Biking, Just Not Far

The Mechanic and I spent a relaxing weekend in Shepherdstown, WV – biking, but not doing the half-century we had registered for. Between my respiratory infection, our recent exhausting schedules, and several hours of rain on Saturday morning when we would have been on our road bikes, we were glad we didn’t even try the 50 miles; we just weren’t ready. And we did some biking anyway, just not as far.

This was the first road trip with The Green Turtle, the cargo van The Mechanic bought in which to store his bikes. This is his answer to having to haul his heavy commuter bike up and down the stairs to our apartment. Not in love with the idea, but unable to offer a better alternative, I have to say, this trip convinced me that it’s not a bad idea. After all, it’s really easy to roll the bikes in and out of the back of the van.

Loading The Green Turtle

And since the hotel was a mile from the cute historical downtown area, it was easy to pull the bikes out, and bike into town. There was a very wide bike lane on part of the main road near our hotel. The lane had a rumble strip, too.

Wide bike lane on main street heading out of town.

So we biked into town both days, and from there we were also able to easily get to the C&O Canal.

First we biked to the general store.

Fancy yet kinda useless bike rack out front.

What appeared to be the music room in the general store, complete with harp stain glass windows.

Naturally we stopped in at the local bike shop.

And ate at our favorite restaurant, the Blue Moon Cafe. I love the stream that runs through it (and most of the town)!

Parked in front of the local college…

… next to this unusual ebike….

…and a pair of Cannondales that could be twins to our road bikes!

We made it to the C&O Canal.

Explored the rocks along the trail, some with crazy creepy caves.

Inside the craziest, creepiest cave – I don’t want to know what goes on here…

Enjoyed some local sights…

…old cemeteries…

…had high tea in a cool tea room…

This old train station is now a dentist office!

Enjoyed the farmer’s market flora…

…and headed home (but not to this home…)

 

Enjoying the peace and relaxation the C&O Canal had instilled upon us, we returned rejuvenated and ready to tackle the week. I hope you all had relaxing, peaceful, and refreshing weekends as well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The “Sewing is Frugal” Myth

Today I bought a dress, and fabric (and notions) to make two other dresses. Want to guess which was the cheapest?

I recently ordered a stack of patterns, since the Vogue/McCalls/Butterick website  was having a big sale – patterns normally $15-20 for $1.88-$3.88! I ordered five for the price of one, yippee! 

I decided to focus on the top three. The middle one I’ve been planning on for a while – the reflective sash I made a while back is intended to go with this dress pattern, and the shoulder piece will also be reflective. 

I had planned on biking out to Seven Corners, in Fairfax, this afternoon to go to the JoAnn Fabrics, but when I saw yesterday’s Living Social deal for G Street Fabrics, I immediately jumped on it. I hadn’t yet been to that fabric store, but a New York friend recommended it, so why not? $25 for $50 worth of fabric and notions? Yes please!

Before I headed into the fabric stores, I stopped in the Ross Dress for Less store, and ended up walking out with a super cute, flattering Calvin Klein maxi dress – originally $128, I paid $41.99 including tax.

Then I went into JoAnn’s, and ended up with this print silky polyester.

It’s different than I had envisioned initially for this dress, but I really like it, and the plummy background will make it stretch through the fall as well. I didn’t have enough purple reflective fabric left, so yesterday I called B&J Fabrics and bought the last yard! It is on it’s way!  I didn’t buy lining material yet, however, just thread.

Then I spent a long time roaming the bolts of fabric in G Street Fabrics. The place was nothing like I expected – it’s in a basement, and huge! Tons of specialty fabrics, the one thing JoAnn’s lacks – silks, linens, suiting wools, leather, sequined fabrics, and I never even made it into the Home Decorating section.

The color block dress pattern suggested double knit as a fabric option, so I decided to try it. I’ve never really worked with that, so we’ll see what happens. The color choices are pretty limited, so although I didn’t really want to copy the style on the pattern cover, I pretty much did. Mine will be cream on top, teal in the middle, and gray on the hem.

