Friday, April 01, 2011

Tuesday, June 08, 2010

this will be the summer of danielle

something has changed in the last few days and it is awesome. this truly will be the summer of danielle.


awesome things that have happened today:
woke up early
watched the new lady gaga video (http://www.ladygaga.com/alejandro/video/)
called tomtom and mine should be returned in this next week
went to the library and picked up newest book -- julie and julia something like that.
got in a bike accident--made me feel so alive
bike 4 miles so far today.
uploaded pictures from my camera and saw tons of cute photos of me and my brother that i forgot about.
having extra high pulp orange juice right now
about to bbq up some chicken with laura and watch glee finale.

Monday, June 07, 2010

worries

I just got done biking 10 miles with my friend Jacob and it feels great. 10 miles is nothing but it is the first time I've ridden my bike all summer. I just haven't been feeling it lately, I've been in this weird transitioning period in my life where I am transitioning but I don't feel like I actually am. I graduated and am going to graduate school but I am staying at my undergrad--so it doesn't really feel like I'm changing. I'm scared of next year because I'm going to be in the same place but most of my friends are moving on and moving out. My best friend of 4 years, the one person I feel truly gets me and has always just been a floor, phone call, text or quick car trip away, won't be living in a 5 mile radius from me anymore. It is amazing how much just being around someone can completely make you feel like you matter and like everything will always be okay. No matter how terrible your day is, the second you are around them none of what caused the bad day matters anymore. Now that he is going to be 4 hours away with people who have already accepted him and are completely excited to have him there (as they should be), I don't know that everything will be okay. I know our friendship is strong enough to last, I'm not worried about that at all--it just sucks that he won't be around anymore. To be honest, I don't like talking to him about where he is going next year because it hurts a little. Which, I know is completely ridiculous because he is doing what is best for him and what is going to make him happy later in his life. I'm really excited for him, I think I'm just jealous. I think it just hurts because he already has friends there and while I know I'm going to make friends in my program--I don't know any of them yet so it is hard to keep a positive spirit. Plus he is getting back into housing--which I miss-- and has a place to live of his own. In addition to the whole best friend moving away the two plans I had for roommates next year fell apart and now I'm finding myself not having a place or people to live with. Again, it is a case where they are doing what they believe is best for themselves and I'm happy for them but it just sucks. So, I'm left to find some random person through a friend, find some random people on craigslist or live by myself. I see positives and negatives to all situations. I'm going to be in graduate school, so I don't want loud roommates that stay up all night or cause lots of drama. The one summer that I lived by myself was an amazing summer and I was so motivated to be healthy, happy and work hard--so that is the biggest positive of living by myself but then I'm worried I'm going to be lonely and I'm worried I'm going to be free from distractions so I'm going to only think about the negative things in my life. My mind keeps focusing on the negative things lately.

I have so much more that I want to write but I really need to shower and go to sleep. I'm running on less than 3 hours right now and had planned to be in bed by 10 tonight... which obviously didn't happen.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

So, I haven't updated this in awhile. News--got into three out of the four grad schools I applied too. I am currently in Portland, Or visiting one of the schools. I always though I would love this city but sadly this isn't the case. It is hard to pinpoint why. I love taking the light rail and I love how welcoming they are to bicycle riders--perhaps I should have biked here. haha. Portland is just not what I was expecting, I guess I'm just a little disappointed. I didn't mind the town so much but the school and program was a let down. I could get use to living in Portland but perhaps it'll have to wait until I'm done with grad school. Part of the problem is that the place I am staying at is not walking distance from down town and is kind of a hassle to get to the light rail. I'm trying to get my tomtom working again--it keeps freezing up on me-- before it gets dark so I can visit the city more before I head to Montana tomorrow.

Sunday, September 20, 2009

Things I should be doing:
Applying to grad schools.
Sending information about where to send in letters of recommendation to recommenders.
Applying to the peace core.
Homework

Things I'd rather be doing:
Bike riding.
Talking to a certain someone.
Building a time machine and going back to sophomore year. (Why is it that sophomore year always ends up to be the best year?

Things I am doing:
Laundry
Intently listening to the Kings of Leon
Feeling extremely down.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

"you see em drop like flies from their bright sunny skies"

Am I the only person that can listen to only one song for 3 or 4 days straight and still appreciate the song?

I do this especially when I am bike riding, I once went for a 5 hour ride and listened to "Buildings & Mountains" by the Republic Tigers the entire time. It is really good for a long slow ride throughout town.
What song do you like to listen to when you are bike riding?

Though today is more of a "Not the Same" by Ben Folds. The song is about a person who took a horrible acid trip and when he came out of it he became insanely religious. [I get way too happy when I learn what songs about about] [ www.songmeanings.net is a good site for this, though people put just what they think--not what the artists thinks]

I'm missing my brother's first soccer game for worlds of fun. Kind of not okay with that, but I already have the tickets and a friend coming in from Man-happening.
Go Thaddeus! Go Pumpkins!

-dg

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Critical Mass

So, I found an aspect of bike riding I don't like: Critical Mass. That is not true I think the idea of Critical Mass is awesome and important. I was proud to be a part of Critical Mass. My problem lies with Lawrence's Critical Mass.
I should rewind for a second and explain Critical Mass. Critical Mass is a movement in over 300 cities world wide to raise awareness of bicyclists. It was started in 1992 in San Francisco and is leaderless. The only plans given is to meet at a specific place at a specific time (6:00 p.m. Wescoe Beach for Lawrence, usually 5:30 p.m. in other cities) on the last Friday of every month and to travel around the city as a group. In cities like San Francisco they have at least 1,000 riders--so it really does raise awareness.
I believe the whole idea of Critical Mass is very important but there are a few aspects of it that I do not like:
For example in bigger cities (which I just learned about this and am sure if we had more people Lawrence would attempted it) "corking" is practiced. This is when cyclists who are not riding stand in the middle of intersections to block traffic so the cyclists can ride through red lights, though they do leave one side of the intersection alone. They either hold up their bicycles (known in Chicago as the Chicago Hold Up!) or lay down next to their bicycles (to represent the bicyclists that have been hit by cars) to block the traffic.
In Lawrence, none of us wore helmets. The only two bikes that had working brakes were my bike and my roommates bike, we were also the only two bikes to not be fixies. We did not stop at any stop signs and the boys would weave in out of both sides of the streets randomly. All of these signs seem to say "hey fuck you cars, we are more important than you"--when really the movement is about rasing awareness, not about being an asshole.
That being said we only had one guy yell at us to get on the sidewalk. We had countless people honking, waving, clapping, cheering and some guy (who I kid you not was drinking a budweiser at a stoplight) rolled his window down so we could jam out to his music. This was not necessary as Charlie, the guy who stayed behind everyone--which I thought was really cool of him, had a backpack with speakers and was blasting the MJ in honor of MJ.
That being said, I will probably do Critical Mass again (although the next time I will definitly be drinking way more water throughout the day before hand) because I have almost been hit numerous times for stopping at a stop sign, crossing an intersection or just biking down the street.