Ultimate Guide to Bicycle Safety

Someone sent me this really nice bicycle safety guide with tons of uplifting statistics and fabulous graphic design.  Click here to see the whole awesome thing. 

It's pretty NYC-focused, but most of this works for most anywhere. 

Something happened today.

I was standing in the kitchen pouring a bottle of cherry coke on ice when I thought to myself: I have become my mom. "This is totally something she did a million times." As in, fixing a soda-pop-type drink to go run some errands in the car.

I glanced down at my outfit, and I was basically wearing my mom's uniform of the late 80's and early 90's and basically her whole life that I was a part of.

I am wearing her uniform. But I didn't freak out; I realized shit, mom had great style. 

And continued my cherry coke pour.

The New Bike Shoes

First:  A statement on my state of blogging:  I just never feel the same motivations for blogging as I used to. I also feel pretty private lately.
I used to sit at a desk for most of the day at a full-time job, and I think that gave me anxious fuel to write blog posts. Maybe I'll do better. But don't count on it. 

Here's the bike trainer my husband got us. We love it!
It's so nice to ride in your home and watch TV and pull a small table up near you with your phone and a tall glass of water. And the TV remote.

I love all the bike stuff we have going on in our apartment. People coming over to visit think they can spot our apartment from seeing the bikes in the window. It's funny, but my bike runs much quieter than Matt's on the trainer.

Spring is here in Arkansas! So outdoor biking should commence.

I even got clip-in shoes for my bike and started using them. It's a new, powerful world.

I wish I had some better jokes about how expensive these were and how I can't wear them anywhere fancy... With the exception of some of my knee-high boots, I think they are the most expensive shoes I own. They're the kind with clips and you can walk around on the ground like a normal person.

I am still totally in blind trust with my bike salesman from Chainwheel. That's the shop that nobody thought would be the shop for me. I can't believe how in-deep I am with a shop like this, and I can't believe how much crap/gear/stuff you need for road biking. Jumbo handbags and grocery totes aren't a part of this picture.

I think the road bike community and the commuters are two different communities, but I think one can participate in both, and I think doing this is going to give me better perspectives for both. 
Polite biking will carry on, and I will prove that you can do it in spandex. 

I can not get used to the ginormous maxi pads in bike shorts but you need them! They are so disgusting but necessary. Even riding the trainer in my apartment I have to wear them because my road bike's seat is like a woodpecker's beak. 

Stuff I bought that I love: Hillary Clinton Tee

Thank you for this gem, Print Liberation. This t-shirt is perfect for my low-key, domestic life. The perfect shirt to cover my fiery little Hillary-loving heart.


I heard Al Gore speak the other night at the Clinton Library. He started out super-boring but got riled up and took us to what I'm describing as Climate Change Church. I loved one of his ideas for how we can help the environment is by educating girls all over the world. Education equals empowerment and if they had access and knowledge about their fertility control, the world's population could level off. (and individual female's economic opportunities expand and contribute to the global economy, but that's a bigger story.)

Educating girls all around the world is the same thing Hillary has been championing since she was First Lady speaking about Women's rights are human rights and working with Madeline Albright to bring womens issues to the forefront of US Foreign Policy.

When I hear about Hillary running in 2016 I see her flying through the air like Michael Jordan in a 180 dunk. I am a fan of celebrations and anticipation and I'm thankful I'm going to get years out of this biggie.

My review of selling stuff on eBay

My Bottom Line:  Selling stuff on eBay is a lot of work, but it's also nice to get things out of your house. 

I think to really be profitable, you could make selling on eBay your full time job. I have other interests in my life, like my volunteer career and my science class, so I'll just put a batch of items on My eBay from time-to-time.

I did recently buy a new cheap camera tripod and I really love my choice. It was about $40 from B&H. I used to dread trips to the real B&H in NYC and if you've been there you know why, but now I kind of miss it and I was happy to order from them. Because even though I don't want to be in their over-crowded nutso store, I know they are fucking fierce over there. There is a method to their madness.


