the milky way

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:09:51 GMT

The Rules:
1. Answer each of the questions above using the Flickr Search engine.
2. Choose a photo from the first three pages.
3. Copy the URL of your favorite photo into this site: http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/mosaic.php
4. Then share with the world :) ((This means uploading it to Flickr, or saving the image and hosting it somewhere to post it!))

1. First Name: kayla
2. Favorite Food: avocado
3. Hometown: milwaukee, wi
4. Favorite Color: purple
5. Celebrity Crush: angelina jolie
6. Favorite Drink: belgian white beer
7. Dream Vacation: italy
8. Favorite Dessert: sorbet
9. What I Want To Be When I Grow Up: super hero
10. What I Love Most In The World: my dog
11. One Word That Describes Me: infinitely-patient
12. My Livejournal Name: beforethestreet

Thu, 29 May 2008 14:49:09 GMT

Mon, 05 May 2008 22:49:41 GMT

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:13:37 GMT

that's the view from my computer right now. tomorrow is the first day of april. i heard predictions up to 10 inches, but thankfully not much is actually sticking. it's this warm air, sort-of-smells-like-spring-rain snow. hopefully most of it will melt in a day or two. the forecast for next weekend is 50 again. spring is almost near. happiness is almost near.

yesterday was 50 degrees and sunny. i had the best day i've had in a while, based on my mood alone. lots of time outside. i think i went on maybe 6 different dog walks. i took the dogs on several separate runs with my little bike. they both loved it and handled it really well. they can run much faster than i could possibly go. and we go until they're too tired and happy to continue.

i can't wait for summer.

and i have two very beautiful dogs

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 05:23:12 GMT

ok ok. scratch that last entry. it was really pointless and sort of half whiney. i focus a lot on the negative stuff in my life lately because this winter has been absolutely terribly. but spring is practically here. so enough of that.

pike and i had a date day. we went to the mall of america. gross, i know. but both of us desperately needed new clothes and helping pick out stuff is kind of cute. besides, we spent more time biking there than actually inside the mall.

on the way to lunch, we found two runaway pit bulls. they appeared to just have broke free from some backyard and were having the time of their lives running up and down the busiest streets in south minneapolis. so we tried for a mile or so to catch them. we came close a few times, but those fuckers are fast. it was pretty hard. trying to balance trying to catch them and not having them think we were playing chase. if we had more cowboy skills, we probably could have done it. we did this really sweet move where we corralled them off of this ridiculously busy street onto the sidewalk. but, alas, we had no lasso. we decided to quit when we realized that they didn't have tags so that even if we caught them we couldn't return them and also we'd probably just end up watching them get run over instead of catch them.

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:34:16 GMT

world! this is miche'!

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 02:03:09 GMT

i have a pretty strong itch to travel. come on, paychecks, roll in.

pike is pretty fucking wonderful. we get along beautifully.

Sun, 20 Jan 2008 23:54:44 GMT

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:00:59 GMT

the ride into work tomorrow is "feels like NEGATIVE TWENTY" and there's a 21 mph headwind.

JESUSFUCKINGCHRISTJESUSGODFUCKFUCKFUCK

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:04:20 GMT

Oh, and a poll:

Is Aidan more dominant or submissive?

He seems to be a bit of both. With Guera, he was more submissive, but with Charlie/Fletcher, he was more dominant.

What do you think Aidan is? And then should I get a puppy that seems to show more dominant or submissive traits?

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 06:01:45 GMT

I went to go visit the puppies yesterday. They were tiny and roly-poly and smelled like puppy belly. They still haven't opened their eyes or ears yet. They wander around bumping into things and climbing on top of each other. They're pretty adorable. I took some shitty cell phone pictures, which are below. I think I picked one out, but I'll make a final decision when they show more personality. Either way, Pike came up with a good name. It's Miché, pronounced mee-kay. It's a gorgeous Italian bike component maker.

So all of my roommates are ok with the new puppy, and I can bring it to work, so I'm now 100% sure that I'm getting it. I just asked our new roommate, who said it was ok, but wanted to know if I was "going to train this one". Yes, Aidan is poorly socialized. He wasn't around enough people or children or other dogs when he was really little and so he has a hard time with the unfamiliar. Plus, he's only really defensive when I'm around which makes it quite obvious that he's protective and territorial. But he is trained. He is the most housebroken dog I have ever met. He knows all sorts of elaborate tricks. He doesn't chew, whine, or bark incessantly. When he moves things, I tell him to pick them up and put them back, and he does. Seriously!! But when I got Aidan, I was a naive 18 year old with a shitload of emotional issues to deal with on top of never having raised a dog before. Considering that I had no idea what I was doing, we both turned out ok. He gave me a little lecture about how "Aidan may be a lazy dog, but blue heelers are active dogs, so you're going to have to go out in the cold blah blah blah". I cut him off with a rather short "don't lecture me". Seriously, mr-lived-in-this-house-for-two-weeks, you have no idea what makes my dog tick or what our history is. I really don't know where he gets off thinking he can say stuff like that. Especially since everytime someone says something like that it makes me cry. Saying yes or no is fine, but lecturing me about all my poor decisions isn't going to win my friendship. Arg!

