Pedaling forward...

Ah, it's that time of the year. Journey's "Don't Stop Believing" playing in every bar, an expensive heavy ball slowly dropping in ten seconds, an enormous amount of alcohol consumption...

New Year's Eve plans are often one of the following:
(a) Out with friends at a bar or night club
(b) Host a party at your place with friends and/or family members
(c) Go to a friend's place
(d) Stay at home and watch the NYC ball drop
(e) Stay at home and miss the ball drop
(f) Stand in the cold somewhere to watch some fireworks or some amazing thing happen above you

My initial plans for NYE was a bit of (a) and (f), but a series of events left a lemon taste in my mouth.  I was out-of-town for two weeks in December and intended to come back to Baltimore to ring in the new year.  I figured, I've done too many celebrations in L.A.; it was time to try a new city, a new adventure.

When I landed and got home, I decided to check on my car, but found it unable to start.  My car had been unused for over two weeks now and the temps have been cold.  I made plans with my building complex to have the car started every once in a while to make sure it works.  Well that didn't happened as you can tell.  After getting it jumped by AAA, my car developed a few weird problems.  I won't even say what it was, but weird is a description that's barely scratching the surface.  I'm, of course, upset because I really needed my car soon to get food.  Things got worse when I got a couple of bad news back-to-back.  In about 3 hours, I felt like I was about to burst, literally.  After bringing my car to fix some of the problems, I decided that it was just best that I didn't go out to some place and knock back drinks.  I have drank a bit too much when I was depressed, and it was a horrible experience.

I wanted to experience the start of the New Year in a unique way.  Not do (a) through (f).  So after much thought, I decided to ring in the new year on my bike, at home, on an indoor trainer.  I popped in a Mad Men DVD and pedaled away for an hour and a half to two full episodes.  The work-out was tough, but I felt much better when I was done.  It was always my way to de-stress.  I didn't even bother to switch over to watch the NYC ball drop.  Just didn't see a point of doing the same thing as hundreds of millions of people.  The experience was unorthodox, but had a personal spin for the new year.  I felt happier with the problems, and it has been over two weeks since I've been on my bike.  It was time to crank it out!

Serendipity?

As you all know, I'm very reflective of events. Particularly, occurrences that seem rare. I'm always too analytical and just can't help it.

I forget the exact date, but sometime during the second week of September, I went into a nearby cafe to grab some tea and get some work done in the evening. This was my big proposal that I'm leading and hope to hear good news on in December.

The cafe was crowded and all the front tables, where people could sit to focus, were taken. This girl sitting at a table for four noticed the predicament and offered to share the table. So far, the Baltimorians are friendly. There were some exchanges of words and I was able to easily relate to her. She was finishing her dissertation in hopes to defend and get her Ph.D in about a month. I still remember that day that I defended. We both enjoyed our conversation on/off over the next two hours.

She gets up, and said good bye. Knowing she would be busy, I gave her my number and left it for her to call me after she is done with insanity overload (literally) to grab coffee. She admits that she wouldn't be able to call for another month.

This past Friday, I moved into my apartment. I was unpacking my boxes and moving things around on Saturday. It's in the evening after dinner, and I wanted to finish some stuff. I noticed that one of my neighbors is in. I figured, when I'm done for the night, I'll say Hi. The evening progresses and my neighbor's guests are leaving, so I said, "You must be my neighbor."

She said Hi, and thought that I looked familiar. She did, but memories were a bit blur. I was puzzled at first, but after telling her a bit about me, it immediately clicked for her. She was the "friendly coffee girl" who lives directly across from me. I didn't immediately recognize her because she wore a hooded sweatshirt that covered her hair. We chuckled and laugh and caught up on how things are for both of us.

OK, let's talk statistics. There is probably like 20 tall buildings around campus. So the chance of living in the same building is ~5%. Now for this building that I lived in, there are 13 floors with apartments. Each floor has more than 10 units. So roughly speaking, the chance of me meeting someone outside of this building and having her be my next door neighbor is like 0.04%!!! She said she isn't surprised because one of her colleagues in the department lived down the hall, but that is more likely by a factor of 10.

Coincident, maybe. But I say we were suppose to meet.

It's good to know that within a day and a half, I have a great neighbor. Sadly, she is leaving in December.

