8.01.2011

I want to ride my bicycle.

Yesterday I rode my bike to the Brewers game. They won (bonus), I got free parking (double bonus) and an awesome sunburn (negative bonus).

In other news, I still really love Dune. Book Dune, that is. The spice must flow. If you haven't read it, and have any interest in fantastic science fiction and/or environmental statements in literature, you should read it. It's great. I am taking it on a very long plane ride soon, and adding it to my "List of Books I've Read This Year."

I didn't realize it until a couple days ago, but I've read 37 books this year already. I have a slight advantage here - being a Young Adult librarian gives me a great excuse to read Children's and Young Adult books without being judged too harshly for it, and thus I'm able to read things pretty quickly (I read all 5 Percy Jackson books in a couple weeks, only on breaks at work). However, my favorite book I've read so far this year is The Art of Racing in the Rain. The narrator is a dog. And that sounds ridiculous, but I was crying within ten pages, which is a good, good sign. If you have a dog, or had a dog at some point, or if the second word you said in your entire life was "dog" and despite this your parents never let you get one (AHEM MOM AND DAD), you should read this book. It is well written and moving, and deeper than anything I've read in a long time.

Of course, I've been reading things like Percy Jackson and Jane, an overly-sexy updated version of Jane Eyre (not kidding, I was reading it at work, and I'm pretty sure my face turned so red it was purple at one point. Because of the sex), so it's not difficult to get deeper than that.

Biking, books/comics, being really pale. Someday I'll get a dog. That's basically what I'm about.

7.30.2011

SAUSAGE RACE!

If you are not from Wisconsin, or if you have never been to a Brewers game, you probably are not familiar with the "World Famous" Racing Sausages. Every home Brewers game between the 6th and 7th innings, people dressed as enormous sausages (Chorizo, Polish, Italian, Hot Dog, and my personal favorite - the Bratwurst) race around the infield dirt and everyone goes nuts. It is delightfully silly and very Wisconsin.

For the last 13 years, there has been an event at Miller Park that I have failed to attend, a 5K called the Miller Park Sausage Race 5K. This year was the magic year that I made it in before it sold out. It was great. Granted, it was very hot (and consequently, I ran by far my slowest ever chip-timed 5k. Ugh). Running on black asphalt in July without shade is bound to be hot. However, during the Sausage Race 5K, you get to run IN THE STADIUM. I did not know this would happen, and then all of a sudden, I was INSIDE MILLER PARK! While the training montage from Rocky I played on the jumbotron. It is super dorky. It is also really, really, really neat and awesome.

One thing I did not realize about the Sausage Race 5K is that all 5 racing sausages run the whole race in costume. That, my friends, is hardcore. And that is only one reason of many the racing sausages are better than that copycat thing in Washington DC, the racing presidents of Mount Rushmore. Sausages are where it's at.

It was slightly unfortunate that my body was not processing water properly or quickly enough today (I'm out of running shape due to some knee issues from half-marathon training last year, and consequently I haven't been running as much as I'd like this year), because with your registration you not only get a ticket voucher for a Brewers game, but you also get free hot dogs and beer. Sadly, I am a vegetarian and I could not drink the beer, because I was feeling nauseous after a measly little 5k because the water I drank on the course didn't actually get absorbed by my body and was sloshing around in my tummy instead. Bad place for it. And I was really looking forward to the beer. Next year.

In short, there is a three-mile race run by 3000 people and 5 sausages, through a Major League Baseball stadium, I ran it, and it is great. And there is free beer at the end.

I love being from Wisconsin.

Go Bratwurst!

Sausages!

7.29.2011

Sad, neglected blog.

It seems that perhaps I should start posting things to my blog again. We'll see - rather, YOU'LL see, that I am still an incredibly exciting person who can post about dreaming about cats in Iraq and my sleepwalking sister.

Or maybe I'll just tell you about the time I microwaved my marching band music.

OR! I could tell you about what I'm doing now.

Now, my kitchen table is covered with travel supplies in preparation for a grand adventure. I am six months into a new job and I still haven't decided how good I am at it. I am growing basil in my apartment for fear that The Smoking Man downstairs will taint it with his constant smoking if I were to keep it on my balcony (and draw aliens to abduct me, but that's for another time). I watch television programs of questionable cultural value (Forever Knight?), and read comic books of immense cultural value.

Hopefully future entries will be more interesting... there have been several events lately that have made me think that I should resume blogging, but of course, none of them happened today. I'll keep you updated.