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As the month ends, here' s where I'm at:
-Knitting photos posted: 0/1
-Apartment renovation photos posted: 0/2
-Pilates mat instructor training classes completed: 5/6
-Pilates practice teaching hours completed: 0/30
-Annual reviews written for my direct reports: 2/6
-Road tests passed: 1/1 (as of 9:05 this morning)
It was looking a bit dire there, but that last one really made my day.
So much for my promise of knitting content...
It occurred to me that part of my problem with blogging is this ideal I have about this being a Knitting! Blog! Much as I love knitting, it probably only gets less than 10% of my waking time. But what does it say up there on that banner? Ah yes, "other things that occupy my time". Let's see what happens if I blog a bit more about those other things. Maybe I'll blog more! Maybe I'll bore people! Who knows??
I've lived in NYC for nearly 13 years. This is my excuse for not having a driver's license, though I am *finally* about to schedule a road test. Over the years, I have done a lot of walking, waited for a lot of trains and buses, and skated, skateboarded, and biked all over the place. When I was packing up Brooklyn, I found my old skates. I got together with my old skating buddy Roger, and hit Central park a few times. Despite nearly 5 years off the skates, I seem to have remembered most of what to do. On the last Friday of December, Roger convinced me to skate Critical Mass with him.
Although I hear that Critical Mass used to be a lot of fun, it is now apparently a cat and mouse game with the police. There were times when there were easily 4 dozen cops on scooters following us, while others were trying to get in front of us and box us in, as well as cops on foot blocking the streets. They were grabbing and ticketing people for allegedly running red lights, or not having bells on their bikes, or whatever they could come up with. Of course, on skates it's much easier to avoid getting grabbed. Still, it was pretty intense. I'm not typically one to have an adversarial relationship with the police, and trying to outstrategize and outmaneuver them for a few hours was a serious adrenaline rush. I was told that the police were reasonably calm this month, perhaps because of this article in the New York Times. Despite what the article says, all the cyclists I saw were obsessive about following all traffic rules.
I was just so horrified by the waste of resources on trying to prevent people from riding their bikes. Wasn't there something more important for the police to be doing that night?
On New Year's Eve, I joined up with the Time's Up ride from Washington Square Park to Central Park to watch the fireworks from Belvedere Castle. This was a totally different experience, the police didn't mind us taking over the streets, and everyone we passed cheered for us as if we were a parade. The fireworks were fun too. I didn't remember my camera, but this gives you some idea.
So here's hoping I can keep getting out and about on skates, or my bike (once I get the flat tire fixed) in 2007...