Here I am holding the wonderfully compact Canon tripod in it's carrying case. I love the carrying case. It's nicer for storing the tripod. A tripod w/out a case is kind of a snaggly monster in your closet.

I am my own model and photographer so that helped. I just picked a sunny day and mostly used natural light and ran around the apartment changing wildly fast in and out of the items I sold.

It's best that I was home alone. Thank goodness.

Putting stuff up is way smoother than it used to be. Even back a few months ago eBay would peck you to death with all these tedious questions, but somehow they really got their shit together and the listing process is much more streamlined and looks better too.

I just sat at my desk with my items in a stack near-by and used a tape measure as I went to enter them into eBay online.

I didn't get too many dumb questions about my items. That was a relief. I do have an extremely solid eCommerce background on my resume, so I think I am good at predicting the questions the item-viewer  will have.

I set-up my auctions to all end on Sunday evening THINKING everyone would pay and I could have this big trip to the post office on Monday morning, but that was not the case at all. I received rolling payments and took several trips to the PO and LUCKILY I live within walking distance of a post office so it was pretty convenient. I just had to remember to bring my own packing tape over there.

Most of my buyers bought USPS Priority Mail Shipping service so I got to use the free packing stuff supplied by the post office. My post office here in Little Rock is SO MUCH NICER than the ones in NYC. Here in LR the supplies are stocked and the works are so eerily nice.

I had a surprising amount of international buyers.

I didn't pay too much attention to how much money I actually made. I also started almost all of my items at .99. I had rescued several of my items from thrift stores and some of my items were things I no longer wanted to use/wear, so it was really a mission of sending things off to new homes.

I would relate the prices I got to those of yard sale prices. Except for in the case of a Marc Jacobs handbag. 

heart, life, fate

A friend read my palm yesterday. I loved it. There are a few things that I googled and wanted to double-check, and it turned out she nailed it. One of the most special parts was when she found my guardian angel line. She was impressed with it, then I told her my mom passed away when I was twenty and she was so happy for me. She said she is really watching over me.

She pointed out several things that matched-up to my personality and she had my make a xerox of my palms because she thinks some changes may come about after this summer. She also pointed out the lines that show that I'm organized.

I don't necessarily take palm reading seriously, but this was a really fun exercise, a special time with my friend and I do look forward to seeing how my lines evolve as I get older. 

Playlists- Workout and for Driving

I've spent a perfect Saturday night home alone, drinking and painting my nails and doing very important work in iTunes. I've done something that's kind-of hard for me to do- I updated my workout playlist. 

Mostly I listen to this when I'm on the treadmill and I need to be entertained and motivated. Immediately with no interruption. Some of these songs could get played next week and really piss me off and get cut. But here's the first draft:


But I got stuck on this Lily Allen song and made this other playlist, Girl, Boo. Now that I'm a car-driving person again, I require fresh CDs regularly, and I like to have mixtapes to give to my friends who I see in person to show them I care. This mixtape is burning as I type.


I showed the whole screen-shot because I usually like when I discover how people name their playlists, so I'm showing you mine.

Me and Matt share an iTunes. It was hard for us at first, but now we get along in there. Sometimes I burn him a new mix and put it in the refrigerator on top of his lunch I packed for him.

#BikeChickenShit

I'm feeling extremely chicken shit scared about biking in Arkansas these days. Everyone around here is always holding their phone in their hands along with the wheel reading the screen, or speaking on their phone with the actual phone up to their ear in their giant vehicle. It's so distressing.

I wish hand-sets would get outlawed in this state. Hopefully someone is working on that. It breaks my bicycle riding heart to see people texting and driving, which is a very frequent occurrence.

I'm always outside walking. I walk to the Clinton Library the days I work there, and I walk Bonnie-dog on two big walks every day, and I pay attention to who's on their phone and driving and I'm pretty fucking scared. 