I think this will be a comfy business dress that I can still bike in. I’m not sure if I want to add reflective piping to it, however. It’s got the perfect seams, but I don’t know… Thoughts?

Anyway, neither of these dresses are starting off cheap. Here’s a price rundown so far:

Reflective Shoulder Dress:

• The yard of reflective fabric from New York is $49, and I have no idea what the FedEx Ground will cost.
• The 4.5 yards of silky fabric was 40% off, thank goodness, making it only $5.99 a yard. Plus thread, and Iron-Off, and another coupon, the JoAnn’s bill was $34.18.
• I still need to buy 4 yards of lining fabric. G Street has a great selection, so I’ll go there, but it is still $7.99 a yard, so that will be about $32. I’ll probably get another of those Living Social deals.
• Including the lining fabric I haven’t bought yet, this is already costing me $114.96.

Color Block Dress:

• The double knit was $19.98 a yard. I had to buy a total of 4.5 yards, so that’s $69.93 right there.
• I also bought a bunch of notions and supplies. The total bill, before the Living Social $50, was $97.84.
• I paid $25 for the Living Social deal, so I actually spent $72.84 at G Street Fabrics.

I haven’t calculated in my time yet:

• I need to wash, dry, and iron the fabric. With so many yards, the ironing will take a while.
• I have to cut out and adjust as needed the paper pattern.
• I have to cut out the fabric.
• Then I get to sew! No idea how long that will take, although the color block dress should only take a day.
• If my union rate in New York was about $28 an hour, well, you can do the math…

So basically, its cheaper to NOT sew your own clothes!

This makes me think of the recent tragedy in Bangladesh, where a fire in a garment factory has killed over 1,000 workers (although a woman was just discovered alive after 16 days trapped in the rubble. Amazing will to live.) Events like these always make me reevaluate my relationship with the clothes I buy – is this outfit on sale at Macy’s worth the cost of human lives?

I am not going to pontificate on the rights and wrongs of where our clothing comes from; there are so many pieces to that puzzle. I am on a budget, and as much as I wish I could shop companies who make socially responsible garments, or buy handmade products from local designers, the fact is, sometimes I can only afford that $10-on-clearance top from Ann Taylor Loft. I like to think that I will only buy what I really need,  or only shop in consignment stores, thus helping to reduce demand, but I’m not that disciplined. In fact, if I really wanted to stick to my budget, I wouldn’t sew at all! Then there is the simple fact that whatever I make at home still doesn’t look as formal or “done” as store-bought clothing.

I can’t wait to start my new projects, while I wear my new bargain maxi dress, and remind myself that “slow fashion” is acceptable, that fewer, better quality pieces are better than many cheap ones. And try to stay out of the stores, because I just blew my budget on handmade dresses-to-be!

I am still obsessed with the collar of this sleeveless top in Macy’s…

 

 

Fitting In, or, Cycle Cliques

When I was riding home in the rain this evening, I had a total high school moment – there I was, wearing my big blue poncho with rain drops speckling my clear glasses, when a trio of young, well-dressed, fashionable women waltzed past under their equally fancy umbrellas. I felt about as uncool as I felt in junior high and high school, when the cool girls would breeze right past me.

You know you are jealous of my big blue poncho….

Memories of awkwardness in 1000 pages…

I guess I’m feeling sensitive this week because my parents just shipped my junior high and high school yearbooks to me, and flipping through the pages reminds me of how dorky I was, and how many cliques there were in my high school  – the cheerleader girls, the arts department girls, the Goth girls, and so on, the “in” crowds I never fit into.

And there I was, on the sidelines, doing my own, unique brand of unusual…

1985, 1986, and Senior Year, 1990 (with bonus baby picture!)

I spent the rest of my ride home reminding myself of the fact that it’s far more important to me to be my own self, than to fit in.

