Say Yes to the Bike

"You know Dad, shopping for a bike is a lot like shopping for a wedding dress."

"What!?" my Dad asked. He was not particularly thrilled with the comparison.

I will admit it. Like most women, I secretly enjoy watching “Say Yes to the Dress.” The ridiculous dresses, the ridiculous budgets, and, most importantly, the moment when a bride puts on “the perfect dress” and starts to cry; whether you cry along with her (in the case of cancer survivors or heroic military officers) or laugh hysterically that she has decided to drop $20,000 on what amounts to a white hooker outfit.

Dad has been talking about getting me a new road bike for a couple of years now, but it wasn't until my medical leave that we actually got around to picking one out. And yes, it is true: bicycle shopping is very similar to wedding dress shopping - at least to the extent that "Say Yes to the Dress" is a true representation of reality. You walk into a bike shop, chat with a sales associate about what you are looking for (entry level endurance road bike), he performs a bunch of arcane and somewhat awkward measurements on your body (including sticking a wooden dowel near your crotch to measure your inseam), makes somewhat interesting yet largely irrelevant remarks on the geometry of your body ("you have a long torso and broad shoulders for a girl") and then scampers off to find some bikes.

And then, you get to ride them. What could possibly be better than riding out the door of a bike shop on a shiny new road bike with no reason to ever come back - except the prospect of testing another? Trying on wedding dresses, you say? Certainly not!

Despite my not-so-secret enthusiasm for the "Say Yes to the Dress", I have always been skeptical of the climatic moment of the show. How could anyone be sure that, out of the thousands of wedding dresses out there, this particular dress was “the one”?

That is, until I met the perfect bike:

The Surly Pacer

Isn't this just the sexiest bike you have ever seen? The solid dark green frame. The drop handle bars. The CroMoyl steel frame. It's hipster without being too hipster, the nerdy dedication to speed of a road bike mixed with some city sleek. I love this bike! I love how the steel frame makes the ride feel smooth as gliding through the water on a canoe. I love how the position of the handlebars actually helps my shoulders relax.

And to drive the point home, here is a fun little shot the Surly taken with my new Holga 135:

Surly Pacer, Holga-fied

Artemis will still be my commuter/grocery bike, but I am thrilled to have a real road bike for weekend riding and fun trips. And, lame as it is, looking forward to getting out on my new bike has been one of the bright points of the difficult last few months.

That's right: I said Yes to the Bike, and it was awesome.

P.S. Still thinking of names! The current front-runner is Apollo, twin brother to Artemis. Any other ideas?

Addendum: For those interested (based on Madeline's comment below), it is a 50 cm frame and fits me *perfectly*. The stand-over height is just right and I feel no strain in my shoulders or back when I'm on it, despite the road bike geometry. The steel makes it a little heavy but incredibly comfortable and smooth - I feel just as stable on it as on Artemis. Perfect for long weekend rides on the crappy roads out in Boston, which is it's primary purpose!

My new slogan

Kara Jean . . .

                    . . . falling asleep with books on her head since 1987.

I know where all the lost socks go

See, I have this odd little habit of removing my socks while I sleep - especially those little ankle ones that go so well with converse and sneakers. I was first made aware of this a few years ago on a trip home to visit my parents: "You're only wearing one sock!" my mom said one morning while I stared at the gurgling coffee maker. "Is that some kind of fashion statement?"

"I have no idea" I replied.

I imagined myself at night, sitting bolt upright in the middle of a dream and, zombielike, ripping one sock off in a fit of panic and flinging it across the room.

The reality, I've found, is a little less interesting. It seems I am a bit of a nighttime thrasher, and the action of my feet rubbing against the sheets often pulls my little ankle socks right off.

Now what does my silly sock removal story have to do with the universal anomaly of disappearing socks?

Foreseeing some degree of sock hemorrhage, I packed every single sock I could find for my stay at home. However, once I arrived in Minneapolis, they started disappearing at an alarming rate. My 10 pair population of ankle socks dwindled to 8 pairs, then 5 pairs and two unmatched, then 3 pairs and 4 unmatched, until finally I found myself with one maroon sock, one black sock, one dark green sock, one light green sock, and one faded yellow sock. An uneven number of socks, all in clashing colors.

"You're wearing two different colored socks!" my mom said as I made lunch one afternoon, "is that some kind of fashion statement?"

It was not.

I went to Target and bought some new socks, all the while wondering why a mere two months at home was enough to ravage my dwindling sock population.

In a frenzy of cleaning following the Great Centipede Invastion of 2011 (oh yeah, it was bad) I found the answer. While vacuuming under the bed, I started to hear a strange noise coming from the nozzle. Pulling it out, what do I find but a maroon sock - the maroon sock I hadn't seen in over two months. Peering under the bed, there they all are, a little cornucopia of socks, all lined up on the floor between my bed frame and my bookshelf.

And here is the answer to the question of the lost socks, at least for me. It is not the dryer, or an sneaky sock elf.

It is an under-bed black hole.

After the socks fall off in my sleep, they migrate to the foot of the bed (a commutation also encouraged by my nighttime thrashing), and are caught in the pull of the under-bed black hole, sensitive only to the particular quantum signatures of unmatched socks. There they are sucked past the event horizon between the bookshelf and the bed frame, never to be seen again.

