community and ethnicity

I left the house less than 5 mins after Greg this morning.

Him on his BIKE (that's a human-powered one) and me in my car.

We travel in generally the same direction, a little northwest for about 4 miles, to cross (him) and get on (me) the highway; but using different routes - because he chooses ones with bike lanes and I choose ones with fewer traffic lights and stops.

 

Today, he crossed in front of me about 1/2 mile from the highway.

 

I think its ridiculous that the traffic I had to sit in between my house and that street was so bad that he, on his route with more lights and stops, got there at the same time. Ridiculous, I say!

 

 

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I don't think about this too often, because its just normal at this point; but today something happened that startled me into the reality.

 

My office is EXTREMELY diverse! We have people from all over the world of all different races and ethnicities: Chinese, Indian, Native American, white, black, African-American (me and this guy from Kenya), Mexican, Peruvian, Lebanese, Iraqi, Bangladeshi, and I'm sure I'm missing someone...

We joke about it in my department because there are probably only 2 people who were actually born in America working in the department (ok, that might be an exageration, but its enough that they are always in the minority at meetings).

Most of the time, I don't really think about it...

But today, as I was walking down the hall, the guy from Peru was giving comments to a guy from Mexico on his engineering design, in Spanish!

 

It was pretty cool.

Have you seen this?

A refreshing change from the usual young women writhing on the screen. I saw this at my gym and had a good laugh with the woman on the trainer next to me.
Kudos to Ben Kweller for tacking a risk and doing something out of the ordinary.
(Ben Kweller - Penny On The Train Track)

AAAAAAAAHHH!!!

I just cleaned out my sockdrawer.

The ultimate form of procrastination!


(I should be writing my chapter!)

How to Build Community

The coffee shop in Park City, UT has instructions:

Technically, my first time

This weekend was the first time that I went out on the autoX track alone in my car.
I have done performance driving and autoX three times, and have had someone in my car all the time.

I'm glad I'm over that!

I had always wanted someone in the car with me because I know that my limitations are me and not the car's. When you have a ride-along, they will say to you "gas" "Gas" "GAAAS", and you push through your limitations to get closer to understanding the car.

All week, and all morning, I was really scared about having to push myself. I gave myself all the peptalks I could think of:
you need to be MOVING around in the car
you need to hear your wheels squeal
the car can do more than you!
I gave myself 5 instructions to memorize on the course so that I felt like I had a pattern.

And after all that, I'd have to say, its far more fulfilling to speed up on every run because its you doing the pushing; than it is when there is someone in the car taking responsibility for you.

Now I am excited about practicing more, pushing my limits out, and getting closer to understanding the car.

I've signed up for a 2 day event in December, and I'm hoping that having 2 full days will give me some serious seat time to break through my limitations and really get the most out of my car.




there should only be THREE wheels touching the ground here...


Coming in to the finish