“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind. Some come from ahead and some come from behind. But I’ve bought a big bat. I’m all ready you see. Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”

Asobi Seksu is playing in Cambridge tonight.
The Shins and Bloc Party are playing in March.

I think I’m missing all of them. Darn.

It’s been over a month since my last post. I don’t think that’s ever happened before. I have had no desire to write of late, not really sure why.

Lots of stuff happening though. I’ve made a few new friends, become a complete cycling junkie, read some good books, and uhm… man, my life is boring. Actually, no, it’s not boring. There’s a lot of good stuff happening, but nothing big. So yeah, not boring, but regular good, with a nice little surprise that I don’t want to talk about yet.

Man, my grammar sucks.

Let’s see… oh, I’ll talk about the books I’ve read and am reading. I’ve been reading a lot lately, to try to cut down on TV. Not watching TV has its cons though, like not knowing the weather, so you get your car washed the day before a snow storm. But getting lost in a book is so much better than watching junk on TV.

Here are the books I’ve read since January:
1. Slow Man
2. Running with Scissors
3. Angela’s Ashes

Currently reading:
1. It’s not about the bike by Lance Armstrong
2. Anna Karenina (about halfway through, can’t seem to get into it)
3. Complete Triathlon Book

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt is my favorite. The writing is wonderful and real, and I feel like he’s captured the Catholic attitude that I grew up with. And he had a great story to tell.

After I finished the book, I immediately started with Lance’s book. The writing is definitely lacking, but maybe I only noticed it more because the book that preceded it was incredibly articulate. But he has a good story too, and I found myself so absorbed in the book. I even stayed up an hour past my bedtime because I couldn’t put the book down. I still can’t decide whether or not I like Lance Armstrong. But I definitely admire him.

Anyway… back to what I was doing.

Well, I was, about an hour ago. Now I’m tired and kinda feeling low, but it’s only because I’m tired.

Last weekend was great. We started out spinning with my usual Euro-crew. Els had brought me her daughter Charli’s bike shoes to try on and she said I should keep them through the spinning season to get used to them before I invest in shoes of my own. So nice of her and Charli! We followed that up with the usual after-spinning bagel breakfast, which has now become such a nice tradition.

That afternoon, the Chow sisters came up to visit. That was so much fun. They tried to trick me so many times, and Daisy can be quite convincing! At one point, they made me believe that they got lost on the way – that they were on their way to NYC instead of NH, that I decided to go out and do some shopping instead of waiting for them at home. Well, needless to say, they arrived after few minutes and there was no Deeds. Ha. Well, everything in town is only 10 minutes away, so they didn’t have to wait long. We went shopping in downtown, and Daisy and I got some MOD (Chow-lingo) dresses. Lyds had no luck, unfortunately, but at least scored with notebooks and a humidifier the next day.

And then, that night, we had a thanksgiving dinner with the Euro crowd – complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, and stuffing. Mmm. We watched a Czech movie afterwards which was pretty cool. It gave us all a bit more insight into Radka’s background and history.

Anyway, the next day, was more shopping, and more food. Aftwe they left, I went over to my friend, Francie’s house for dinner. So, the weekend was friends- and fun-filled.

Well, today was another one of those days.

After work, I went for my spinning class. Bob was there, and Jacob was there. And it was such a small class that it felt like we were all friends. We were all joking around and complaining (mostly me). It was nice. Don’t get me wrong, I was in pain throughout most of the class, but it made it bearable because I was at least comfortable around the people who were there – which doesn’t happen too often.

Cycling is really hard for me. My legs stiffen up and they get heavy and slow and uncooperative. The instructor tells us to go faster, and I tell my legs to go faster, but they won’t. Bah. I’m being hard on myself because I wanted this to make me a stronger biker. But I don’t know if it will. I’m wheezing and coughing and, oh man, just having a miserable time altogether throughout the class. And I’m always watching the clock, which is always in slow motion in that room.

I hear Bob cranking up his resistance to my left, and Jacob’s going nuts with his on my right. Me, and I do a couple of clicks and I could barely keep up the speed that we’re supposed to be in. The guys beside me? Pedaling like crazy!

Towards the end of the workout, he got all the four guys 5lbs weights, and when he asked me if I wanted any, I asked for the little pink ones. I didn’t know they were only 1lb weights. Man, I felt like such a wuss, doing little punches with the 1lb weights. I can be such a girl sometimes it’s pathetic. I had such grand visions of upcoming spring time bike rides when I’m just as strong as the other riders, and don’t get left behind on bike trips like what normally happens. But, they’re all doing it with me too, which is great, but they’re all getting stronger too! Ack! I’m still going to get left behind. Ah well. I’ll just have to suck it up and they’ll just have to wait for me.