I give Aidan lots of love and attention and all of his basic and not-so-basic needs are met. And I have a killer plan for Miché.

The winter is making me kind of ornery. How many days until spring again? Or at least until the projected high is consistently above 20?

But my new job is coming along well. I'm slowly slowly getting to know the residents there and hopefully they'll trust me soon. I can tell that they are at least getting comfortable with me, so the first step is done.

Pike makes me oh-so-happy. I can't even begin to describe how wonderful everything is.

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 04:47:37 GMT

Aidan and the boy go to bed early. They sprawl out over the entire bed and both curl up with their blankets - the boy clinging to a down comforter that is barely covering him and aidan laying on his blanket, still bunched up like he just finished sucking on it. It's quite adorable.

I got hit by a car yesterday while I was biking. I was coming home from Target, with my bag full of new work clothes and was about to cross the bridge out of downtown. I approached the intersection with a green light, and saw that a car was planning on turning left in front of me. He was stopped, so I figured it was ok to go and went into the intersection. He apparently didn't see me and started turning. I was already in the intersection and didn't have time to react. I started to regret my laziness in finding my helmet before I left when I realized that I was definitely going to smash into the side of his car. We were both going relatively slow which was pretty lucky. I got knocked off my bike and jumped up right away to get out of the street. My elbow and bum to the majority of what the impact had to offer, though you wouldn't be able to tell since I walked away with no bruises or road rash. I basically had a big pillow on my back, which I think helped me when I landed on my backside. I have a tiny scrape on my shin and can't tell what caused it. My bike is perfectly fine. Lots of stuff was knocked out of alignment, but the boy put it back together in like 5 minutes.

The guy who hit me was really nice and apologetic. He was freaking out and gave me a ride home. He completely admitted it was his fault. I had the right of way and had lights on - he just didn't see me. Lots of other drivers rolled down their windows and were asking if I was ok.

I was having a pretty good day, so I laughed it off pretty quickly. It seemed to bother the boy a lot more than it bothered me.

I'm kind of sore today, but alive.

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 20:04:25 GMT

i got a job! i got a job! i got a job!

i'll be a case manager for formerly homeless youth in a permanent supportive housing program!!

i go in for paperwork on thursday!

hell yes!!!!

Tue, 08 Jan 2008 06:18:38 GMT

Marie and I tag-teamed a race yesterday and cleaned up. We should have gotten first place overall (w00t w00t) but got the title taken away from us on a stupid technicality (which was honestly a mistake of the race organizer). I'm still incredibly pleased with the moral victory. I'm starting to have a lot of faith in us for the stup0rb0wl. Things could go really well. The race organizer, arguably the fastest, best racer in Mpls, said that he thinks we're going to take the women's category and he wants to help route us to make sure that happens. I'm not counting my chickens yet, but that would pretty much make my life.

I finally got a picture of the litter of puppies that my new little guy might come from. Cute, eh?

Sat, 05 Jan 2008 20:54:26 GMT

34 degrees! 34 degrees! Holy shit! Holy shit! I'm so excited I don't even know what to do!

I drunkenly told someone I was going to get 7th place female in the stup0rb0wl this year. That seems about right.

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 21:53:33 GMT

I just tested my way into a job interview. I had to take a typing test, English test (grammar, proofreading, etc), math test, and a customer service skills test. I passed all that stuff with flying colors and landed myself an interview for next Tuesday. I would really like the job. It doesn't involve any of the mind-blowing, heart-warming, changing people's lives stuff, but it's a great way to get my foot in the door. Plus, it'll look great on my resume when I want to get back into non-profits. It pays ridiculously well for how little responsibility I would have (like $5-an-hour-raise-well). It's with the city, so the benefits would be dope - probably - or at least they would exist. The best part? Look at this commute. I wouldn't even have to change when I got to work, probably. It would take like ten minutes in the summer, and I would be able to run home during my lunch break if I needed to. And a nice bike shop is directly on my route. Oh, how great it would be. My odds are pretty good too. :)

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 05:33:12 GMT

2008 is working out alright so far.

Aidan and I took our first walk of the resolution. Today was a good day to start it, since yesterday's high was some where near zero. Despite the heat wave bringing the temperature to just over twenty degrees, Aidan still hovered a paw for part of the walk. It could have been from the salt, but hey, he isn't really meant to live in Minnesota, so I wouldn't put it past him to throw a fit because of the cold.

Things with the boy have been nothing but phenomenal this entire year (all three days of it). We spent a lot of today eating each other's cooking and giggling in bed.

