After a brief hiatus I'm back to update!

Last Friday I attempted to do the 70ish mile ride from Rogers Park to the Wisconsin border. It was the first time that I'd been on a bike in a really long time, and needless to say I was feeling very ambitious. I woke up early, had a bowl of cereal and was on the bike. My route was to follow the twisting and weaving paths of Sheridan all the way north. It's a beautiful route on the Lake Michigan Circle Tour. For the most part of the way north it was a fairly smooth ride. Then, just after Highland Park in a small town called Lake Forest, I blew a flat and it all went to hell in a handbasket. I ended up walking about 4 miles back from Lake Forest (who doesn't have a bike shop or a walmart) and then wandered around Highland Park till I found a shop. I replaced the tire, and was inflating it and it exploded. The tire was defective and popped like a gunshot when I put air in it. The second tire was fine, and then I hauled it the whole way home. Defeated but tan.

Then just two days ago I decided to go for another ride. This time down the Lake Front bike trail in Chicago. All went fairly well, until about 8 miles into the 40 mile ride (a little more manageable), I blew another flat and was forced to wander around until I found another shop (that took 2 hours). Then I did the rest of the ride. It was very excellent. I plan on using that trail as much as I can to commute to class every day. Good for the heart. There's this great church I found on the south side that looks like some monastary out on the edge of the lake. I didn't get a picture, but when I go back on Friday I'll make sure to snag one.

I went and saw Day Watch. A Russian film based off the book of the same name. It's the second in a large horror series called the Night Watch. Seeing the second in a series is thoroughly confusing. Russian films are even more so. There was a preview for a documentary called The Gypsy Caravan. I'm really excited for this film because I've been really into a lot of gyspy and gypsy sounding music lately.

Today I spent the day up in Evanston with Tricia Bobeda. She was editor of the school paper, The Longboat, while I was a senior. She's now going to school at Northwestern for (you guessed it) Journalism. We wandered around an art fair, and saw a show by many of the students at Northwestern. It makes me miss live shows and musical theater, and wish that I'd remember to get to one more often.

I think I figured out the way to tell Arthur's story. I've been struggling with the method. It's a good story, I just don't know quite where to start. It came to me while listening to Styx on the train home from Evanston. Just to keep it slim, I'm thinking it's going to be in a conversation between him and his sister. It piggybacks off methods used in Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian (which is a book I'm currently listening to now) and the TV show "How I Met Your Mother.

I need to go start laundry so I have something to wear tomorrow...