Working Class Hero

Wow, after I updated like a rockstar for a week my updating got weak. Busy week, clif notes: Tuesday night I had softball, we won 21-3 and I went 4 for 4 and perfect defense. Maybe my transition to being an old man is complete! I even rocked an inside the park home-run, which is odd since I am not known for my speed. Whack! Wednesday was a pretty basic day. Worked. Had volleyball at night and we went 2 out of 3, which is much better than I thought we could even do. Not bad at all! Before volleyball we went to JT Whitneys with the Longs...man I've missed that place! Thursday I rode the Gun Show. Got dropped, caught back up at the stop, broke away, got caught, got dropped, caught back up at the stop, rode hard with a 30mph tailwind and hung on until about 1/4 mile to go, got dropped. Ouch! That night we were supposed to have kickball, but it was rained out. Jess and I dominated the mall and some REI. Laid back. Friday we went to brat fest for work. It was a fun ride on the fixie. We also got out of work early which was welcome on a Friday afternoon. Of course as awesome as a couple free hours would be, I ended up riding bikes instead with Jerry...but it was the perfect riding weather and we even ran into Kelson and Jen. Bonus. Took in Shrek 3 (creative and went fast) and some Qdoba. And that brings us to the weekend, where I can give a full update!

Saturday I got up early to play some basketball. We then got ready to head to Chicago for a quick overnighter and Bike the Drive. We were on our way down and Dean and Beth called, saying if we went to Dave and Busters at 1pm they could meet us! Sweet! We killed the extra hour at the Mall. The Woodfield Mall is crazy and trendy and stuff, I tried to fit in but I really didn't. Dave and Busters was awesome as usual. We racked up almost 700 more tickets in our quest for some stupid prize. We found a few games that put out some serious tickets. Hopefully we can go back soon. Oh yeah, we ran into my cousin's ex-GF there, she's from MPLS and we are from Madison, so what better place to see someone than Addison, IL. After that we headed to Ikea in the pouring rain. Our bedroom is now fully set to recieve some blinds. No more towels tacked over the window opening! While at Ikea, Kyle and Tracy called, their flight to Hawaii was cancelled and they were stuck at some hotel at O'Hare. Our attempts to meet up didn't happen as when we finally talked they were just tired and didn't want to do much and we knew of nothing to do near O'Hare. We got into downtown and the rain switched to a drizzle. Not too bad. We walked a whole bunch but when it came time for supper, neither of us were too hungry so we ate bananas at Trader Joes. Saturday morning was going to be rough, the alarm was set for 4:45am and we needed to be registered and riding by 5:30am. Oh yeah, we went to bed with a forecast of 80% chance of rain, with scattered nasty thunderstorms. Oh yeah, and I forgot any leg coverings, ready for nice weather. We got up and it didn't appear to be raining. We got registered on time (some how) and lined up to head north first. We headed north and I chased down the leader so I could lead! :) I half-wheeled some TT guy before stopping to take some photos. It's about this time I noticed my left ass-cheek hurt. Huh. We got to the north turnaround and the rain wasn't too bad. I look at my seat and my seat was broken, the shell cracked so my left side had no support. What the hell is my problem, I break stuff all the time! But I endured the pain for the rest of the ride. Heading back south was nice, the wind wasn't bad and the rain let up. This event was super fun and the more we rode, the more people that were around. We got back to the start to head south. South was a little dissapointing. The rain picked back up and it was boring after we went by the new Soldier Field. We turned around at the Museum and headed back north. The rain was pretty decent but we made it back. Just over 30 miles on the Lake Shore Drive and I had one sore ass! We went back to the hotel and showered and got to the Schwinn tent around 8:30 am. We talked to alot of people and had a nice time. Oh yeah, the weather turned nice right around 8:30. We even saw some blue sky and the Sears Tower. It was a really fun event and I am very glad we went! We headed back on some random route that worked well. We tried to stop at Long John Silvers as we saw a sign. Unfortuately the sign was all that was left, so it was rubble so I settled for some White Castle. We got back and crashed hard. We watched the Brewers and the Indy 500 (both were dissapointing) before meeting the Family-Smulka for supper. I was zoned out most of the night but it was fun. Now it's Monday morning and I am going out to Blue Mound, where inevitably, I'll break more bike parts! Then the Jerry going away party, which will be fun, but it will also suck as I'll be back down to knowing zero neighbors...