WTF?

I hate the TSA's new carry-on baggage policies. Before this week, I hadn't checked a bag in six or seven years. It didn't matter how big my suitcase was, I'd carry it on and check it at the gate. And in all of those years, I never had an issue.

Until today.

Because liquids and gels were banned earlier this week, I was forced to check my bag rather than carry it on. I hate checking bags, so this was a hard thing to do. The flight was fairly uneventful - short and to the point, without connections or delays of any kind. I sat next to one of my co-workers and all went well. After arriving at the airport, this story takes a sharp twist. My bag never came around the turnstyle in the pick-up area. I went to the ticket counter - the employees behind the desk couldn't tell me if or when I'd see my bag again.

I have work tomorrow morning. I have to wear nice clothes - khakis and a buttoned shirt. And I don't have either.

Back to Life

Hey everyone!

I don't think anyone really read this blog in the past, but now this page has sat without update for almost two months. I'm almost positive that my reader-base is hovering right around zero. That's okay, though. I really don't think I'm that interesting.

Allow me to bring you [the world] up to speed. Alex and I went to Europe for a month. It was an incredible ride. Words, especially these haphazard weblog words, could never do that trip the tiniest bit of justice. For that reason, I'll not even try to describe it. Suffice it to say, I would do it again in a heartbeat.

More recently, however, I've entered the 'real world'. Yes, that's right, I started work with 'Company B' [see far, far below] on Monday. The first three days were entirely consumed by some of the most redundant and excruciating training exercises ever. Fortunately, class ended with the workday (around 5) and the remainder of the afternoon and evening was spent playing table shuffleboard with my fellow new-hires. There are over sixty of us, all young and freshly graduated. The first day there wasn't unlike the first day of college - everyone's there being extra social, no one has a place to sit at dinner, and strangers talk to one another on the elevator.

By the third day, most of us had gotten to know each other - or if we hadn't, we pretended we did. I think most of us were on information overload by last night. I think that's why several hours of mindless shuffleboard tournaments seemed so appealing.

Dover, Delaware

This town scares me. It's exploding. I'll drive down a country road, one that used to be lined with corn and wheat as far as the eye can see, and notice that all of that agriculture has been replaced by houses. Homes. Hundreds of them, all freshly-built and occupied. Every one looks the same, an SUV in the driveway and a tiny porch built onto the back.

There are hundreds of neighborhoods like that. They're springing up like weeds all around this once-tiny town. People must be flocking to this place, but I cannot imagine why. The population is increasing, but there are no signs of growth anywhere else. No retail expansion. No capacity planning. They just finished rennovating the high school... but in two more years, they are going to need to build two more. It really is ridiculous.

Lightning McQueen

Lindsay and I saw Cars last night. It was awesome. Alex was being a snob and talking it down a few weeks ago. As soon as he sees it, he's going to eat his words. The animation was spectacular, the effects incredible... the scenery was awesome. I can't imagine how long it must have taken them to render every leaf on those trees in the canyon shot, or the particle emitors that produced the waterfall.

What a sweet movie.

Quick Update

Just a quick update; I created a new blog specifically for Euro-trip content. That doesn't mean I'll stop posting here... I just wanted to give my friends and family a centralized location in case they want to see what Alex and I are up to in Europe.

The website is: http://andralex.blogspot.com

Packing List

For those of you who are curious, here is what I have packed for my month-long trip to Europe:

• 5 short-sleeved shirts
• 2 long-sleeved shirts
• 1 collared shirt
• 6 pairs of socks
• 5 pairs of boxers
• 3 pairs of khaki shorts
• 1 pair of khaki pants
• various medicines (sudafed, ibuprofin, etc.)
• various hygiene products (soap, deodorant, etc.)
• 1 rain coat
• 1 small chamois
• 1 pair of flip-flops
• 1 pair of hiking boots
• and 1 spiffy bandana for the really hot days

I can't tell if that looks like too much or too little. The bag ways less than 20 pounds, anyway, and it does have to last me a month. Granted, I'll be doing wash here and there but... here goes nothin'!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

On Wednesday morning, I will embark on the first leg of my 50+ day summer ultra-excursion. Allow me to give you a general outline as to where I will be for the next many weeks:

• Day 0 - Airplane from Dayton to Philadelphia, train(s) from Philadelphia to Doylestown.
  
• Days 1-9 - Road tripping down to Delaware, visiting friends back in the place I used to call home.
• Day 10 - Doylestown, packing one final time before hopping on another few trains to Trenton, then to New York City, and then on to the airport.
• Days 11-42 - Backpacking from Paris, France to Rome, Italy in 31 days.
• Day 43 - Recovering from jetlag and somehow finding my way back to Doylestown.
• Days 44-53 - Delaware, visiting old friends again before finally heading home to get ready to start working.

It's going to be very busy. I'm not sure how I am going to operate in Europe. I have been toying with the idea of making a separate blog to serve as my European journal; from what I hear, internet cafés are fairly ubiquitous on the other side of the Atlantic. We'll just have to wait and se how things go.

Bike Ride

I've had this blog for almost a month and thus far I've managed not to write a single cycling-related entry. That changes today.

In the past five weeks, I've logged more than 550 miles that shiny Trek that I bought last summer. The cycling elite wouldn't be impressed by those numbers, but 100+ miles a week is damn good where I'm from. I've never taken more than a day off between rides and I've pushed myself on every occasion. And I'll be completely honest: I'm very happy with the results. In only five weeks, I already feel faster. I am faster. I'm not tip-top; I'm nowhere near where I was during swim season. But I think my form on the bike might be the best it's ever been.

Riding out here in Ohio is a lot different than riding back at school. The Lehigh Valley is full of rolling hills and gut-wrenching climbs. Some of those rides are pretty fantastic. All of those up-hill stretches really kicked me into gear. Now I'm home - it's almost completely different. Ohio is flat. As a pancake. Sometimes I yearn for hills - I feel my climbing legs slipping away, day by day. But on the flats, I've never felt stronger. I've never been able to put in consistant pulls at over 23 miles per hour. Now I can. I've never been able to spin up to 32 miles per hour on a flat without some sort of downhill boost beforehand. Now I can. And I know there's so much further I can go.

That's where I start to get frustrated. I'm leaving for Europe soon and I couldn't be more excited about that. But I have a few regrets. Part of me would love to spend this summer training - building into the form of my life - for... something. A race. A ride. Anything. Once work starts, I'll never be in the same place for more than four days at a time. I'll never be able to log the hours necessary to reach this point. I'll never be in this kind of shape again.

But when I really break it down, all I really want to do is pwn some bitches. Yeah, that's right. I said it. I hit those trails day in and day out and all I look for is a fast-moving train of cyclist that I can catch and - hopefully - fly by.

I just found out about a entire organization of cylcists here in Ohio. I'm going to log a few miles with them tomorrow if all goes as planned. But damn! Could this have happened at a worse time! I leave the state on Wednesday, never to ride again. At least not this summer. How frustrating is that... I'm all trained up with no place to go.