Oh you know, just another day at the office… (okay, theater…)

However…. it also made me think about the Bike World, and how there are just as many cliques in cycling – roadies, mountain bikers, urban/messenger cyclists, lady cyclists, commuters, etc. Lady Fleur talks about “bicycle tribes” in a recent post on her blog, “One Woman. Many Bicycles.” She points out that she belongs to many tribes, and I must as well, since I have more than one style of bike. But is it important to belong to a tribe, or clique?

Well, no, obviously. But, as much as I enjoy my uniqueness, there is still a degree of wanting to be around others like me. It’s human nature, whether I like it or not. I don’t really want to belong to a “women who bike” clique but I love that shops like Pedal Chic exist, sell products I love, host cycling weekly cycling events, etc. (I would probably hang out there often, if I lived in Greenville!) They have categories as well, one for each cycling type/tribe/clique. It’s hard to get away from classification.

CAD Costume Design Workshop, early 1990s. Going my own way…

In Arlington, there are fewer women on bikes to begin with. I saw two women today, both in gym clothes with long blonde ponytails, riding hybrid-type “city” bikes. Nope, don’t fit into that clique. I wish there were more women like me, on funkier bikes, in everyday clothes, with fashionable panniers and baskets. I have only seen one other woman with Basil panniers, a mom with her husband and three kids, all on bikes – I don’t fit that clique either, although I quizzed them about their bakfiets. I certainly see more women on bikes when I’m in DC, so I guess the trick is, bike more often in DC! Then I’ll fit in better with the “in” crowd – until I need to be ME again and come home to Arlington!

Now THIS is my clique!

And I have to add, my high school angst dissipated when I flew past the gridlocked cars on my way home. Being unique had its advantages once again!

 

 

May, the Momentous Month

It’s May, a month full of lovely things!

It starts off right away with my birthday. Last year was the big 4-0, and I decided that from now on, I shall only turn 35. So this week is my 35th birthday! hahaha… They say you are only the age you feel, right?

How you doin’?

May is also Bike Month!

As you may guess, I will be working on Bike to Work Day in Arlington on May 17. I’m already looking forward to it. It’s a shame I have to wear work-branded stuff, because I’d wear some of my reflective fashions. Unless I make something between now and then. Hm…

Here Bike to Work Day is promoted by Commuter Connections and the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, and BikeArlington is one of the sponsors. We at Arlington Transportation Partners work the event and try to encourage regular bike commuting by hoping that individual cyclists will talk to their HR reps about providing bike benefits, covered secured bike parking, showers, and more.

Last year’s Bike to Work Day, in non-fashionable reflective gear

May is also the kick off for the National Bike Challenge, and this year, we have a much improved bike team! There are three more regular bike commuters in my office, so we should have a pretty strong team. Add in a few coworkers who will ride occasionally to work, but mostly on the weekends, and we could actually challenge the Bike Arlington Team! My team is currently in third place, unbelievably, but it’s only been practice miles. The serious stuff begins now!

The other thing I’m kicking off this month is a really crazy idea – I registered to ride the Sea Gull Century through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program. I wanted to ride the Sea Gull Century last year, but ran out of time to properly train. I’m hoping that by doing this, it will force me to train all summer. I was told that they have trainers and nutritionists and so on to help, and that’s what I really need/want.

Sea Gull Century Logo

The part I’m actually the most nervous about is the fund raising. I have to raise $1900 by the middle of September, eek! I’m considering donating reflective sashes to people who donate certain amounts, but I don’t have enough reflective fabric! Apparently there is a point in July at which I can decide if I want to continue, so I hope I can raise at least half the amount before then. I’ve never done any kind of fund raising before, so I guess we’ll see how this goes!  (Here’s my donation page, should the spirit move you: http://pages.teamintraining.org/nca/seagull13/elizabethfloyd)

All this talk of training reminds me that the CASA River Ride is also this month – May 18, so just about two weeks away. I did it last year (albeit with more training), so I’m sure I can do it again, but it might not be pretty. Well, the ride is, which is why we want to go back.

