I just wanted to update

So I now know new news.  Ok that sentence really is lacking in the sense department, like I am lacking in the sleep department, but on a more serious note:  I have two more donations!  

Thanks to Nick M, and Jim C.  Every time I sign on to my account I continue to be amazed at everyone's generosity.  

Other than that I really don't have all that much to report.  No exercising adventures, or new fundraising excursions.  I just felt like updating before I took my Ed Psych online quiz.  Oh and I lost one and won one at bridge, but won the tie breaking Euchre game.  Now I must really get back to me work.  I just got my midterms back, and although they are not bad, they are really not quite up to par.  Off to play the game where I am a good student.  Only 8 more weeks of that game.  That is a little scary.

Zippadeedoda

I'm flying, and not only reached the 1/2 mark, but sailed right past and am now over 2/3 of the way to $4000. I'm pretty excited, and thank you ever so much to the following people: Betsy C., Grammie Marie, Lanie F., Allison L., Miki M., Nina M., Margaret R., Karen R., and Saron. I would like to also thank Susan Mason of Traditional Acupuncture for donating. Finally thank you everyone who donated to me while I sat outside Yellow Front on Thursday. I made $300 and change is just 6 hrs. I do not have an exact total, because I have not yet counted the change. I never would have guessed that people would be so generous. It was amazing. I was thinking it would be a good day if I made $100, but my little collection tin kept having to be emptied. So it was a very very good day. If only I had known this before Thursdays, and I would have sat out there all week. It was also so rewarding, because so many people were supportive of what I was doing. I did meet an elderly lady who told me about when she was in a bike club during the war. Since they were rationing gas, they had the roads practically to themselves. She also said that a day where they did over 100 miles was a century day. We only have one of those on our trip, and my hat is off to her because she didn't have the new fangled bikes we have today.

Speaking of bikes over break I also went to Bath Cycle and Ski and they are sponsoring me. They help me out a bunch with the bike decision. I got to try out the difference between a touring bike, and a racing bike. And what everyone was telling me was true. A touring bike will be worth it. Now I just have to decide which one. My parents are also going to help me with the bike through an early bday present. THANKS! On the training note, I did better last week at training although I did manage to leave my bike helmet back in Maine. Mom mailed it to me but I won't be able to bike till at the earliest Wednesday. I should have listened to the nagging little voice in the back of my head that originally told me that Maine was going to be too cold for Bike riding, plus all our bike's tires were flat. Ah well, some day I may learn. I like to believe there is hope.

Ok I must end this entry, because all the time I spent fundraising over break, I was not doing the work of home. So starting up school again to day was a wee bit of a shock to the system. So I must get back to my scholastic pursuits. I'm off to learn about the history of Educational Psychology and compare it to the history of children's literature. Ugg. It's a topic I am interested in but I just don't wanna get learned.

$2008 left to Raise! (just kidding really $2011.96)

So I have neglected this blog for quite a while. Mostly because it was midterms, and although they overall were not that bad, I procrastinated. This made me have much less time then I should have. So I made up quite a variety of excuses on why I could not either bike, nor write in either German or Spanish, nor write in the Blog. In fact at one point I started an entry, and realized that it was just a long and rather boring rant on how I hate writing. I will probably post more then one rant here, but this one was not even original.

So I am on Spring Break, and headed home to fundraise. Just in case any one was wondering Fundraising in Maine in March is not the best fundraising environment to say the least. In fact I would say that March is even worse then January. I went up and down Maine St. Bath, and was turned down point blank more then once, because businesses just didn't have the money. It has been a long time since tourist season, and the economy is not looking so good. As I continue to Fundraise I realize more and more the importance of buying local. I have talked to so many of the local business owners both in Damariscotta, and Bath that are struggling right now. Also last week when I was biking in Ithaca, and biked past the gas station for lease, it made me stop. I think of the gas stations here in Damariscotta. They are a in a way one of the meeting point of the community. They still have the air of an American general Store. I will also be the first to admit that I have rarely bought gas from them, because I could save pennies per gallon when I bought gas when I went down the coast. How poor am I really? Although buying local can be more expensive I am going to try it. Although this plan might backfire because to afford Bike and Build this summer, I think I will have to spend NO money from now till May.

That said, I would like to thank some new donors. As March 21st gets closer and closer I have started obsessively checking my B and B status. I always heave a big sigh of relief every time I see that someone has made me that much closer to my half way point. This is a mix of family, friends, and acquaintances that have reached out and supported my cause. Thank you to the following: My aunt and uncle Jim and Jill, Rosalie P., Deirdre B. and Rob S., Jim S., and Pat W. I am up to the grand total of $1988.04. Me being the math major misadded my new donations to my previous total, and came up with 1992.04. (don't ask sometimes addition is tricky). SO I thought that I had only $2008 left to raise, and that was a cool number. Ah well I just need to get a $4 donation for it to be 2008.

The final round of pre-blog thanking. I would like to thank the following poeple: Geary B., Barb and Rick B., Evalyn G., Matt M., Kyle R., and Amanda W. finally the following two businesses Rising Tide, and Salt Bay Trading Oriental Rugs. These are the people who helped my fundraising momentum continue after I arrived back at college.

