It's all about glory and fame

"Oh, Google." Or rather, "Oh, Google Results." I was looking for the lyrics to Sheila E's "Glamorous Life" and one of the search results was for a site called oldielyrics.com. Oldie? Sheila E? (And, yes, yes, I know, it was written by Prince, which is a salient fact here in Minnesota.)

Stay focused.

So anyhow, I was just curious to see whether I remembered the lyrics correctly. I often don't, and the song was running through my head as I sat down to type up a blog post about the glamorous life of a fundraising team captain. In short, it is super glamorous.

You get a limited number of hotel rooms in which you get to assign people who may not know each other to be roommates (and even bedmates!), you get to learn how Twitter works (#livingthedream), you get to pick the route for team training rides (oddly, they all start close to my house), get to give Map My Ride's IT team a lot of feedback ("printing still doesn't work, so maybe you should give me a refund"), and you get to figure out how to get riders to understand that it truly is okay for them to ask their friends and families for donations (still a work in progress). If that's not glamour, I don't know what is.

Glamour, glory, and fame aside, it's a good thing. The MS Society is a great organization, and this is an issue I care about due to the way-too-many people I know affected by MS.



Thanks for your continued support. Check out my progress! The excitement over how well things are going with fundraising is helping me stay optimistic about that 100-mile ride around the corner. Last weekend's 75-mile ride helped, too.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2015   

Good ridin'

After some pretty crummo weather over the past couple of weeks, this weekend was pretty perfect.

On Saturday, I shook off the chill I acquired at my nephew's windy track meet by sticking panniers on my bike, riding for 30 miles, and ending up at the grocery store. Highlight: from the bridge pictured below, I could see tons of turtles on logs and rocks in this marshy area near the river. It's especially endearing to see these critters just a couple of blocks away from the Mall of America.

Today, I met my friend Matt for the MN Ironman bike ride. We did about 75 miles. Some highlights: seeing old houses in Stillwater, noticing the very many Bike MS jerseys people were wearing, riding down a rural and winding road with lots of trees, and seeing a new bridge being built over the river.

I needed that.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2015

Le Freak, c'est Chic

For about seven or eight years in the late 90's and first part of this century (sounds more important than "early 00's"?), I went to a pretty kick-ass community ed aerobics class. Seriously, it was fantastic, and the community part of it was really neat, too.

Anyhow, I learned some songs - some contemporary, some disco, that immediately bring me back to doing a grapevine.

One such classic, Le Freak, popped into my head tonight ("Ahhhhh... freak out!") as I started to wonder when I am going to freak out about having signed up for the 100-mile gran fondo on May 9.

But the song reminds me to just embrace it, I guess:

"All that pressure got you down
Has your head spinning all around
Feel the rhythm, chant the rhyme.
Come on along and have a real good time"

Flat. Check.

First, let me say that I'm surprised no one commented on my blog post related to pastries of heathenish form. What does that even mean??

Okay, now that I got that out of the way, let me tell you what else I got out of the way: my first flat tire of 2015! (I may have not even had a flat in 2014. Is that possible? I doubt myself.)

I walked out of work, ready to cruise home and the front tire was dead. I had a spare tube, tire levers, and my newish hand pump which worked really well. I'm excited about that pump.

I had some missteps, and got really dirty, but I got it to where it needed to be to ride home and didn't have to wrestle with my tire too much to get it back on the rim. I hate flat tires, but am glad I know what to do about them.

First a patch of non-existent trail on Sunday, now this. The adventures of 2015 have begun.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2015

Uffda

This weekend was filled with biking.

Dan and I met the Bernses along River Road yesterday and rode to Summit Brewery (we got a free beer each for being Bike MS riders) and then to Day Block Brewing in downtown Mpls. The food truck at Summit was yummy, and the pickle flight at Day Block was tasty. The Day Block bartender very kindly gave me a mini binder clip to fix my bike light strap.

Today, I rode to meet Matt after he went to yoga. We did a fun, and somewhat hilly, loop, exploring some new areas and old faves in St. Paul. It was a windy nearly-70-mile ride when all was said and done, and we got to use some problem solving skills to address a variety of situations (chain shifting off, bag hitting spokes, closed roads, dirt, nails). I'm now pretty beat and slightly sunburned and, thanks to my husb, well-fed.

My back is getting better, and biking didn't make it feel too bad, so I'll be headed back to yoga soon, which makes me happy.

Also, this week I got to about 75% of my fundraising goal. That's really exciting!
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2015

May the road rise up to meet you

I was a bit in the dumps today. Grey, cool day. Challenging issues at work. Lingering sore back. "Bike ride" down the alley instead of somewhere real. Grumble, grumble.

After eating what one might call dinner, what another might call chips and salsa, I walked to the Angry Catfish to talk about waterproof shoe covers. I've learned mine are not waterproof, despite their label.

Parker greeted me by name, and then talked with me about what would be best based on my current biking shoes. I didn't remind him what kind of shoes I own. He remembered the brand and style he recommended last summer, which I bought at a different store. I'm just amazed by his wanting to try to remember, not to mention actual ability to remember. That's cool.

So I then was thinking that I'm actually pretty lucky that my back hurts during a week when the weather is crummy. If it was nice out, that'd really stink!

To top it off, recent donations have gotten me to nearly 75% of my fundraising goal, which is amazing! Look!
http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2015

Waking back from the bike shop, I was thinking the Irish blessing may have been written by a cyclist. Although I'd suggest a couple of tweaks:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall once you're off your bike.
And until we ride again,
May you find good bike mechanics.

Pastries of heathenish form!

I was reading about the customs of Easter and stumbled across an article about Ēostre, who may or may not be a Germanic divinity who may or may not be the namesake of Easter.

The article discussed customs related to celebrating Ēostre, including unique sword dances and pastries of heathenish form.

I celebrated by attending Lisa's great yoga class and going with Matt for a leisurely first ride of the season, and now am getting ready to eat the yummo pot roast Dan is cooking. It was a great day, and I don't mean to sound like an ingrate, but where were the sword dances and heathenish-formed pastries?

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2015

A falsified diary

Well, the text is the truth, but these aren't photos of me. Shocking to learn this, I know, but it is true.




April 1: The forecast called for a possibility of storms on the way to work and a very strong likelihood of storms and heavy rain on the way home. Lesson learned: forecasts change during the day. The storms actually held off until after I was home, eating my dinner.





April 2: The ride in to work on April 1 was pretty windy. It was pretty crazy, too, on the way home on April 2. I always forget how strong the wind is in the springtime. I unclipped my right foot a few different times during the ride because I was convinced the side wind was going to knock me over. At one point, I think I was riding in place.





April 3: I decided to rearrange the furniture in our living room and apparently used bad lifting mechanics when moving the couch. This is disappointing because my back hasn't hurt yet this year while cycling, and I was thinking this would be the year of the un-sore back! I rode to the grocery store afterwards and was relieved to learn that my back didn't hurt any worse when riding and I bet it will feel way better tomorrow. So, I'm still optimistic about the riding season. But I think our living room will stay in its current state for the next five years. And this is a good reminder that my training is to fundraise for people who often are struggling with mobility issues and accomplish a lot more in their daily lives than I do.



http://main.nationalmssociety.org/goto/MS150Maggie2015