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1 time is not enough, 3 is too many cause I get too tired. But when I go around 2 times, I'm feeling real good and can get a couple more hours of writing done in the afternoon.
Sep 27, 2023
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I'm thinking of pulling one right after I finish this paper because of an all-nighter but I should probably sleep
Jun 11, 2024
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Sometimes the only motivation I have to go outside in the summer is going out for a bike ride. It doesn’t matter where or what bike I’m using, as long as I can get out on a bike.
Jun 14, 2024
One time I went on a bike ride from Boston to Newport, RI, and it was honestly one of the best times of my life. I remember setting out and being nervous about whether or not I'd be able to make it the whole way. I was pretty new to biking in general and had never created my own route before, so I ended up riding along a lot of highways and paths that definitely weren't made for my bike.
I wrote a new journal entry each time I went through a new town and stopped to take a picture of everything that I thought was pretty, which was nice because you can't always stop to do that in a car, and I feel like it made me take closer note of everything that was going on around me and everything going through my mind. No detour had to "make sense." I was just biking.
I met so many different people who I still think about every so often. My two battery packs and my phone died multiple times, so I had to pivot and find somewhere to stop. I met a woman at the CVS who let me use their picture station because they have all the cords you need and her daughter ended up being one of my classmates. She told me to make sure to call my mom and let her know where I was, and we had a really nice conversation.
It kind of felt like I was in the Truman Show because I don't think I ran into a single person who wasn't nice to me, and we always had something to talk about because everyone wanted to know why I was biking 80 miles. It was mostly because I was bored, but I also wanted to visit a friend. It was pretty spontaneous, and I was underprepared, but I have so many good memories from that trip.
My friend's girlfriend was working on getting her sailing license, and she took us on a sunset cruise that was hosting a bachelorette party and a golf club and we all drank so much champagne and just talked. We went to his local bar and talked to every single person in there. I met a guy who would only let us play darts if we threw them while his hand was on the board, and he ended up getting us drinks the whole night.
Before then, I had never been around that many people who were just genuinely interested in getting to know each other. I had always fallen into just having a specific group of people that I'd open up to and be myself around (which is fine and valid), but it wasn't really until then that it kind of clicked that I was kind of hiding "myself" or all the versions of "myself" that I could be and closing myself off from meeting people who I could get along with or share things in common with, and I carried that feeling the entire way back and met even more people. I stopped at more restaurant's and food trucks to eat alone, and I felt comfortable; it wasn't lonely, and I wasn't afraid to ask someone to take a picture of me or to ask where they were from and just talk.
This post started as something completely different in my head, but I said all of this to say that biking definitely changed my life for the better. I want to bike further, and I want to bike with my friends, and I want to see more things on my bike. Some of my favorite memories from the past 5 years happened while biking. My mom thought it was crazy to spend $450 on a bike, but if you take good care of it, it can last for years and I'm gonna use the same bike to plan a trip cross-country with an Amtrak rail pass this summer.
If you've been considering it, I HIGHLY suggest buying a bike.
Mar 30, 2024
Top Recs from @joe-pera
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Feel kinda dumb sometimes when I put my goals together - write a few hours a day, read more, don't drink 5 beers on a Wednesday night - so these pages really struck me when I visited the Woody Guthrie Center while doing a show in Tulsa. It's a beautiful list and seeing it in his own handwriting was both inspiring and a good reminder that it's mostly about just staying regular with the basic stuff and trying to put some good work days together. Maybe he should have put "send Mary and kids money" higher than "listen to radio a lot" but who am I to say?
Sep 27, 2023
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I've performed on this show a couple times and it's one of my favorites in the whole city. It feels like you're performing in someone's living room with cheap beers and a neighborhood crowd that's out to have a good time. Aside from the special setting, Rufat is one of the funniest people I've seen perform lately and it's exciting to watch him work on new jokes with his regular audience. Same as my buddy Dan Licata's Corn Beef Show at The Gutter or Rachel Kaly's regular Union Hall show, it's the best to watch a comedian take their jokes so much further than they typically could when performing for their regular audience that they have a rapport with.Every Tuesday at Scorpion Records in Ridgewood.
Sep 27, 2023
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I was watching boat crash videos and came across this youtube channel. They've got some vids where the boats get into trouble but my favorites are where they just set up a camera by inlets and marinas around Florida and record boats going over the waves on their way to the ocean. Boat culture is very foreign to me so I find it interesting to see what type of people are on what type of boat. And all you can hear is the water and boat motors so it's fun to imagine the relationships of the boat passengers and what they're talking about.
Sep 27, 2023