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October 28, 2004

elevator dizzy

so in between riding all over hell and creation on my bike here in san francisco, i take elevators up and down all the big downtown office buildings. towards the end of a workday, i find myself feeling a sort of dizzy vertigo from all the vertical motion from the elevators starting and stopping. buzz commented when he quit his job that if he never rode another elevator again he's be fine with it. i'm of the same mind.
so my last delivery today was from very south in sf up to washington street on the edge of the presidio. i calculated it, and mapquest said that it was 7 miles driving if you used the freeway. i did it in about 40 minutes not using the freeway and tackling the geary hill and another murderous hill on maple street. after delivering the package i nearly fainted, but managed to make it home, where i'm sitting wondering at the amount of physical exertion i'm expending for such a small amount of money. in the end, i'm doing this job for the experience, not for the money. i'm as strong as i can remember myself ever being, if i was to begin a cross country bike ride right now i think i would have no problems, my legs feel like as solid as anything.
in other news, my project bike is nearing completion. it will be nearly all black, with excellent components on a super cool frame hand built in oakland in the late 80's/early 90's.
tomorrow night is halloween critical mass. hope i have energy for it.
megan is leaving to be a pole monitor in ohio. i'm having flashbacks to the last election, when i read salon.com 4 times a day. part of me thinks that it isn't bush that's the problem, but the whole system, but then the pragmatic half of me says cross your fingers for kerry, at least he's a start. if bush wins i don't know what will happen.
ok, i'm gonna go pass out, thank goodness the weekend is almost here.
check this out if you have a chance.

Posted by bendan at 07:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 19, 2004

40 hours a week alone on my bike

so i'm getting adjusted to working full time as a bike messenger. today was my first rainy day, i came ill equipped and ended up totally drenched by 10 am, and remained damp the rest of the day. i think if i make it to december at this job i'll be proud of myself for it, which isn't to say that it's bad, just that there are some annoying aspects. that said, towards the end of the day i was feeling worn out and my bike shoe buckle broke and my dispatcher was repeating over the radio that i had to get to 465 california before the bank closed, so i hunched over on my bike and hauled ass and made it. it was a good moment. then i had to make 2 more deliveries and i was exhausted, but i can always remain comforted in the fact that i'm getting strong as hell.
so daveo and i went to reno this last weekend. it had been nearly 3 months since i'd been there, and i was missing my folks. we decided kinda last minute so i was unable to hang out with my mom, which sucked, but i did get to spend some time with my pops and stepmom and stepsister, who recently joined a sorority and i didn't even tease her about it at all. daveo and i hopped the USasian buslines gambling bus over, which was amazingly cheap, only 18 bucks round trip. my pops picked us up, and we had a good afternoon walking around in the hillsj. then we went to dinner for mexican food, for some reason i like mexican food more in reno then here. my folks dropped me off at daveo's house, where we proceeded to drink a fair amount of beer. dawn, who i hadn't seen in 6 months, came over, and we had a change to catch up, which i was pleased about. we also had a chance to go pull a big george bush poster off the side of mccarren street, i let her keep it, and hope that it now is hung on the wall of her house, graffitied and spraypainted over. from there, daveo, maggie, carter and i rode down to the alibi. reno's own david bruce was there, and we had a good conversation, though gin and tonics prevented me from recalling exactly what about. even shannen ended up at the bar, sounds like she might be finally ready to leave chevy's restaurant. she said she's still planning a cross country bike trip, i look forward to hearing how it goes when the weather gets warm. i have to say that though i didn't get to see many folks while i was there, it was good to see the ones i did. i left reno the next day with a better feeling about that town then i've had a in a while, it occurred to be as we were driving back in daveo's car that i'd been more then half a year since i moved away.
so the crazy thing that happened in reno was that riding home from the bar, daveo was jumping his bmx off of curbs, and managed to get caught in an unmarked sandtrap on the road, fell, and broke his elbow. he didn't go to the hospital till the next morning, where they took xrays and all that. poor daveo has to wear a cast for 4 to 6 weeks, and of course he's on team no health insurance, just like me. we still drove back here so he could pack some stuff up, looks like he's moving back to reno to finish college. our roommates up here are gonna be bummed to hear it, they already want him to take my room when i leave.
aaron wrote me a final email before flying off to peru. tenative plans to meet them mid to late december. i'm too busy enjoying here now to think about it though.
word on the street is that my little brother is up in oregon. can't wait to see him, it's gonna rule when he comes out to visit. last we spoke he's all fired up to get back to chile to his vieja, hope he at least hangs out here for a week though.
i've been reading a lot of news about the election, i have worries bush will win and our country will go even more to hell. it's so fucking scary, and kerry won't even do much better if he wins. fuck, better not to think about it.
we're gonna go see the che film, buzz and nessa and everyone said it's rad. i'm excited.
cross your fingers for me that it doesn't rain much before i quit my job. rain sucks.

Posted by bendan at 08:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 13, 2004

messenger #3175

so in my last entry i listed all these cool things i was doing cause i wasn't working. then friday, i went into professional messenger service and got a job as a bike messenger, which meant i can't really do any of those things i was doing which sucks. i need to find some different volunteer work.
but as far as messengering goes, i just started yesterday, and today was my first full day. on the whole, i'm enjoying it so far. the money isn't very good and it's in no way intellectual, but the exercise is great and i'm learning the city very intimately shall we say. 8 hours riding my bike around a lot of time to think about stuff, in a way it reminds me of delivering pizzas, but with no radio to keep me company even. i think i'll be fine to do it for 2 months, then hit the road.
nessa and i decided to be just friends. which is logical, and sucks too. i don't feel very articulate about that subject just yet.

Posted by bendan at 12:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 07, 2004

some pictures

so lately i've been looking for work. actually, i haven't been looking for work much at all, though i really should be. but instead i've been volunteering at the food bank, tutoring school kids in math, reading and spanish, helping out food not bombs, i put on a show at station 40 of some good bands (pictures are about halfway down), going to critical mass, and hanging out in the park with my friends.
daveo's going to bartender school, he's doing really well here too. the weekends are filled with activities, this coming weekend a bunch of us are gonna check out the bicycle film festival, then we're gonna go see against me!. things are good, so good. buzz, matt and kristy head out in 10 days for south america, tenatively i'm heading out as well in mid december. though i'm loving the city right now, the impending rain will probably dampen my enthusiasm (ouch!) for being here.

Posted by bendan at 09:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack