kept playing the chain incident over, and over, and over again! And each time they did, I died a little inside.

But all these high profile positive tests brings bad press back to cycling. Being new to the sport, this was the first big doping scandal that had broken since the start of my obsession I wasn't sure how to react to the news, the accusations, the lamentations of a sport beyond saving. Maybe cycling is doomed. Maybe there's no way to make cycling clean. When Torri, and Walsh, and Kohl all say things like, “Doping will never be eradicated,” “the sport is going nowhere,” “You can't win without doping,” I wonder if it's true – that cycling is in a no-win situation and the only way to have any success in cycling is to dope. And it made me depressed. Because I'd like to think it's not true (being an eternal optimist) and because I hate having to justify to others why cycling is a legitimate sport!

But then comes the defense of the riders and the sport. You have the soon-to-be retired McQuaid defending the sport thru the UCI's work against doping and biological passport** and the UCI Anti-doping managers showing how the values within biological passports indicates how the “mentality of most of the athletes is changing;” then the riders themselves are coming out to defend themselves and the sport. Of course Vaughters came out and defending the riders and cycling very strongly, saying that even if some are breaking the rules, there are many more riders who are riding clean, and have no desire to dope.

**even tho I think the UCI can't really combat doping while it's trying to promote and grow the sport

So as I recovered from my despair over the future of the sport, I came to some of my own conclusions.

First conclusion: I think cycling gets a bad rap, in the sense that there is doping in all sports. From where I'm sitting, with the exception of baseball, it seems none of the other sports get as much bad press as cycling. In the sense that all the press reads, “Another cycling caught doping: No surprise there.” As if they expect all cyclists are doping. But do people really think there is no doping in other sports? If they do, they're naïve. Just the other day, one of my housemates went to a basketball presentation at Maryland and commented that the former player which got the most applause was someone who had been caught doping. It's insulting to cycling to insinuate that it's the only sport with a doping problem. AND it's insulting to cycling fans to insinuate that we don't care about the doping we're going to continue to watch anyway, accepting that doping is just part of the sport (I'm looking at you, Walsh)!

Second conclusion: building off that point- as other cycling pundits have pointed out, maybe the reason so many cyclists, including the biggest names, are getting called out for doping is because 1) cycling is the one sport that actually doing something to catch and discourage doping and 2) the testing and controls have reached a point where it can catch even the most sophisticated dopers (ie, those with tons of money to spend doping very carefully).

Third conclusion: There is hope for the future! Does the biological passport solve everything? No. Does it stop doping? No. But it makes doping more expensive, time consuming, difficult. And hopefully that will discourage more riders from taking the risk. As was pointed out in a recent Cycling News podcast, it is definitely just a control, not a cure. But both in this podcast, and in the most recent Real Peloton podcast, it was acknowledged that progress has been made from the 90s. Now, I was not around the cycling world in the 90s, so I cannot really say how true I think that is. But from what they say, there has been a change for the better since the 90s and maybe the passport is part of that.

It's not just the passport that is helping clean up cycling. It is also a slowly changing culture within cycling. In both the Cycling News podcast and the Real Peloton podcast something was brought up that I had never thought about before, which is that doping is also a culture and a class issue. Many of the riders in the Anglo-Saxon world, America included, are from the middle-class, who would be leading fine life if they weren't in cycling. For most of them, cycling isn't a way to escape a life and thus, don't feel the pressure to dope as much. However, the cycling culture in Eastern and Southern Europe is very much rooted in the working class. Compared to the Anglo riders, many of them see cycling as their escape and thus, do feel a pressure to dope. In addition, because those regions have such a deep, long history of cycling, the contamination of doping also has deep roots, and it will take longer to get rid of that contamination.

So! What I think that means for the future of cycling is that as cycling is globalized, it brings more and more people into the sport who don't see doping as acceptable or necessary. And as this new generation comes in and brings an intolerance to doping, it can only help the sport!

One last note: if you haven't listened the most recent Real Peloton podcast, and you're interesting in anti-doping, you should! It has a wonderful recap of the New Cycling Pathway Conference which happened in Australia during the World Championships. This was the conference which Landis attended. Maybe you heard about that. The podcast mostly focuses on the presentation of “I wish I was Twenty One Now: Beyond Doping in the Australian Peloton,” a super interesting report on doping in Australia, which is available to read online (pdf). I haven't read it yet, but plan to!