Oh yeah, back to the friends part. So the class was nice and friendly and all that. But it didn’t end there. I had to rush out to go to a movie night at my friend Cindy’s house. She had invited the B’s – a small group of women friends from work who have taken me under their wing. And we watched Kinky Boots, a really funny English movie. And I just remember thinking as I was driving home that I was so lucky to have all these wonderful friends. It’s no wonder I love where I am. I’m in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by everything. *sigh*

Happy Birthday. Have a good one, T!

You are only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime.
- John P. Grier

Got together with the Chows and Casey today for a New Year’s brunch – sausage and biscuits for the breakfast part, black-eyed peas for the lunch part, and Frito-chili pie + cornbread for the late lunch part. Not to mention, oranges, chocolates, and Casey’s blueberry walnut bread.

Oh yeah, black-eyed peas is apparently a southern new year’s tradition. It supposedly will bring in cash because the peas resemble coins. Even if it doesn’t work, they were good.

Of course, like always, we played the token Cranium game, but added three games of Blokus – a new game from Daisy’s mom, and six rounds of Scattergories. Casey totally tried to trap me in Blokus, but failed miserably. He was left with a very many 41 squares during the second game, and made a declaration of war for the third game. But alas, the Deeds was unstoppable. Yes! I didn’t win, but I didn’t lose either. I won the first round and Daisy won the next two. Casey and I made up to team up for Cranium, successfully bringing down the Chow sisters. Sweet. Game day/night rules!

It’s always fun at the House of Chow. And we always leave stuffed with excellent food up to our nostrils – even if we skip out on ‘yummy desserts’. Man, that’s never going to get old. Inside joke though, sorry folks.

Oh yeah, and… for our new year’s resolution? Use ‘LOL’, and ‘for realz’ as often as possible. I’m being sarcastic, in case that isn’t obvious. I mean, I was only kidding, for realz!!!1 However, if you do need to use ‘LOL’, make sure chat partner can actually hear you laughing out loud. And if you really want to use ‘for realz’, make sure you’re Asian, and 14 years old.

Also, I gave Daisy and Lyds their scarves, which they proceeded to wear all night. And they played the mixtape I made for them. So… onto the intro… read next entry.

One of my friends has decided to put up a profile on Match . com. She’s pretty, smart, accomplished, etc. But, she just can’t seem to meet the right one. Story of my life, really, minus the pretty, smart, and accomplished bit. Anyway, she’s been trying to convince me to put up a profile for myself too, but I won’t. She lives in the city. I live in the sticks. If I put a profile up there, everyone’s going to know about it. I’ll be walking down Main St, and some random folk will honk their horn and go, “Hey, you’re on Match, right?”

But, out of curiosity, I wanted to see what kind of people are on it. So, I went and put in my zipcode. Well, it makes you log in first before you can see the profiles. So, not wanting to have any connection to the website, I created a fake email address. I could use one for junk mail anyway (sha right!). So, after 5 minutes, I was able to log in.

And I was actually quite surprised. The people who are there look normal. Some are even nice looking. They all say they just can’t seem to meet the right people. Even the girls are normal and nice looking. Heck, I even saw someone I know! And she’s both normal and nice looking.

But, nevertheless, I’m not going to put myself out there like that and not just because it’s a small town. Besides, I can’t exactly see myself going out with a stranger anyway – no matter how normal or nice looking they are. I’d be a nervous wreck. Oh well, I had an entertaining 30 minutes looking through the list. It’s always fun reading what people say about themselves. And here I am writing about it. Oh what a sad life I lead.

So, I did what Casey did before, making a mix based on his blogroll. Well, actually, I wanted to do the soundtrack of your life thing, but I thought it would be more fun to be thinking of songs for my friends rather than songs for my life. I’m not very good about listening to lyrics, so that would’ve been too hard for me anyway. This way, I could use songs that are linked to memories instead… and lyrics for some. I’ve added some songs about certain times of my life too, and I added two of my friends who are not on my blogroll, but made the list for a particular reason (in addition to the fact that I only have 6 on my blogroll, ha!). So… I’m sending you all a copy of it, but I’ll explain why I picked out the song for you here. Now? Hmm… maybe not now. I’m sleepy and it’s late. And I played bingo all night.

So, tomorrow. Maybe I’ll even get to send out my Christmas cards then! Hurrah for procrastination.