Somewhere in WV during last year’s CASA River Ride

We end Bike Month with something very non-bikey. We are going to see “Wallenstein,” a play by Friedrich Schiller, at the Shakespeare Theatre Company.  I am excited to see a play, at STC, and a play I know nothing about. I know a bit about the main character, Albrecht von Wallenstein, a highly motivated and skilled military leader in Bohemia during the Thirty Years’ War.* This war was one of many I studied in grad school, since Early Modern European History was my first focus (the degree is actually in Modern European History, with a focus on 19th century Germany). A German historical figure? Count me in! A love earlier than the love of biking, believe it or not.

Most of my Master’s Thesis books, German history and language

Add to these events friends visiting from out of town, horseback riding, Amtrak Train Day, and the EU Embassies’ Open Door Day, and it’s quite the month! I will need Memorial Day weekend to recover!

In the Danish Embassy last year

*It’s very improper historian to use Wikipedia as a source, but it’s harder to offer you my text books for further research.

 

Reflective Floral Tux Pants, At Last!

I’ve been having motivation issues lately – lack of motivation. I’ve been eating too many desserts (three a day isn’t that bad, is it?!), and I’m having a hard time getting motivated to train for my upcoming half-century. Okay, work has been crazy lately, so I could blame my sweets weakness on that, but know I can’t – I know better. And I’m really looking forward to a weekend in Shepherdstown, WV, to do the CASA River Ride, but I haven’t done more than 30 miles a day on my road bike all year. (I’m not the only one who loves Shepherdstown – See this blog postfrom Chasing Mailboxes DC. I’m so inspired/intimidated by the miles they do every weekend.) Yet I didn’t feel like going out on the bike today, which would have been the smart thing to do. Instead, I slept in, then hunkered down this afternoon with a sewing project I started back in January – my reflective floral tux pants!

I bought the fabric for these pants while I was in New York in March, so I guess I haven’t been working on them that long, but I did buy the pattern in January. The fabric is super soft corduroy, my favorite fabric.

They were not a difficult pattern, but I did a muslin mockup first, at the encouragement of my stitcher/seamstress Facebook friends, and I am glad I did. I still made a newbie mistake with the corduroy though, and cut the pockets out with the nap upside down, dammit, and I made another mistake that I’m not going to share… Hence the label I always use:

This is why I don’t think I should sew for other people, at least, not until I get more practice!

The reflective piping up the tuxedo stripe is subtle, yet it still shows up well with the light. The print is brave but the colors are somehow neutral enough with the gray that I think I can wear them with a variety of tops. They look great with my Merrell bike heels, but I’m not sure at the moment which other shoes will work. It will depend on the top, I suppose, but then again – the silver reflective Cole Haan loafers I like would be cute with them too.

And now that this project is wrapped up, I need to focus on re-motivating myself. My birthday is later this week, so I’m going to use that as my start-over point, the perfect time to clean up the eating habits, get back on the road bike, and buckle down to get some miles under my padded bike shorts. Since I’m also registered for the Seagull Century this fall through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training, I will need some serious hours on the bike (as well as some massive fundraising, which scares me more than 100 miles on the bike, eek!).

How do you motivate yourself for something you want to do, know you need to do, yet just can’t get around to doing? I’m open to tips and pointers…

 

Just Trying to Catch Up!

It’s been a busy week-plus, and there are so many topics I have wanted to blog about, but just haven’t had the time. And now I wonder if there is any point in going back, so I guess I’ll touch on the highlights.

At work, we have been crazy-busy getting ready for National Walk @ Lunch Day, April 24th. Walk @ Lunch Day is a Blue Cross Blue Shield event that we promoted to our employer clients last year, with about 200 total participants. This year we decided to add pit stops, places where walking teams could stop during their walks, and somehow the number of participants has grown to over 800! We could blame it on the goodie bags, but we gave those out last year as well. We can’t even blame it on our awesome video, but I’d like to, so here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrVXbyerOpc Isn’t it great?!