So that's what I have to say about cycling for now. It was a post that was a little longer than I thought it would be and took a little longer to write than I thought it would! But here it is. for you to ignore as you wish.

so, the day we left carcassone we headed down south to visit some castle ruins and go to a gorge. we drove there on our way to our next stop, montpellier, where we stayed for one night. this was my first real driving experience on tiny french back roads! it was crazyscaryawesome. the roads were about one car and a third wide and im pretty sure i did not not stop turning the wheel once- it was back and forth, back and forth. and i`m pretty sure i didn`t take the car above 3rd gear for the whole drive! (even tho the car was an automatic, it drove and shifted like a manual. so that was fun!) but it was great. with all the hairpin turns and switchbacks, i couldn`t go any faster if i didn`t want to die! and i loved seeing france thru the back door. it is so hilly and leafy and full of nature! that`s one thing i`ve really been noticing- first of all, it seems as if their food source is right there. there are fruit and vegetable stands all over, with food right from the fields. and 2nd, their agriculture seems so much more diverse than in the states! there are corn fields next to sunflower fields, next to orchards, next to other things i can`t identify! it's so unlike iowa, with it's subsidized corn farms, stretching as far as the eye can see. anyway.

i think i did a pretty good job with figuring out and writing out our route, as we didn't get lost once! the castle ruins were amazing, even better since we didn't have to hike that far to see them. i didn't realize there was so much old, old history here in southern france! greek, roman, medival ruins! it's crazy. i'm not used to seeing that much history! the gorges were amazing as well- bascially a canyon with a road built into the side of it. which we accidentally drove onto. which was so scary as there was definitely only room for one car and certainly no room to turn around! but still awesome.

then we drove to montpellier, which was fine until we actually got into the city. driving in french cities is the most stressful thing in the world. because if you miss your turn, you can't just turn around! because no road is straight and most of them are one way! you just keep going deeper and deeper into the labyrnith of the city. so we have no idea where we are and i'm about to punch something. we decide to just park, find information and find a map. but when we park, the parking garage is a typical tiny garage, with low ceilings, lots of pillars to run into and small spots. and when i try to park, i try to make straight parking into angle parking and get into a fight with a wall. of course the wall wins, and now i have a huge dent and paint from the wall all over the passanger side. yikes. so now i'm ready to cry. i end up talking to this very nice parking garage attendant who feels my pain, says i'm nowhere near where i want to be, even tho i KNOW our hotel is not that far off the autroroute! but he gives me some general directions and lets me out of the lot for free. but i still can't figure out where we are, so i stop again. and they say we're way in the wrong direction, even tho i know we're not that far off! eventually, we just go back to retrace our steps and realize we took the wrong turn off the autroroute! if we had gone left instead of right, no problem. but we were heading further into the city, instead of out into the suburbs! THEN, we can't find the stupid hotel on the street it's supposed to be on! at least, not where google maps says it should be. so we have to stop into a resturant to ask and the server is like, oh it's just right down there, a little further down than you've been going! gah!

the hotel ended up being quite nice, with great owners. but still an experience i'd have rather avoided. and it's sad that that horrible experience had to overshadow the great driving and touring day we had in the morning! but i survived and tomorrow it's on to arles.

and it's back! for a limited time, maybe. but for now, it's back. mainly to keep all my fans updated on my process in france. for those of you who are not in the know, i'm taking a tour of france with my sister. very general itinerary:

• arrive in paris, spend the day with one member of team cornell, amelia, take the night train to toulouse
• pick up rental car in toulouse, drive to carcassone, spend 3 days there
• drive to montpellier, 4 days
• french alps, near Chamonix, 2 days
• strasbourg, 3 days
• reims, 1 day
• paris, 4 days
• home!

so that's it.

let's get started.

flight was fine. the first day in paris kinda sucked, only because we were so tired. seeing amelia was great, but me and molly were not really that interested in walking all around paris. it was so freaking hot and we were tired! then, when we got on the overnight train to toulouse, we had the last row of seats, but our chairs wouldn't go back all the way b/c of luggage behind us and we didn't have as much leg room, so the lady in front of me was basically sleeping on my lap! it was absolutely horrid. i was in a very pissy mood when we got to toulouse. THEN, we had to hang around toulouse b/c we couldn't check into our hotel until 3! but toulouse was fine- very pretty and they had a nice park with grass that we took a nap on.

when we finally picked up the car, my first driving experience wasn't too bad! i didn't kill anyone or even get lost, so i'm chalking that up to a success!