Another scary thing to think about when thinking of riding bikes here is that people have much bigger vehicles. So many people drive SUV's and huge trucks with giant tractor tires like this-

It doesn't take a 5,000 pound car to get a 100 pound woman to the mall-  Is an idea that hasn't gotten down here yet.

Con Ed 4-Ever

I'm back in school. I'm just taking one class. It's a freaking Biology class! I have a degree in fine art and design, so it's a slightly different language. The class is a precursor to a very special trip I'm going on this summer with my teacher and classmates.

I had this teacher in under-grad about twelve years ago. I love him. He has a black-belt in Power Point and he explains things in a lovely way.

I did so bad on this quiz tonight. I'm just not used to studying these types of materials and then being asked scientific questions in sentence form.

I think it's fine, because no one thinks I'm a hardcore Biology student, I'm just being educated about our trip.

We're going to Peru to see Machu Picchu and then we go to Ecuador and visit the Galapagos. And snorkel with the sea lions. And hug and kiss them maybe.

I'm happy that a wet-suit or spring suit is on my school supply list. And binoculars.

But I have to drive (a car, not a bicycle) kind-of far for my class.

My Grandmother lives half-way between my home and my class, so on the way, I stop and hang out with her.

For my drive, I fix my iPod up with new Podcasts and Playlists. I'm adamantly No Phone Zone when driving.  This podcast of Alec Baldwin interviewing Lena Dunham was great, and covered one leg of my journey.

Today we were watching Hillary. My grandma was so pissed that some of the men were disrespecting her. My Grandma was fingering the costume jewelry she was wearing and using a pick on her hair in a feisty way. I loved how pissed she was. She's 89.

This past weekend, Me and Bonnie went to this Rally for Reproductive Rights (pro-choice rally) and it made me miss my volunteering at Planned Parenthood so much. I miss being confident and pleasant to the patients who are coming in for a variety of things, totally not-necessarily abortions, while the pro-lifers are all bent out of shape.

Here's Bonnie having fellowship with a friendly feminist.

Jocelyn Elders spoke at the rally and said clever things like "The vows of abstinence break far more easily than latex condoms."

It's really special living in Little Rock, I think. I love having the Bill Clinton Library as a part of my life and I love that these former people from his administration are a part of the community. 

eBay Sunday

eBay modeling at home... by yourself... is hectic and a little crazy. I like to just go fast to photograph the items so I can put them up before I lose interest. There was no time for make-up today, so sunglasses hide the most damning evidence of my bare face. Though the pale skin and lips lead you to believe how monotone I am, literally, here in the coldest, dreariest part of winter.

If you're interested... here's the link to all of the items.

After looking at my recent haircut, I found some errors and cut it more myself.

The other night at an art opening, a girl stopped to ask me who cuts my hair and I was like "Girl, we need to just do it ourselves." Because she also cut her own too. I guess it's pretty domestic to cut your own hair. We're all about DIY and doing stuff at home these days. Why not.














These overalls are the thing that I'm saddest about getting rid of.  They just do not fit me. My torso is too long. They're so precious, but now they're on the eBay chopping block.

They look pretty cute in this pic, but the straps are extended as fully as possible and they're up my butt. I've got so much butt.

Hair update: Short and dark blonde

Here's how my hair turned out after my appointment with a new person. I'm happy with the color, but I've found some issues with the cut. (Some blunt ends if that makes sense. The whole cut was done with scissors and I think I'm more of a razor cut wig myself.) It would be very NYC of me to have one person for color and one person for cuts. I'll have two people for cuts, actually, because I'll never stop cutting it myself.

I was doing a little eBay photo shoot today with some vintage items. 



I know it was so bleached before that it will fade back to be extremely light blonde in some parts, but I feel like these colors look pretty natural and my roots won't be too shocking.

Even though that's OK because I've got an appointment for late Feb...

