Houstonian Times

I have been living in Houston for over a month, and my first thought when someone asks me how that is going is always, "We'll it's not as bad as I thought it would be." Ally and I went to the beach a couple weekends back and I found a new love for skim-boarding. Ally is thrilled that I found another hobby!! (NOT.)

At Galveston Beach

Good things about H-Town:

-I like my apartment! It is starting to feel like home and I really like the location.

- I like the people I work with. They are friendly and knowledgeable and very excited to have me around

-I like biking still! I was really worried that there would be no opportunity for me to ride in the hugest, scariest concrete jungle there is, but it has actually been okay. Yes, I get honked at from an irate driver about once a week, but as one of my cycling buddies said, "If they're honking at you, they can see you." My riding mostly consists of riding to and from work, which is about 1.5-2 hrs a day right now.

Flower box in our apartment

Bad things about H-tiz:

-The weather. It rains almost every day. And it is very unpredictable in a calculable sort of way. For instance, it rains every day, but only for maybe and hour or two. This invariably seems to always be when I am riding home from work. It reminds me of Alaska.

-Traffic. The off chance I am in my car, there is traffic around the galleria between 6:00am and 8:00pm. It's not the worst I've every seen (read: Austin) but it's still pretty bad.

I have been racing in the Memorial Park Crit, which happens every Wednesday over the summer. The first week I did it turned into a disaster when I crashed in a break, almost shattering my collarbone. I am now known as "that Texas rider that went down really hard in the break." Already a legend at the MP crit? Well, no not quite....

The Texas part is soon to change because I have found a new team!! Shama cycles. I have been looking for a fun, easy-going 3/4 team to race with until a time where I decide to move to 2's (~2 years). Philip Shama is a great guy with a really neat bike shop near my apartment that I can ride to. I can't wait to start racing with those guys. Here is the website, check it out!

This weekend, Ally and I will be traveling to Dallas to see the Parentals and do wedding stuff. I will be glad when I don't have to go to Dallas every other weekend to do wedding stuff! It gets old being away from home and not cycling every weekend.