once we got to carcassone, we had a hell of a time finding our hotel. we ended up having to go into the city and finding the tourist info office to get a map. which was a chore all by itself. by the time we got to the hotel, we hadn't showered, changed our clothes or slept for three days! so we were quite cranky and gross. but our hotel was great. it wasn't so much a hotel as cabins. we were in the middle of nowhere, which can kinda suck sometimes, but here it was great- surrounded by flowers and nature. and we had a little mini fridge. so that night we went to the grocery store and stocked up on all of the foods i hadn't had since my last trip- kinder buenos, prince cookies, petites pots, yougert, cheese, sausisson. all delish!

carcassone was great. the city kinda reminded me of mont st michel, as it is an entire city enclosed in medival walls, but better because the shops weren't all tourist traps- there were a lot of cute boutiques and lots of resturants. we were there over their indepencence day and went to their fireworks- that was a chore. parking was hellish, of course we got lost, then decided to just go home but couldn't figure out how to get there, somehow ended back up where we had gotten lost in the first place, decided "what the hell" and just parked (basically in a construction pit, haha! the french will park anywhere- once one person does it, everyone does it: medians, sidewalks, construction sites...) and walked about 20 min to the site. and i'm so glad we did! it was a killer show; they had fireworks set up all across one side of the city walls, so it wa a long line of fireworks that were syncronized. i've seen shows in NYC, iowa and DC and these are definitley the best i've ever seen!

getting home ended up being a breeze- we were on the right track to begin with, we just didn't realize it! but i'm glad we didn't, as we wouldn't have stayed to see the fireworks if we hadn't.

the only bad experience we had was at a resturant. now, i know i'm in france and i don't expect the same type of service as in the US- i don't expect the wait staff to be falling over themselves to help us and make sure we're doing okay; it's up to us to ask them for what we need. however, no matter where i am, there is no reason to not treat me with respect! nobody acknowledged us when we came in; it took ages for some to even come over to take our order; and when we were finished, nobody every came over to clear our plates or give us a check! and i saw numerous people come inside and look around- had anyone bothered to even say "hi" to them, they probably would've stayed and ate! but they were ignored, so they left. anyway. that's it for carcassone. we left the next day to see some castle ruins, but that's for another day.

This weekend was just FULL of fun!

to start w/, i MOVED! yay! not that i'm excited to be out of the fleetwood house, but i'm just excited for the housing search to be over and the transition made. and to be closer to EVERYTHING. now people can actually come visit me! it was a super painless move. all of my stuff fit into 2 cars (shocker!) and tony (landlord) helped me move my furniture. the only bummer was that the bookcases i was going to buy off a girl were already sold by the time i got there. so i had to spend a little more money than i wanted too. and i had to go to ikea and buy a bookcase. and it just *barely* fit into jen's car! it was a little comical!

have made a reasonable dent in my unpacking, but it was put on hold by the other fun thing i did this weekend- two viewings of Richard III! i went w/ rebecca, not really knowing what i was getting myself into. like any normal person, shakespeare is a little scary. and not only that, but it was being put on a by a very small acting company that had just come out from university of colorado! so really, it could've been a disaster. but it wasn't! it was quite amazing, in fact. i have never read Richard III and didn't even know what the general plot was. so i really went in with no expectations. okay, that's a lie. i went in thinking, this is going to suck, i'm not going to understand anything and i'm going to be bored. however, the fact that they give you two beers with your ticket was certainly a good sign!

but it was just amazing! there was only about 8 actors, so they all played different roles, but it wasn't too confusing because each time they changed roles, they changed their costume a bit and just morphed into the new character, through posture, walk, facial expressions. and the guy who played richard was amazing! just totally believable. and the way all the actor took the lines and infused them with so much expression and emotion, made it a lot easier to tell what was going on!

i guess i had always equated shakespeare with incomprehensibility, but this showed me that Shakespearean language is just like someone speaking english with a really thick accent! you can understand it, you just have to listen harder! and, sometimes, not understanding everything makes it more interesting. rebecca and i discussed the play the entire way home, decided we were going to do some research, bone up on Richard III trivia and go back and see it a 2nd time! and it was just as good the second time. i still didn't understand everything, but my fear about being bored was unfounded. again. i was heartly impressed and have gotten over my fear of shakespeare!

