This morning's soundtrack: Townes Van Zandt, Loudon Wainwright the third

today's breakfast:
Cereal with oat milk-its some high fiber cereal chock full of grains, fruits and nuts. I forgot what kind it is, but its pretty good, and it had better be for 6 bucks a box. its label reads" tasty honest and real" -just like me. ho hum.
Swung by Random Order to get a double Americano, which they make well but damn it, if they aren't the slowest baristas in town I don't know who is. There was a cute baby hanging out with her folks and an old man sitting in the corner seat under a bunch of decorations(they seem valentine-y, I guess Random Order has their seasons a bit mixed up), I took a picture of him-we'll see if it turns out ok. It was really misty this morning, and low lighting in the cafe os who knows. I think I need a new battery for my light meter anyhow.

9/30 Yesterday:
dinner-can of Amy's lentil soup, grapes, a Lara bar

pre dinner-3 Imperial pints of Hop Lava IPA-pretty smooth

lunch-pad thai with tofu from Thai Peacock, dined with my pal Brittney, she paid for me as a late birthday present(thanks Brittney!)We both ordered mild but what we got was no spice whatsoever, which was a little dissapointing but as my digestive system has a been a bit crazy recently its probably for the best

noon time drink: apple cider from the Javaman on 6th Ave. yummers.

breakfast-same ceral as today, followed by a jalapeno cheddar bagel with butter at Tiny's and a double Americano. Chatted it up with Sophie before rushing off to my first day of classes for Fall term. Overdid it a little bit with my rush to get to class on time and spent a few mintues in the bathroom vomiting a little bit. Ahhh, lovely. Lesson learned: don't gulp down the rest of your coffee and then race off. It doesn't sit well.

9/29 Monday:
breakfast-same cereal situation

post breakfast-double Americano from Sweetpea(they need to pull their shots a little better)
and my favortie bagel-they actually once again didn't have them there when I arrived(!) but then as one of the gals was making my drink they arrived, so I grudgingly got one. I almsot didn't, on principle, but decided that was dumb cos I wanted one.

water-it was freaking hot! Apparently Portland decided to re-elect summer.

I didn't really eat lunch, the bagel was at around 10:30,and around 2 I had osme grapes and soem veggies dipped in hummus.

dinner-potato pancakes with apple-bourbon chutney and scallion sour cream. From East Burn on 18th and E.Burnside. Not a very clever name, but it was good. Also had 2 pints of Ninkasi Double Red. And it all only cost $11.50. Pretty good deals! I'd never been there before, nor had my friend Rob, who I met up with to discuss school, life and the such. He just had some Pabsts, but we both agreed we shoudl go back. They have all sorts of things going for them-on Monday they have happy hour drink prices all day. On Tuesday they have $2.00 pints(!!!), on Wednesday they have soem whiskey special-I forgot what it is exactly, maybe 2 dolla whiskeys? ,Thursday they have music, I dunno about Friday and Saturday but Sunday nights they have movies. Good grief. This bar has it all. Check it out. Its also right up the street from the east side location of Fire on the Mountain, so you could go grab some hot wings, then come cool your mouth off with a nice cool local beer.They feature 16 Northwest brews on draft. Niiiiice. I noticed that I missed some good movies on Sunday(Dead Man & Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), but their movie choice gives me faith tha I could show up some other Sunday and be happy. Cyclocross by day beer swilling movie wtacher by night. Thats gonna be my Sunday line up for the next couple months. As Ben and the polo-ites would say: Count it.

9/28 Sunday:
sad attempt at breakfast: stale crackers, glass of lemon lime gatorade, water, a mealy apple
lunch: around 3 i was finally able to consume real food-ginger ale and a salad roll from the co-op
post polo: the other salad roll, another ginger ale, water
a Lara bar

9/27 Saturday: ohhhh no. I started off fine, but by 3 am I was puking my guts up in Rickreall. I think it may have been too many tamales. Breakfast was bacon and eggs and a cuppa joe. Later I had a banana, a bagel with butter and a double Americano on the drive down to the race with Katie and Drew.(Thanks for driving Katie! We love you!) Once we hit salem we stopped in at Roth's to stock up on groceries and to my delight I noted that Jubelale was already out. I was pleasantly surprised and grabbed a case. When we arrived at the R.Kelley farm I cracked one open, and then another before my race, which coupled with me not being in spandex yet caused several of my teammates to enquire "You aren't racing?"To which I explained the finer details of my race strategy. Don't pre-ride. Don't warm up. Have a beer or two. Get your kit on as late as possible. Run to the start with little time to go. Now, of course these aren't good things to do if you are actually serious about yer race, but if your aim is to just have fun, trust me, it works!
I had one of the tamales before my race and afterwards I had several more over a few hours. I only had a few more beers the rest of the night(as I was sharing the Jubelale it went fairly quickly and I only stowed a couple away along with a 22 of Alaskan Smoked Porter, which I appreciated later that night). I has some pasta leftovers and some gruyere and as the night wore on I had a bottle of Gatorade-in orange. As the crew sat around the deck there was a bottle of tequila passed around that I took 3 modest sips from.
at 3 in the morning the fun with puking began. Now, some peopel may be inclined to think perhaps it was the tequila, but really I think it was the tamales...I must've had about 6 of those things. And they'd just been sitting around in a cooler all day.Just the veggie ones probably would've been fine but I had the veggie and the chicken ones...added to the odd mix of everything else I ate it seems the most likely culprit.

9/26 Friday night-I made dinner with Nick, attempted to recreate my good salad from earlier in the week but it didn't work out as well, I forgot to get the avacado, and I felt a little pressured. We made up some rotini from Pastaworks and used their Puttanesca sauce which Nick added a bit to because there wasn't really enough sauce. I picked up a Delerium Tremens for each of us, as Nick had been talking them up the other day. I know they are good but I prefer Chimay or Westmalle as my Belgian regulars. I also grabbed a couple 22s from the co-op but I forgot what they are now.
It wasn't the greatest meal, and it wasn't the greatest night. I got home sometime near 3, beat down by the world a bit, and not too stoked about getting up in 4 hours to get ready for the race.

But in the end, nothing really matters anyhow, so you do what you gotta do, and try to enjoy life whiel you're at it. Eat more good food.