Hair Mood Boards

I'm seeing a new hair person on Thursday. I'm sick of looking. I really want to settle down.  He sounds amazing and I really want things to work out between us. I want to have a lasting, productive relationship. I really want to establish a standing appointment. Having a standing hair appointment will be some grown-ass-lady stuff. Maybe I'm getting ahead of myself.

I've been creating mood board collages of my hair history. The good and the better.

Sure, it's vain, but it's also hard to create verbal illustrations of how you expect your hair to turn out. I recommend when you're having a good hair day that you photograph it. You don't have to share it with the internet, but save it somewhere you can refer to if you need to meet a new stylist.

I sometimes feel like a little psycho taking all these photos of my hair, but look, they're helpful. I'm really happy I've got this crazy-girl archive to mull back over and decide where to go from here.






Til then, I'm breathing deep and printing, printing, printing examples.

I bet I'm the only person who brings in example photos of myself.

My Highlights of 2012

The way I spent New Year's Day last year was magical, and I just knew it was going to be a good year.  We knew for a very long time that we were moving away from NYC and going to Little Rock, so I really savored my last months there. I had constant visions of a huge page turning, because a huge chapter was turning in our lives. Matt was finishing his educational path which lasted 12 years. Even though he had three actual graduation ceremonies from medical school five years earlier, this was the final and real graduation. 

January - I was in the NY Post for having done a diet book review.

I only lost 2.2 lbs., but the book taught me some good stuff that I still think about.

February - I got to review this Nirve bike Momentum Magazine. It was published a few months later.

March - I got this awesome seat at Rachel Maddow's first book event. 

April - this one extra-awesome weekend I rode my bike to Brooklyn on Saturday night for a Leslie Hall show. This is one of the only concerts Matt and I go to together in full force. 

... and the next night I rode back down there for the Miss Lez Pageant and was delighted by the winner and thrilled by the runner up's gown made from nothing but tampons. 

May - Even though I was in the worst mood ever and felt totally lonely, I'm proud that I rode the 50+ miles in the 5 Boro Bike ride. It's over 50 miles and takes you through all the five boroughs. I'm also proud that I raised money for Planned Parenthood NYC in doing so.  And I ran into Bill Cunningham and snapped this pic. 

June - June was when we were really running out of time in NYC. I started eating absolutely everything, but that's not the point. June was all about saying goodbye to New York City and our friends and the experiences we got to have while we lived there. The most exhilarating thing for me was attending Barack on Broadway - An Obama fundraiser featuring tons of Broadway stars and Bill & Barack. It's really funny how much money I spent seeing Bill Clinton from afar while I lived in New York City, but now I see him up-close for free in Arkansas. 

July - We arrived in Arkansas! We took our time getting down there. It was hard to get a driver's license. It took us a couple trips to the office and we had to drag out our Hawaii marriage license, which I like to point out, looks exactly like Obama's birth certificate. Same green printed paper and fonts and stuff. Here's my Arkansas driver's lic. photo. 

August - August was about nesting in our new apartment, walking to the farmer's market and my volunteer career began at the Clinton Library. 

September - I got this sexy road bike that I still haven't ridden that much. 

October - We used our commuter bikes to go on our first bike date in Arkansas. 

November - DOLLYWOOD! We went to Dollywood with our best-friend couples. We only rode like 2 rides, but we spent the day and went for the Christmas decorations. I loved her Chasing Rainbows museum. 

December - I got a visit from Amalia, my best friend from kindergarten and 20+-year pen-pal and we fulfilled our dream of making a Bill sandwich. 

Amalia is a key factor in how I got myself on The Martha Stewart show. I was applying to talk shows to try to get me and Amalia a trip to be re-united because we hadn't seen each other much in the twenty years since she moved away and we were just pen-pals. I applied to Ellen and Oprah and I was tinkering around on the Martha website where I found the Teach Martha application. That's how I got on. That and all my skills. 