Things I am obsessed with right now:

1. So You Think You Can Dance- this how is everything American idol is not- good judges with constructive criticism, dancers deeply and truly committed to their art, and frankly, i'm just more interested and engaged in dancing than i am with singing! my favs are twitch and joshua and katie and mark.
2. James Macovy- next up- penelope. favorite James Macovy movie- Wanted. favorite james macovy tv show- shameless
   
3. Batman- intense, dark, twisted, nail-bitting trip. excellent casting, excellent acting. i know everyone's already said it, but heath is amazing in the movie. the makeup helps, but he so totally becomes the joker. and he's funny! and while your laughing, you're thinking "i shouldn't be laughing!" but you can't help it.
   
4. Brandi Carlile- new favorite artist. she's very mellow with a great voice.
   
5. Sweet Land soundtrack- new favorite soundtrack. fits so well with the movie. the soundtrack really is the movie and helps give it depth.
   
6. taking trips- at least planning them. to home, to boston, to montreal
   
7. NYC- new favorite destination. still doesn't beat paris (b/c c'mon! it's in france!).
8. friends- making sure they're happy and helping them become better people.
9. Kelley Armstrong, Kim Harrison- they're chick lit for vampires and witches
10. reading- but having a hard time finding any new authors to love

I'm back on the livejournal wagon again! i fell off, oh, about a semester ago! but i thought, what a better way to celebrate the end of the semester than by summarizing it for livejournal!

in terms of academics, this semester sucked! but in terms of overall interest and social life, it rocked. so all in all, a very up and down semester.

in terms of enjoying the classes and finding their content interesting, this semester was definitely better than last- in my history class, we covered from the civil war on and even though i've never studied that time period before, i think that was why it was interesting. and it was nice to be able to have an excuse not to know what was going on, history-wise! i also loved the ppl in the class- they are fun and intelligent and (most of them) well spoken.

my library science class was about reference and i think the combination of the subject material and the prof made it an enjoyable class. we talked about the roles of libraries, librarians, reference librarians, the move to digital, technology in libraries, etc. the only annoying part was discussion! those people did not understand how and what a discussion is! it's not about each person raising their hand, going in order, sharing anticdotes- it's about agreement and disagreement, reaction, and debate. so while i wanted to have  a *real* discussion, the other people (and the prof) wanted to share stories in an orderly fashion. yuck.

my last class was a museum class- it was about what museums are about, why they're important, how they formed, what their history is, and why does it all matter! it was quite interesting and made me think about museums in a different manner. more than any casual museum-goer realizes, museums do have an agenda and are an important part of society. they have many functions and can be useful! it was a very interesting class. the professors were...interesting. one fell asleep during class. the other liked to insult people. people in the class were interesting too. some in a good way. some in a bad. i had to write a very interesting research paper- it was about how the Holocaust is represented in museums. and how the Holocaust perception has changed over time in America. good stuff.

I made some excellent friends- joey and corinne, not to mention my roommates. i met both joey and corinne when we had class together first semester. we sat together and made up the majority of the no-talking end of the table. which did not really lead to good things. however. apparently they both thought i was weird because i was quite happy all the time- i hadn't found the transition to be hard. they, on the other hand, had had lots of problems starting out and it made the first part of the semester pretty awful. hearing that later, made me think about my move. it was painless (thanks to the 'rents), i was happy w/ my new place and my roommates, i was sorta excited to start school again. really, not much to get me down! and i'm SO thankful for that. because i've been in some not-so-fun moving experiences. maybe making a complete break from iowa made it easier- i couldn't wish to go home because it was so far away.

roommates rock. had plenty of drama at the beginning concerning the lease- on girl, kristin decided to leave, but i still keep in touch w/ her. have had musical roommates since her. amanda was much cooler than i expected, or hoped. and so is rebecca. i don't know how i do it, but i always end up w/ the best roommates! (and now i've jinked myself.)

finding housing sucks. have been looking since may and have just found a place. and i'm supposed to move in two weeks! so i was cutting it close. but not for lack of trying! maybe i'm just too picky, but if i'm not going to have a car, i don't want to be chained to the bus schedule! i don't like have the bus dictate what i can and can't do. so i wanted to be close to a metro- close enough that i could walk. and apparently, that's too much to ask! so have been traipsing all over maryland to find something that had the right location, and the right vibe. but i finally found something this weekend. location is good and got a really good vibe from the house and the current residents. the last place i thought i had, i didn't have. after i had stopped looking, they told me they gave it to someone else. so i spent a week and a half not looking for housing, then had only two weeks left before my lease is up. so i've been stressing hard core, but i think i found something. it's about 10 minutes from the metro and 15 from a grocery store, target, eating places and a movie theater. so fingers crossed...

