Hiya Moses!
Unfortunately I'm not free next Saturday, but please tell me more about the dance event!
This past April, I've finally joined a triathlon club. I've been on two group rides around the Los Altos/Palo Alto area, with each ride being approximately 32-34 miles. The people in the club are very friendly to beginners, and they made sure to check my gear and explain some basic safety principles of group riding (i.e. not overlapping tires). To be honest, I thought I was an okay rider, but these people were super fit and fast! Even as I fell behind, they made sure to pause and regroup every so often along the route. Towards the last five miles of my first ride, I was slowing down considerably out of exhaustion, but one of the riders was kind enough to ride directly in front of me to give me a draft (by decreasing the air resistance). I used to complain about South Bay being a kind of tech purgatory with nothing to do, but riding through the rolling hills and shaded woods while admiring the horses and farmland (in such close proximity to industry and urban civilization) made me more appreciative..
In addition to biking, I've dipped my toes into open water swimming, which I am very enthusiastic about. So far I've only swam in the Foster City lagoon, but something about bobbing about in cold water with no sight of the bottom or restrictions in the form of lane lines or walls is very peaceful. I hope to join other open water swims in Aquatic Park (SF) and Santa Cruz once I become more experienced.
Though I haven't registered for any races yet, my goal is to start out with a sprint distance this year, perhaps at the one hosted by Cal Triathlon. It is motivating to see people be fit and take care of their health! My friend lightly teased me about cardio being my hobby, but I think having small amounts of pain and endorphins in a controlled environment is satisfying.
Two weekends ago, I hung out separately with two old friends from high school. I went with the first friend to watch Monkey Man, which I had heard about on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour podcast. One of my favorite sequences of the film was of a pickpocketed wallet traversing from a woman's purse, to a fake beggar's wheelchair, to a shopkeeper's back store room, to a child's backpack, etcetera etcetera, all in a continuous flow of motion until dropping into Dev Patel's waiting hands. The fight scenes reminded me of Stephen Chow's martial arts movies, and once I dropped my expectations of a complex plot, I accepted the straightforwardness of Dev Patel's revenge mission. I definitely missed a lot of Indian cultural context (I think there were clips of real life civil unrest / political corruption), and I didn't understand why people at the temple were outcasts until reading the movie's Wikipedia page afterwards. But, it was an entertaining watch overall, and "better than John Wick" according to my friend.
As for my second friend, he used to live across the street before moving out. While he came over to water his parent's plants, I noticed that he had bought an old 1991 Toyota MR2. Shamelessly, I asked if I could drive it and he agreed. It was my first time driving a "sports car" and the noise coming from the rear engine was a bit jarring at first. However, the clutch was surprisingly shorter than the Corolla's, which made shifting gears a lot quicker. The MR2 also had cute pop-up headlights, a T-top roof, and my friend had modified the steering wheel to be detachable. It was actually really fun to drive, and I can see the appeal of having a hobby car. Coincidentally, my first friend had recently purchased an old car for fun as well, and hopefully I can drive it too >:D My grand plan is to drive my friends around in the Corolla and convince them to get more unique manual cars so I can try them out for fun…
This past weekend, I went on a road trip with college friends to LA! We drove down Friday afternoon, and I think those 6 hours spent in the car were my favorite moments of the entire trip. Something about taking PTO on a Friday afternoon and relishing the freedom of not being at work is very delicious. Anyways, we had a Spotify jam session in which I was introduced to Muse, and now I am a fan of "Won't Stand Down". I'm not usually a fan of bass-heavy songs, but when the bass is melodic I can understand the urge to head-bang.
The main motivation for visiting LA was to attend the Los Angeles Times Book Festival at USC, but we ended up adding a bunch of other activities. Some highlights include being disappointed at how tasty the Erewhon smoothie was (we split a single smoothie four ways, but went back the next day for another), visiting a jimjilbang in Ktown, sipping tea at a very aesthetically pleasing teahouse in the Arts District, and watching Hazbin Hotel in the AirBnB late at night.
I also took some film pictures, which are still stuck on my camera, but I will share them when developed!
I'm almost done with Boys in the Boat, and I will start Dune soon after having borrowed a copy from Vivian.
Please tell me about how you've been doing!
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