Last week was all about TDM – The Association for Commuter Transportation’s (ACT, aka my national association) Leadership Academy for two days (learning how to be a leader can be a bit intimidating!); ACT’s Legislative Summit, where we learned about transportation legislation, and talked to our representatives on the Hill about the importance of transit parity and TDM (and how cheap it is compared to building new roads!); then the local chapter of aforementioned association held a one-day summit, where I presented about transportation alternatives in emergency planning. At the last minute I stepped in to moderate another panel. Whew! That’s a lot of talk about how to get people to change their car-dependent ways!

Saturday, The Mechanic and I biked into DC to attend the Brooks Dashing Bicycle Show at Bicycle Space.

Although they had a bike valet, we opted to lock up down the street.

Bikey though I might be, I was pretty excited to see a 1931 pickup parked in front of Bicycle Space. I learned to drive, at the tender age of 15, in a 1928 Model A Ford pickup.

As much as I want to share the picture of me in the Model A, well, I was a teen, and look pretty dorky. I’m just not sure I can…  It was cool to see all the Brooks saddles, and bags, and coats, and other accessories, even my favorite GiveLoveCycle being sold in the shop. We had Hendricks Gin punch, and The Mechanic bought Bike Snob‘s new book, Bike Snob Abroad (which, I might add, he’s already finished!), but managed to leave without realizing we’d miss out on Bike Snob’s presentation. Oops. Damn. I comfort myself with the knowledge that we’ve been slandered on his blogpost. At least, the back of our heads have been….

Biking through DC, fashionable and reflective though I was, made me think about the keynote speaker from last week’s summit, Jeff Speck. He is a city planner and his most recent book is about walkability, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time. I definitely agree that making cities walkable will make them better for us all – even though I bike everywhere, I still walk just as much, and feel way more vulnerable as a pedestrian than as a cyclist. Drivers in cars pay less attention to people on foot than on two weeks. I did notice that most of Speck’s examples of innovative, redesigned cities still had the bike lanes on the outside of the parked cars. I hate to harp on Copenhagen, but it felt so much safer to have the bike lane next to the sidewalk, and to have buses and cars physically separated by the raised lane.

Someday, when I live in Copenhagen, I may look back on this as naivete but I really hope American cities move towards this. I think that as active transportation and health issues move closer and closer together (walking at lunch is fun AND healthy, an cities should promote it more!), we will see more interest in connecting areas, not just cool downtown areas, but neighborhoods were people can walk to grocery stores and coffee shops, and to see each other, to make our lives better all around.

Okay, you talked me into it – here I am at the wheel of the Model A –

Biking Buys Me Happiness Too

Today was one of those days where I was just happy to be on a bike. Three things happened to make today’s riding happier than it’s been in a while – the weather, the bike trail, and a new cassette. Although, technically, since I bought the cassette, you could argue that again, money has bought me happiness. But let’s focus on the non-monetary aspects of this post tonight.

It poured rain in the wee hours, and I was glad I worked from home today. But the sun came out by the afternoon, so when I left to run errands, it was cool, breezy, just a bit humid, and just glorious – Spring! I had left in just jeans and a tee shirt and initially feared I’d be too cold, but that was not a problem. It just felt so FUN to be out biking around, arms bared to the sun (albeit smothered in sunscreen), the lightness that comes with not wearing layers of winter weather clothing.

Post-storm blossom “snow”

My errands took me on the W&OD Trail towards Falls Church, a route I haven’t taken in a while. Everything was in bloom, and covered with a haze of fresh green, giving me that happy-it’s-Spring feeling again. There were some people out on the trail, but it was a trail, not surface streets, so I was able to stretch my legs and get some speed going. The new cassette made shifting so much smoother, and I felt like I was flying along – well, I did hit 21 mph and regularly saw 14, 16, and 18 mph as well (yes, on my commuter bike!). I love the high gears. : )

Grass full of tiny yellow flowers of some sort, near a water filtration pond of some sort…

So although money can buy me happiness, being out on my bike on a Spring evening with favorable conditions probably made me happier. Exercise produces endorphins, after all, and as Elle Woods once said in Legally Blonde, “Endorphins make you happy.”

(Image from Sam Schuerman)