Things i have discovered this last semester:

1. there is a museum certificate available through the history department. it's only 4 classes. so i'm going to pursue that


2. i want to work in a museum. that's my first choice. and w/in the museum, my first choice job would be working in the education/outreach/advocacy department. because museums have so much to offer, only people don't realize it. and i want to help them. 2nd choice would be in the archives. or anywhere else.


3. i'm an over-reader. i'm always afraid of not having enough info or sources to write a paper, so i spend all my time looking for sources- often not even reading them when i find them- and not enough time actually reading the sources to figure out what i really want to write about.


4. i need better time management skills. specifically when it come to reading for class. because i don't do enough of it. and it hurts me in the long run. and in the short.


5. i DON'T want to get a PhD


6. i don't don't read well enough. i don't read critically and it hurts me in the classroom


7. finding new housing sucks!

i have been seeing movies lately like it's my job! let me give you the run down.

27 dresses- actually a lot cuter than i thought it would be! it was actually kinda funny and sweet. you just can never tell from previews of these sorts of movies whether they're going to be actually cute and funny or just cheesy and eye-rolling inducing. (like august rush)I recommend it for those who dig chick flicks.

There will be blood- heavy stuff! but quite good actually. It's long- 2.5 hours. but the first time i looked at my watch was 2 hours into it! so that's good. the ending was a little weird but satisfying. Daniel day-lewis is amazing. the music is a little bizarre, but i liked it. that was actually one of the reasons i wanted to see the movie in the first place- i read an article in entertainment weekly about the movie and the musical score. the music is part very modern (i think done by someone from radiohead?) and classical. i liked the juxtaposition of the ultra modern music with the old west set. I also liked how it showed that not only can money and greed make a person do things that are not always on the up and up, but so can religion. I also thought that the main character talked like will ferrell in anchorman!

diving bell and the butterfly- this movie was not as depressing as i thought it was going to be. it was all in french, which of course i liked, and it was interesting because parts of the movie were done from the paralyzed guy's point of view (it's about someone who has a stroke and has locked-in syndrome, meaning his brain functions but his body doesn't). There are flashbacks too, that show his life before the stroke. it was interesting because even though this guy despairs about his life and being paralyzed, he comes to enjoy little things in his life and becomes committed to writing his memoir. I don't want to say it's entirely about hope, because the guy still gets depressed about his life, but more about finding the little things to enjoy.

The savages- i liked this movie. i'm not sure i loved it, but it was good. i really liked laura linney and philip seymour-hoffman together. it was kinda  a depressing movie about dealing with the decline of a parent- especially a parent who didn't take very good care of you! but it was still enjoyable.


Charlie wilson's war- i liked this in spite of julia roberts! i really dislike her and find her supremely unattractive, especially in this movie. but tom hanks was great and philip seymour-hoffman was great and it had a fast moving story. although when i left, i wasn't sure exactly what this movie was trying to say- that america essentially created the talian and al-queda? i think that was the point. i was really only left with the impression of a series of events. but still entertaining.

enchanted- i know, i know- a little behind the times with this one. but i wasn't that interested in seeing it when it came out, but then i heard lots of good things about it and decided to give it a shot. it was cute. i think i liked 27 dresses better. some of it felt a little contrived, but i still enjoyed watching it.

i'm set up to see juno this weekend and i still need to see no country for old men! plus others, of course. hopefully i won't get so far behind in movie watching this semester! haha!

so i just ordered and got some christmas cds. I ordered the old school amy grant christmas cd- we have it at home, but i figured it was time i had my own copy. I listened to this cd non stop during the christmas season. when i played it last night, it made me, more than anything else that's going on right now, want to be home!

i also got one called christmas grass, which is a bluegrass one. it's awesome! i never would've pegged myself as a bluegrass lover, since i hate country, but two of my favorite cds are the cold mountain soundtrack and the o, brother soundtrack- which are both primarily bluegrass.

i also burned my roommates elvis christmas cd, which for some reason, is the only cd i've wanted this season! so now i got my elvis fix.

i've been listening to xmas music all the time now- when i'm at the library, i listen to xmas radio on the internet. christmas overload!

i've done really well w/ presents- i've ordered most of them off line! nice and early. i think i got some good ones this year. hopefully after my paper is done on thursday, i'll find time to go w/ joey and corinne christmas shopping.

also- big news- i finished and handed in my 605 final...a day early! i can count on one hand how many times i've handed in an assignment early!

so funny it's almost annoying



"shun the nonbeliever! shuuuunnn"