The Arkansas Blizzard of 2012

Now that we live here, Arkansas had their first Blizzard Warning announcement ever. Ever. It was the deepest snow in 86 years or something crazy like that. We always laugh and say Oh, no, it never really snows in Arkansas. 

Snow means Bonnie the dog is wearing shoes to protect her deliciate, furry little paws. 

This better not happen again for another 86 years.
It was really pretty the first morning but now it's just a cold icy-patched mess. 

A cool dude did donuts in this parking lot. 

Glad I saved some of my key winter items. 

Luckily, with the crazy way Arkansas weather works, it could turn around and be really warm any moment now. Any moment now, OK? 

My Flickr set of all my blizzard related photos is here. 

Merry Christmas!

Here's our 2012 Christmas Holiday Card!


I only have access to Photoshop Elements at this time in my life :)

Here are a few past cards in case you're new to us.

2011 - Our last Christmas in New York City.

I drew this myself.

2010. Bonnie could have photoshopped this herself!

Goodwill 85th Anniversary!

Today is Goodwill Arkansas's 85th Anniversary. Blue tag items are/were 85% off. I don't think I ended up with many blue tags but my bounty was amazing! I'm going to update with more pics later. I couldn't wait and threw stuff in the washing machine as soon as I got home.

I am so happy I have a dinner party to go to Thursday night where I can wear these bow heels.

Also, if you think all I do is go to thrift stores and volunteer at the Clinton Library, you would be correct.

But hey- My hard volunteer work is paying off and I got an award at the Gala last night. Rookie of the Year!


My award. I've got a Michael's coupon burning a hole in my pocket thinking about a display case for this.

My Christmas Spirit is rocking full tilt

I don't know if it's because I've got a lot more time on my hands this year, but my Christmas Spirit is mighty and plentiful. Here's the spirit of the day in IG's.

I am thrilled to have the White House Christmas card featuring Bo! Bonnie is not so impressed.


Here's the Clinton Library Santa. I'm pretty obsessed with him. When I first laid eyes on him back in the summer, I just knew he was a santa. (He's also a volunteer.)


I'm also pretty fascinated with the Santa career, because you don't know you'll grow up to grow old and be a beautiful, spot-on Santa Claus. His wife manages his gigs, he has four suits and he can barely go out in public right now even in plain clothes, because he is so Santa. He has a rosy button nose all year long.

Me and one of my best-friend volunteers getting in on the Santa action!

I can't shut up about the xmas tree farm

Now that we live in the country (Arkansas) we're doing some down-home-y things. We thought it would be cute and novel to go to the Christmas Tree Farm and boy, was it terrific!

We drove to the outskirts of town (we had no idea where we were or where it is- you would have to GPS this for yourself) We drove past some of those yards with rusty cars on blocks in the front yard and arrived at this fabulous place - Motley's Christmas Tree Farm.

We went on a beautiful, sunny Sunday morning. They have gardens of different kinds of trees and trees in pots that you can re-plant. The awesome kick in the pants was the petting zoo! They have a jazzy little petting zoo.




We were overwhelmed with our choices and walked around for quite a while to choose the right one for ourselves. Then we decided on a bushy, tall, skinny, wild one and Matt sawed him down.





They had tractors with hay-ride-ready trailers attached to carry us and our tree to the entrance.


Matt looks so funny to me with his huge beard these days. I forget the beard is there and it's like he's in disguise and he's like Why are you laughing!?
I was also impressed with how fast he sawed down the tree with that little saw.


They put him in a tree shaker and wiped needles off of him with a toilet bowl brush :)


They wrapped it in ropes and loaded it into the back of Matt's truck. This tree was also less than $30 which we thought was an amazing deal compared to buying 3' tall trees in NYC for more than that.

We left before the pig races started, but I heard they wear sweaters sometimes.


Then we got home and remembered that it had to fit into the elevator.