One-Way

As I write this entry, I'm already on the east coast, and thinking about all that have occurred in the past few months. I realized that my airline ticket to Baltimore is my first one-way ticket.

Sure, I've travelled one-way before, but never on a plane. It has always been via bus or car. Call me economically savvy.

One time, my family and I all hopped into a van and brought my stuff (which wasn't much) from Arizona to L.A., as I finished college.

One-way always signifies the end of one journey and the start of another.

There's no doubt that Baltimore is a different place to live. I think the humidity was manageable to start. Although any hotter and I would be screaming. The weather has gotten much better over these past two days. Almost Fall-like! Maybe I brought the great L.A. weather here. :)

I've seen plenty of cyclists and runners, so that is certainly a good thing. I was worried that exercise would be low in humid conditions, but nevertheless, they just seem to endure it. Speaking of which, I did manage to fit a short run in during the afternoon. It was a must given the great weather today. I felt so inactive with my bike gone for almost a week now and the lack of running because of long days at work before I left.

The run was overall good considering how long I've gone without running. Legs felt so refresh. It's been the longest distance that I've ran in the past two years on asphalt without having something that bothered my shin or my achilles.

People here seem more friendly than L.A. They also dress differently. I found out the other day that bars are closed on Sundays. Talk about being Puritanic, but it's probably best to just drink six days a week...

An astrophysicist walks into a bar...

Have you ever analyzed a situation and then thought, "I just had to be at
the right place at the right time!" Those instances happen far to few,
but such unusual moments are what some may say are worth living and
certainly bloggable.

It was a nice Saturday night in June of this year. Yes, this is months
overdue, but better to blog now then never.

I was venturing into Pasadena for a little high school reunion.
Ten years do fly quickly. The evening was great; we had dinner together
and caught up on all the good times back in the 90's and the new adventures
and what many had endured.

Everyone congratulated me with getting my doctoral degree. After awhile,
it did get a bit annoying. After all, I would never raise my hand when
a stewardless asked, "Is there a doctor in the house?!?!"

After the reunion many of us just stucked around to grab drinks and share
some good laughs. I was dancing, and chatting, and wandering as my usual
self, checking out the scene. I looked to my left and to my surprise, I
encountered a fellow astronomer. A colleague if I must say. This is too
surprising.

Yes, there are astronomers in Pasadena. It's probably the second city
with the largest number of astronomers. But then again, this is my first
time in a Pasadena bar and what's the odds of me of running into another
astronomer when I'm not working? Maybe I should have gone to a liquor
store and just bought a lottery ticket.

Either way, such moments are certainly a reminder that life is always
unexpected.

C R A S H

Screeching tires are all that is needed to get your whole residential block together.

I was just chilling in a jacuzzi letting some of my muscles recover. As I get out and head back into my apartment, I hear the loudest car screech in my life. It was very close; that is for certain.

I rush indoors to change and went outside.  Police cars, ambulances, and fire trucks were at the scene.

It wasn't a pretty sight.  It appeared that the suspect driving a BMW was heading northbound and basically grazed a bunch of parked cars on his right. He then swerve left.  Another car coming from the opposite direction swerved left to avoid him and crashed into another car on the eastbound side of the street.

The guy tried to flee.  I don't think anyone died, but there were certainly injuries.

Events like these make you re-think about your life.  I hope I have a safe bike ride tomorrow (knock on wood).

Prologue

There is always much anticipation for any new start.  Whether it be writing a blog or participating in le Tour de France....

OK, I haven't personally experience the latter, but I'm sure many of the cyclists in the peloton are anxious on Stage 0.

My life is taking a turn for the good.  After getting my Ph.D two months ago, I'm getting ready for my big move to Baltimore for my career.  It's certainly a wonderful opportunity to start all over and grow.  I had this chance about ten years ago when I left Los Angeles for college in Arizona.  I didn't fully seize that opportunity and realized it a bit too late.

My blog will hopefully share many things.  The adventures that I have, the bike rides that I take, the food that I eat, the things that I learned, and maybe the women that I date. Hence the title of my blog, "EAT. EXERCISE. LIVE."

Sadly, I should have began blogging two months ago, so I'll post a few that will highlight the crazy things that happened.