Does this work?

I know. It's a dorky title but I couldn't resist. I am attempting to blog from my phone and for some reason I keep picturing someone testing a live microphone.

"hello, is this thing working?"

You might be wondering why I could possibly want to blog from my phone.... well mostly because I am planning some fun summer adventures that would make for great blog posts. Short, but great. I cann't imagine typing too much on this little keyboard.

And who knows, maybe I can even start posting some artwork again.

Edited to add: Well it posted alright. It looks like it might've posted 3 times and I had to go in and clean up all the apostrophes and quotes. Apparently it doesn't like those. I see more testing in my future.

Whew...Famous for a day....

Ok, so a couple of weeks ago I was asked if I would mind being interviewed about my bike commute for an article they were doing about the college. Hmmm... I love cycling. I think everyone should cycle. Ummm....ok...

Only after I said yes, did I worry about how the article would come out or what I would look like. The great thing about being someone who worries is that reality rarely lives up to the craziness you dreamed up in your head. The article turned out great, so now I'm ready to share it with the world.

Enjoy!

Parking at Grossmont College is testing students, neighbors

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Loads of Hope

I'm a service oriented girl. I think life is more meaningful when you are in the service or your fellow man. And so when I see something like this, I think it is a very cool idea. I had no idea that Tide did this!!

So read, enjoy and go buy a shirt. I can't decide if I should get blue or yellow...hmmm... what color do you like?

Tide Loads of Hope helps in the aftermath of a natural disaster by providing clean clothes and a sense of comfort to families in need. Partnering with Feeding America, we travel to disaster affected neighborhoods with the Tide Loads of Hope truck or vans, our free mobile laundry service.

Tide Loads of Hope truck:32 high-effiency washers and dryers stationed on the truck can do 300 wash and dry cycles a day -equal to one year's worth of laundry for a single family. Will wash about 9,000 loads of laundry over a four-week period. Leveraged during massive disasters where electricity is unavailable in the region.

Tide Loads of Hope vans:
In partnership with a local laundromat, the Tide Loads of Hope vans provide free laundry service at the same load rate as the trucks. Leveraged during disasters where neighboring communities still have a source of electricity. To date, Tide Loads of Hope has washed more than 35,000 loads of laundry for over 20,000 families. Most importantly, the Tide Loads of Hope program means we're equipped to take action whenever and wherever there is a need in our country.

Tide Loads of Hope Vintage Tees:
Tide Loads of Hope can also be supported through the purchase of a Tide Vintage Tee. All profits go to support families affected by disaster.

Where it all started:
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the need for clean clothing became critical, and Tide found a way to help. So in November 2005, the Tide Loads of Hope truck headed to Camp Hope in the Metairie, LA area and cleaned over 10,000 loads of laundry. The spirit of this first venture informs and inspires everything Tide Loads of Hope program does.

How can you help?
P&G has asked us to help get the word out about their efforts to raise money via T-Shirt sales to support families that are affected by disaster in this one-of-a-kind program. The shirts are vintage-looking and support a great cause.Shirts can be purchased through this link:http://tidetshirts.pgvillage.com/c-9-show-all.aspx?_vsc=tide4

My commute

Ok, so my camera phone isn't quite built to take photos at night so maybe we'll get better photos starting next week when the time changes....but here's a little photo from my commute home...which means I remembered all necessary items to allow me to ride my bike home!!! hallelujah!!!

It was not an easy ride home. The cold I've been fighting for the last two weeks has definately affected my strength. My quads were burning going up the hills. I even had to stop and take a break...something I haven't had to do in a long, long time...

Anyway, I couldn't figure out why there were SO many cars on the road. Where did they all come from? Until I stopped to take a breather and looked across an open field to the freeway.... Yep, that line of cars that you can barely see in my photo is from the freeway. Apparently there was an accident and traffic was backed up quite a ways....

And that's why it's still more fun to ride my bike when my quads are burning....than it is to drive my car home!

Pictures from my ride home??

I've been meaning to try and take some pictures on my ride home, but once I get on my bike I never think of it again. But yesterday I remembered... probably because I didn't really ride home.

