Helmet hair

Is a bike helmet really that bad? Or do I just really not care about my hair enough?

Photo 1: Helmet is "on," but inactive

Photo 2: Helmet is active

That said, I'm sure that this sort of technology might be really useful for other body parts or sports.

Airbag Helmet from Treehugger

you're going to want to click on that picture to embiggen it.

Stolen from SFist.com/

who stole it from

sfcurbed.com/

who stole it from 

generic1.tumblr.com/

And for something a little lighter to follow that up, things are still really awesome with the guy I told you about last week. :)

PANCAN.org

Pancreatic cancer remains the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the U.S. The five-year survival rate stands at a miniscule 6%. Even more distressing is that this survival rate has not changed significantly in nearly 40 years. 


I know there are a million causes that need money. Heck, I'm sure we all know at least five friends or family members who are unemployed or underemployed. But, I do try to donate to charities anyway. Pancreatic cancer is an issue that is close to my heart. This year will mark 20 years after my dad died from pancreatic cancer. 


For more information, check out this link on the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network's site. 

You may need this gif sometime. It was in a newsletter for a ride I'm doing this weekend and I thought it was worth sharing.

Not sorry it's not funny

It feels strange to blog about a dating situation that's not part of a stand-up comedy routine. Still, even if it only lasts for two days, it's about time - for you, my lovely reader, and me, to enjoy a very sweet dating story. Hopefully this does not jinx it.




Background:
A friend wants to set me up with her housemate. She originally only told him about me, but since I was hardly ever able to make events at her place, she finally broke down and told me that she wants to get us together. 


Saturday:
AM - Email on OkCupid. It's my friend's housemate! He stumbled upon my profile and had to write. He would be in SF on Sat and Sun - maybe we could meet up for coffee on Sunday morning? I sent back my # and said that I might be at the same concert as him on Saturday and yes, we should meet up.


PM - My day did not go as planned, thanks to some rain and intense fog. I didn't make it to the concert, so no meet-up, but eventually we talked. Planned for Sunday morning - 10am, he'd meet me at my house and we'd ride over to a coffee shop out by the ocean. Five miles seemed like a long bike ride for a cup of coffee, but he insisted that it was a good place and besides - aren't I a triathlete? Um. Yes. Right, I am. And I do like riding my bike around town, honestly though, I was a little intimidated - he's into biking and climbing and pretty much everything outdoorsy and from the couple of pictures I saw, he's obviously super fit and I didn't want to be huffing and puffing along side him, at least, not in the first two minutes that we meet. Whatever…I like good coffee and I like when men come forward with a plan.


Sunday:
He picked me up and it was a fun, chill ride out to the ocean. We ended up getting coffee and then breakfast, just a couple doors down from the coffee shop. Conversation was easy. He's super cute. Nice pale blue eyes. In between coffee and breakfast, I got a message that my friend wouldn't be coming to the concert in the park. Bummer! Blue eyes said he'd join me for the group I wanted to see at 1pm and then I was welcome to join him and his friends at another stage. We ended up spending the whole day together! His friends were very kind about adopting me, music was great. He was super prepared and brought snacks and extra clothes for people that may have forgotten about the incoming fog around 6pm. I couldn't say no when he offered to give my bike and me a ride back home. :) A few kisses may have been exchanged. Ooh la la! The kind of crappy part about two busy people trying to go out… we discovered that the only day this week we're both free is Monday. 


So… he's picking me up tonight at 7pm with a plan. We shall see.


Side note - if you didn't go to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass this year, you should definitely try to go next year. There are so many great acts and you pretty much can't go wrong at any of the stages. 

Five things on this fine Tuesday

1. Someone please bake the pie featured in this post -
Scenes from a Pie Contest

2. That Pie Contest? In my effing neighborhood. My hood is awesome. We even had a movie night at Duboce Park on Saturday. Take that, Mission hipsters!

3. I love our San Francisco summer. Please let it last through the weekend. It is glorious. Evidence - post work bike ride, where I snapped this shot with my iPhone:

4. Texts of the day...
Me: You'll be happy to know that I finally upgraded to 1500 texts a month. Also, why the huge jump in options - 200 to 1500? Am I suddenly going to be texting every hour?
G$: Yes.
G$: Welcome to 2005!

H: No way! He's actually a virgin?!? Was that actually confirmed? Wow.
Me: There's no way you could be that clueless about just kissing if you weren't a virgin. Unless he only slept with hookers who wouldn't kiss on the mouth.

5. I finally downloaded an album by Girl Talk. Mashups. Good stuff. Go get it.

Ongoing saga of my dating life...featuring a situation I never thought I'd encounter in my 30s. Also, this post is way too long.

Original nickname: 

"The Geek"

Smart, easy to talk to, funny. And also definitely a geek. 

The situation:

First date - not attracted to him, but had fun. Continued to enjoy his company over dates 2-5, but there was minimal touching, flirting. This is mostly ok - online dating means you're getting to know this person that you met out of nowhere, so it can take time to build a report and trust, etc. Still, the lack of any sort of non-friend interaction isn't really that normal - and I feel like I've given him plenty of opportunities to give it a shot. So, date #5 ended with a friend-esque kiss on the lips, then me trying to kiss him again and it was this sort of mostly closed-mouth nothing. He said, "That was nice." I hopped on my bicycle and sped the hell out of there, confused as hell.