Until, of course, I vacuum. But we all know that only happens only once every eon or so.

Addendum: Mexican-style black beans and rice if you have a little more than a hotel microwave

In my previous post I gave a recipe for a black beans and rice dish that you can make using only a hotel microwave, made possible due to the glory of canned foods. But if you have a little more time and few more appliances, it's very easy (and even tastier, and much cheaper!) to make the black beans and rice yourself. Here is the recipe I use. Add your choice of fresh mozzarella, avocado, mango, or salsa, and you will have a meal fit for kings!

Ingredients:

• 1 can organic black beans
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1/2 sweet pepper (whichever color you like), chopped
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon chipotle pepper flakes (chili powder works too)
• 1/4 cup fresh cilantro
• salt (to taste)
• 1 cup brown rice

Instructions:
Cook the brown rice using whatever method you prefer (rice maker or stovetop), adding the amount of water indicated on the package. Saute the onions, garlic, and peppers over medium-low heat until soft/just beginning to brown. Add the black beans, cumin, pepper flakes, cilantro, and salt, and continue to cook, stirring frequently, for about 10-15 minutes. Serve the black beans over rice and add whatever extras you like. Yay!

How to make a tasty gluten-free meal using only a hotel microwave

Last weekend my dad and I drove an hour and a half down to Rochester, MN to visit the Celiac Center at the Mayo Clinic. Being my first "vacation" (if you can call it that) since starting a strict gluten-free diet in February, I was a little apprehensive about what I would eat. I still won't dare set foot in a restaurant, no matter how gluten-conscious it claims to be, and the thought of three straight days of peanut butter sandwiches on that dry crumbly gluten-free bread made me quite sad (and a little nauseated).

But with a little culinary creativity, I came up with a solution to this cooking conundrum:

Mexican-style black beans and rice with mozzarella and fresh tomatoes

Cooked in five minutes using only a hotel microwave and refrigerator (though you could easily make due without the refrigerator). This is also makes a good "OMG I just got home from work/school and I have to eat something NOW!" recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1 can Eden Organic Black Beans and Rice (Caribbean or Mexican style). A statement on their gluten status can be found here.Want to make your own black beans and rice? Here's my favorite recipe.
• Grated Mozzarella cheese* (if you don't have access to a fridge I bet string cheese could also work!).
• 1/2 Tomato, diced
• ~1/4 teaspoon Cumin
• Salt to taste

*If lactose intolerant, avocado would also make a nice addition to this recipe.

You will also want to bring a can opener, plates/knives/spoons, and of course your gluten-free toaster.

Ok, ok, a gluten-free toaster isn't really required for this recipe, but really, no Celiac patient should ever leave the house without one!

Instructions:
Empty about 1/2 to 2/3 of the rice and beans can onto a plate. Stir in the salt and cumin. Sprinkle on the mozzarella cheese and microwave for 2-3 minutes. Add tomatoes on top and enjoy!

BONUS: What to do with that gluten-free toaster you dragged all the way out here!

Open-faced tomato and cheese on toast

Ingredients:

• Gluten-free bread of your choice
• Good quality hard cheese (I used my most recent obsession, Gran Queso from Whole Foods)
• The other half of that tomato
• One clove of garlic (optional)
• Olive oil (optional)

Instructions:
Toast the bread. Cut the garlic clove in half and rub a small amount into the toast. Add a bit of olive oil to the bread and assemble. Yay!

Anderson Kitten, the Movie!

Remember my little underwear-stealing Corsican kitten, Anderson voleur Chausette? Well, he is now a star of YouTube! While recovering my camera files after a recent hard-drive crash, I discovered video upon silly video of this adorable little dude hanging out in my hotel room. And with the help of Windows Movie Maker, I have started editing some of the footage into short videos.

The first features Anderson hanging out in a bag (his favorite spot) while chasing his own tail (his favorite activity). Enjoy!

A very nerdy Christmas with Nelson's Little Helpers!

There are probably at least 10 people in my group who will kill me for this, but I just had to share this video with my nerdy non-MIT peeps.

Every year the highlight of the MIT Chemistry holiday party is karaoke, and every year the organizers of the party search high and low for musical performers to break the ice and get the party started. Well this year, the Nelson group stepped up to the plate! Starting in late October, group members Harold, Sharly, and Dylan started retreating to empty classrooms in the basement of MIT to write the music and lyrics to what would become the next holiday hit of the century. Sharly had the music and background vocals professionally recorded, and at the beginning of December the rest of the group started meeting once or twice a week to practice the lead vocals. Together we made a video to accompany the performance, which sadly you cannot see that well because of the bad quality of my camera (however, there has been talk of professionally recording our voices over the music and syncing it to the video, so give a shout-out if you think we should do it!)

My friend Elizabeth was kind enough to film the event for me and, after five months of the footage knocking around my hard-drive, I finally had the time to edit and post it! Sadly, the sound quality is atrocious, but I added lyrics so y'all can figure out what we're singing about.



P.S. I'm the one in the Santa hat.