The other day we (Candace, Josh and I) rode from Alpine to Rancho San Diego. It was so much fun, mostly because it was pretty much all downhill. Notice that I did not say we made a round trip. That's what cars and bike racks and husbands and friends are for.

Well as we went down one particularly fun and fast downhill, I heard something fall of my bike and start bouncing on the ground. Turns out my rear light bounced right off my bike. (I didn't install it, so I'm not sure what happened.) I retrieved the light, but sadly I forgot to put it back on my bike...

So fast forward to Tuesday and.... I unlocked my bike, put my helmet and gloves on, reached back to turn on the light...and...no light.... No way I can make it all the way home before dark so I called Josh and then I rode back and forth along the back of campus until he retrieved me.

Thankfully it's a beautiful view so I took a couple of pictures....

Of course the whole thing was made funnier by the fact that I had actually forgotten the entire bike in the morning. Yep. Josh put the rack on the car and we drove off. Neither one of us put the bike on the car. Josh figured he either needed to bring me my bike later, or pick me up from work...so he dropped the bike off for me later.... and then picked me up from work anyway. Lovely! I'm so glad we're saving gas!!

Since I didn't actually take pictures on my "ride home" yesterday, I thought I'd take one today. I hope you enjoy it.

What? The view looks the same as yesterday. You're kidding? Could it be because today I forgot my helmet and my gloves? Yep...it's that bad folks. I think the cold I've been fighting the last week and half has damaged some brain cells.

There's always tomorrow... I wonder what I'll forget this time?

Blog Stalker...

Hello, my name is Dawn and I am a Blog Stalker!

When I first started riding my bike I started researching info on the internet. At first I probably googled "does your butt ever stop hurting" or "pain relief for sore muscles." Then I realized I was addicted and I wanted to know anything and everything about cycling and bike commuting and bicycles and touring and....

One of the first cycling blogs I found was Up in Alaska. Jill, the writer, absolutely fascinated me. Here was this girl that would go out on these tremendous bike rides, every day! Not only that, but she rode in EXTREME conditions, like snow! There are pictures of her on her blog with snow/ice on her eyelashes and her eyebrows!!!! She had to pack snacks that could be eaten when frozen. She had to come up with ways to keep her water from freezing. Reading her adventures helped me to realize that every day is a good riding day; no matter what the weather is like. It's hard to wimp out on a ride when you know someone else has to put on three layers of clothes, just to stay warm!

Once I got hooked on her blog, I had to get Jane hooked on her blog. (Candace doesn't read blogs, or we'd make her read it too!)

So here we are, almost one year later and I still check Jill's blog every day.

Well...on Friday night Jane and I went to Happy Hour at Dos Picos with Candace and a bunch of her/our friends. (Candace knows EVERYONE so we get to meet a lot of people because of her.)

Here's a little re-enactment of our conversation....

Candace: "Rick's sister Jane lives in Homer, Alaska and runs a newspaper there."

Dawn turns to Jane (San Diego Jane) and says "Homer? Isn't that where Jill lived and worked when she first went to Alaska?"

San Diego Jane: "I think so!"

Candace: "Come on, I'll introduce you to Jane"

We then proceeded to make complete fools of ourselves by asking Jane if she knew Jill and yes, sir indeed...she did!!! I think the only thing that truly saves us is that this all happened at Happy Hour. Jane from Alaska doesn't know that I don't drink, so she can just assume that a couple of crazy drunk people from San Diego asked about someone they have never even met as if they were best friends.

In all seriousness, Jane from Alaska was very sweet about the whole thing and seemed to think it was really cool that Jill had reached such a wide audience with her blog. She said that Jill was an amazingly talented person, but maybe not quite as outgoing as we are. haha Surprise, surprise... You mean she probably wouldn't have gone up to a complete stranger to ask about another complete stranger? Yeah, we probably shouldn't have done it either...but then I wouldn't have a funny story to share on my blog.

Be careful all of you bike bloggers, I might meet one of your friends at the grocery store!