(And, I also mention kissing - as in "you should be a great kisser" - in my profile.)

Still, having fun. And I would like to date someone who's really into me.

Decided to go out again - kind of one last shot. By now, I've already formed this picture in my mind of how he's not just very shy, but also really inexperienced and have changed his nickname to "The 35 Year Old Virgin." But, I am optimistic that he just needs to feel more comfortable and if nothing else, either I'll make a move, or just bring it up and talk about how this is moving towards a friendship.

It's a beautiful, unusually warm summery day in the city. We meet up Sunday. Tentative plans to go to a free concert in the park. Last minute, I say that we should bike out to the beach if the concert's not great. 

He shows up and the first thing - his bike helmet is too small or not on straight or something. His white athletic socks are sticking up strangely from his bike shoes and...anyway, his geekness is showing Big Time. I have, on the other hand, decided to wear my shortest sundress and bikini. I think the picture text I sent to G$ said something like "Hi. These are my legs. Will you kiss me, already?" The concert has a long, long line and doesn't look very appealing, so we head out to the beach.

Long walk, talking, laying on a blanket that I brought. Played a little paddle ball (That I also brought - and we both sucked at.).

Walk back towards our bikes. I'm searching for the right way to go, which means I'm being quiet. Then, towards the end of our walk, I finally Bring Shit Up. Express my thoughts about how this feels like it is entering The Friend Zone, but could still go either way for me. He understands. He likes me. And he's not really experienced with dating. Hm. 

Ooookay, it's still a really nice evening and I'm still on the fence. Let's go to dinner. We roll over to BStar, the relatively new cafe associated with Burma Superstar. Dinner is awesome. Then on to Q for dessert - hot chocolate chip cookies w/milk. I am pretty much the best seat-of-the-pants date planner of all time. 

It's just too bad that he doesn't know what he's working with. Le sigh.

Ride back, I go to where we're going to split up, ask him to pull his bike over, take off his helmet. I go in for a kiss.

And it is awkward. So much so that I say, "Wow. That was awkward." He agrees and then says that he's not really experienced. 

Let's review. I tried to kiss him and it did not work and it's because he's inexperienced?!? As the conversation progresses a little and I sort of press him for a little more on this and he doesn't provide much information, it becomes clear to me that I was not that far off on nickname #2. As in, my error was that he's actually 34 years old.

He's like, yeah, I get it if that's not going to work out for you. I'm pretty much clueless. Oh, and by the way, I go to church too. That's a deal-breaker for some people. But, this is who I am and I've got a lot of other great stuff going on, just don't have experience with girls.

Now I feel like a huuuuge bitch. And this shouldn't be an issue. And I don't really feel like I'm being fair. I mean, I have fun with this guy... but... yeah, it's an Issue.

The outcome:

So I didn't drop him, but I did let him know this unexpected and a lot to figure out. We talked about seeing each other again. 

But the more I think about it... I think that we're in really different places - physical stuff aside, he's just getting started with dating and I've lived with a partner. I've been dating fairly steadily since I was 16. That's 16 years of experience to his... um, not much at all. Not a very even starting line. 

And then you add the physical stuff. 

Well, I feel kind of like a horrible person. Kind of like I need to specify that I would like to date a man and not a boy. Overall...once again, it turns into a story.

Five minute rule?

The scene: An outdoor, backyard birthday party. There's day drinking, flippy cup, cheap beer, catered snacks and good wine. Mid 20s-mid 30s crowd. There are plenty of couples, but also some single folks hanging out. Also, a lot of smokers (yuck).


I eventually find myself talking music with two cuties. Great. One was controlling the music via a sweet iPhone app that connected to his computer's iTunes up in his apartment, one was one of the few people who did not need to take a smoke break during flippy cup (and also was sporting a cute cowboy hat). Flirting ensues and I'm a happy girl. Music boy agrees to download a Janelle Monae song (you should listen and download too - I recommend the entire album, actually) that I found earlier that day and patted our collective backs for bringing the party up and dancing.


Anyway, I found out through the hostess that Music boy (who lives in the same building as the hostess) has a girlfriend - and he eventually went back to his place. Cowboy hat, though, she said was single. Sweet.


We eventually all went back inside and there was a joint that was about to get passed around. I grabbed Cowboy hat's arm and took him to the hallway so I could "talk" to him before he had his puff. Turns out he's "got a thing with his roommate." Awesome. I pretty much wanted to run and hide. (turns out that there was either an identity mix-up with the hostess and this is a relatively new "thing") 


I stuck around for a bit and walked everyone over to a bar, then hopped on my bike and rode home. Waking up at 5:30 is a good excuse to leave a party by 10pm and I needed to sober up a little in preparation for a two mile swim race the next morning.


Couple of days later, I'm proud of myself for (with a nice buzz-induced sense of confidence) at least trying... but really, we need some sort of tagging system for this stuff. I mean, I would have kept chatting with both of them, I just wouldn't have tried to make out with either of them.


Or, as this woman suggests, a Five Minute Rule.

since craigslist is in trouble for various services, i thought i'd try the drive thru...

apparently, today's the day for unintentional/intentional somewhat-dirty-but-not-really-at-all one liners.

swiped from a friend of a friend's facebook wall, we bring you...