Well, as most of you know I've finally finished my Ph.D. That was just over a week ago. Since defending on Feb. 1 It has been a bit of a whirlwind. Here is a short (or not) rundown of my last days in Champickle: Making changes to the dissertation on Thus. night, filling the Blind Pig with friends on Friday (thanks to all that came out), Surviving the ride home in the snow, renting my breakfast on Sat. morning and barely feeling good enough to go out with my research group and advisor for lunch. Packing most of my shit and leaving town by 6:30 on Sat. night. I arrived in Baltimore on Sunday afternoon and moved in to my new place. Pretty hectic.
I started my post-doc at Johns Hopkins on Monday at 9:00AM. This my friends is probably one of the dumbest things I've ever done. Fortunately my boss and research group are super cool and have eased my moving to baltimore a great deal.
My new housemate is very cool too. She is an architect and a bustling socialite. I went out for happy hour with her and some friends last night and it was a blast. I rode down to the bar from work which is ~5 miles one way. Being new to town I went thru some pretty rundown areas, and have since adjusted my route. I'll be sure to give some updates on life in baltimore in the coming days.
Today was a great day on the bike. I met up with Paul, Ken, and Susanna a little south of my house and we rode about an hour north to meet the team group ride which leaves from the sponsoring shop, Race Pace Bicycles. Then it was a 2 hour ride with a sizable group throgh northern Baltimore county. The terrain out here is fantastic. Lots of rollers, and good road surfaces. I ended up with 4:15 of saddle time today, not too shabby.
The people on the ride were really nice too. There was one guy (Mike) who has even looked at my blog to get an idea of who I am after I posted to the team listserv. Perhaps the comment of the day, which was said on two separate occasions, was , "They ride bikes out there???". this was in response to me telling them that I had just arrived from IL. Pretty amusing to me.
Allright, I think I'm off to eat some dinner before I pass out. Thanks again to all those I left behind in C-U. I'm missing you already, and i fear it will get worse after the "newness" of Baltimore wears off. Also big thanks to the LSV/KBS team who made me feel as comfortable in the group as I did back in IL.
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Posts
2 comments:
Glad to hear you're having a good time up in Baltimore! I'm jealous as hell that you've already found a group to ride with. Madison is full of cyclists but I still haven't found any big group rides.
Champaign is going to miss you as much(if not more) than you'll miss it. I don't think i would have ever raced if it wasn't for you. I know that goes for a lot more people down there in Chambana as well.
Ditto Craig on the not racing bit.
As for the bit on folks riding bikes out here, ouch!
Post a Comment