I've been a huge bum for nearly a week now. The whole unemployed thing has left me wandering around the house all day in my pajamas. I only change to go on training rides or take Aidan for walks. I'd feel pretty worthless if I didn't have 4 solid job leads. I should hear back from my favorite place tomorrow or maybe Monday. I'm going in for testing for the public housing job tomorrow. I have an interview at a family shelter on Monday. And I just heard back from a bike job with the city saying I passed the first round of the application process. So hopefully this whole laying around in my pajamas all day and doing nothing will end soon enough.

I had a dream about the stup0rb0wl last night. I got second place female. I technically was the third girl to come in, but the second girl didn't do all the stops. I think, more than anything, I need a job so I have other things to think about. Jesus.

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:42:01 GMT

I rearranged my room. Took my bed away from the old crappy window, because it had sent my body temperature all over the scale every night. Moved my computer next to the window, as I realized it's previous position and left me staring at the wall. And now that I'm unemployed, I want something to look at while I'm updating this little blog. Which I'll probably be doing a lot of now that I don't have a job.

I went out last night for my first night of training with my stup0rb0wl team. We have a really solid plan of attack. It's definitely going to help me do a lot better than I would without their support. We're going on training rides 3 times a week until the race. Talking a lot of strategy - which is really all that it comes down to, isn't it? Either way, it's going to be really fun to see how well the three of us can do together, with our forces combined and such.

Today? My first real day of unemployment? It will be filled with a tiny bit of training on the rollers. My first shower since Thursday ... maybe. Picking up Dana from the Megabus stop. Dinner. And perhaps some insane NYE plans.

We'll see.

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 20:30:48 GMT

last night was the sprints. carla came out, which was one of my favorite parts of the night. i love that girl. she was up in the front row screaming with me the whole time. i finally grew the balls to do a couple grudge matches at the end of the night and i'm really glad i did. being up there on stage with a hundred people watching you and not having a single excuse for a bad sprint is much more nerve racking than i'd like. last month, unknowingly sick with bronchitis, i couldn't even break 40 mph and it frustrated me more than i'd like to admit. but this month, with a healthy set of lungs and a virus free body, i could hover over 40 mph for a while. that's even with very minimal biking for the past month. i'm really proud of myself.

more than that though, it got me really excited about another aspect of biking. i've been really bummed out about winter biking, especially with how hard this winter has been so far. 18 inches of snow this month so far! and counting! shitty plow jobs and snow storm after snow storm just makes biking really slow and tedious. it's put me in a really sour mood all month and has made me spend a lot of time researching moving to warmer climates. i had sort of an epiphany ride the other day that may have sent me on a road to not hating winter as much though. it definitely helps that i'm gaining strength in my wrist back and can control my bars better through tough snow. and it definitely helps that all of my muscles aren't constantly tired and that i can breathe normally.

i really really really want to start racing on the track next year. and join a team. and track race competitively. so that's my goal for the new year.

oh, and i'm unemployed. my last day at work was yesterday. i was just hired until the end of the year to close the fired case manager's cases. so my old job is done and i have yet to hear a concrete decision from any of the places that i've applied at. i went for a third interview - yes a third interview - at the job i really want. i seemed to click with them pretty well. so, hopefully, i'll get it. they'll tell me next week.

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 06:35:02 GMT

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:47:04 GMT

when are people going to start posting those year end journal entries? come on already.

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:17:09 GMT

I made out pretty well this Christmas in terms of gift stuffs. 650 front wheel. nitto pursuit bars. anti-virus software for my computer. a brita filter. petsmart gift card. slippers. french press. new curtains for my room. and pike's gift still un-given.

aidan and i made cookies. he was pretty impatient for them to be done.

purdy, shannon, and i ate christmas nachos. yum.

oh. and i also got 3 inches of snow for christmas. which has no fucking gift receipt. i can't go anywhere and i have to shovel. thanks a lot.

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:15:42 GMT

oh. yeah. and - http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/health/12599856.html

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 02:05:10 GMT

winter is a lot easier to deal with when you have a plan of attack. spin classes with amelia. a mid-february race in atlanta with a dozen of mpls fastest and funnest bikers. and a healthy respiratory system. things are getting better.

though i haven't actually biked much in the past weeks. subzero temperatures and a nasty case of bronchitis have kept me indoors or on the bus. most other people are experiencing the same.

i have a second interview at that job. case manager for previously homeless youth. my fingers are crossed pretty hard. i'd be such a good fit there. i think they'll think that too.

my coworker's brother's dog is pregnant. is it time for a playmate for aidan? i have 2 months to decide if i'm ready for a second dog. there's a good chance i might be. there's a good chance i might need to wait a few years.

blah blah blah

Mon, 17 Dec 2007 13:32:16 GMT

oh winter, why do you make everything so miserable?

i want to go somewhere. or do something. other than lay under my covers to stay warm.