So I would love to write about my adventures since I have been home, they involve vacuuming, driving through down pours, eating cake, (no good adventure is cakeless), painting my nose with gray oil paint, sleeping, not sleeping, loosing at Casino, eating gelato, speaking German, transporting Lipschitz, getting nagged, raising money, eating a white chocolate raspberry scone, cold feet, fires in the fire place, getting stabbed with a staple, reading, riding bikes that go no where, looking at bike that go places, wearing a hat and scarf against the cold, Educational Psychology... and the list goes on, but now I must get some fundraising letter writing time in before the sleeping happens. Then tomorrow I get to run the Cash register at Bath Maine's Habitat for Humanity's chapter ReSale story. I will probably have stories to tell tomorrow. Cash Registers and I usually end up fighting. It's a toss up who wins. Someday I'll win the war...someday.

28° is not to cold to bike.

This is from 3/2 it just took me a week to post.
Went for a bike ride outside today, and it was glorious. Well actually my feet disagreed completely with the previous statement. They informed me about 1/2 way through that they were not a fan of this biking outside business, and were cold and wanted to be home now. I informed them that they had over 11 miles till they were home. They did not like that answer, and proceeded to get to showed their dissatisfaction by getting colder and colder. I was afraid by the end I had frost bite, but they warmed up quickly in the post bike shower, and there was no toe falling off. Next time we are going to try different shoes, warmer socks, and a higher level of ignoring them. I will just inform them that they are not allowed to fall off, and of course they will listen to me.

My ride today according to Google maps was 23.8 miles, and was relatively flat. In fact I did a circle around Steventown Hill, although to my knowledge I did not go through Steventown. When you bike outside the limits of the Ithaca Township the houses I biked by changed immensely. They are much more run down, and I biked by at least two businesses that were shut down, one of which was a gas station/quick mart. Although I have been lived on the Ithaca campus now for 3 years I rarely made it outside of Ithaca. There are popular bumper stickers that say: "Ithaca: 10 square miles surrounded by reality." Today as I was biking this became more and more evedent. One of the things I biked by was a board with Keystone light cans hanging from it, and it was labeled Redneck Wind Chime. It made me laugh, but it also made me realize that the city of Ithaca I know is limited only really to the campus. I live in a severely sheltered world, and I need to venture outside of it much more often.

Snow!?

Today it snowed. I was much distressed by this. The small child in me that always rejoices at snow jumped up and down in excitement and was ready to go sledding. On the other hand YESTERDAY I went bike riding on the roads and it was amazing. So I could not decide if I was prosnow or not. I think some more debating will have to go on.

Biking in the real live world

Look I now have a picture and a new blog Template. I will have to keep working to make my blog pretty. I was looking at my fellow rider's blogs, and many of them are prettier and more complicated then mine. I will have to actually spend time some day, but it is currently very far down on the sticky note listS of things I need to do. Sometimes I feel like making list is more discouraging then helpful. As emphasized by the S on listS my todo list is rather long. I hope to get thank you notes for the time being crossed tonight. Hopefully someone else will donate, and I will have to add it again to my list. My current total is $1750. I would like to thank Lara H., Andy T., and Kelly D. for the donations. I have finally gotten up the nerve to start asking all of my friends for money. I know most of them are broke like me, but even a $5 donation gets me that much closer to my goal. (I only need 450 more people to give me $5). The more I work on this fundraiser, the more I realize that part of the goal of this trip is not only to raise money but also promote awareness. If someone can't donate to me, then I hope that at least they begin to think about this issue. Maybe further down the road they will donate either time, or money to this cause. The following people and businesses that supported me on day three and four of door to door fundraising: Evalyn G., David and Jean P., Joe P., Sarah and Bill W.,and Sproul's Furniture Store.

Today it was way too beautiful to stay inside and do my work, so I finally fixed my bike. (This is my mother's bike, I am still trying to figure out what bike I want to cross the USA on) It's chain was unhappy, so I put lots of grease on it and then wiped it off again. It seamed to solve the problem of it jumping between gears. I have a feeling that my bike repairing skills will improve on this odysseys. I then had to test out my bike, and went for my first bike ride outside in months. it was a beautiful day: Blue sky, above freezing, and no wind. It felt like spring was here, but it doesn't look like it was here to stay. Tonight it is supposed to snow. Boo on that. I think winter has had its chance, and now it is time for spring. Although it was warm, it really wasn't warm enough for shorts. Oh well live and learn. Although I did not see quite as many bears, or space stations my ride was vastly superior to riding on the stationary bike. The sights along the way were a Junk Yard that had various school buses, and decrepit cars, a man clearing ice off his driveway with a tractor the size of a riding lawn mower, deer in the meadow that were still enough that I am slightly convinced that they were fake. Next time I ride by I will have to check and see. If I remember I'll keep you posted on the realness of the deer.

Ok I think it is time to correct some math homework. I am correcting Calculus II, and for the most part it is not the calculus that the students are having a hard time with, but the algebra. Although I keep trying to tell myself that can't be that bitter about it, since I know that I have made many an algebra mistake in my life. Me and Algebra actually usually are in a fight.

In closing I ate all the fruit snacks, and tonight in an attempt to replace them I made green jello. Did you know if you eat jello to early it is not as jelloy and much more liquidy. I just hope it doesn't continue to jellify in my belly.

Don't tell my Mother

It has happened, today I played bridge instead of doing my work, or going to the gym. Don't tell my mother because she will say: I told you so, once you learn how to play bridge it all goes down hill from there. Before I know it I will flunk out of school, and have to beg my parents to have mercy on me so I can live in their basement. But on a happier note: I had good cards, and me and my partner won the majority of hands. Since we were only going to play a couple of hands, so we weren't keeping score. It turned into quite a long couple of hands. Oh well looks like tonight will have to be a long one.

I did have a new exercise adventure. Since my roommate has been sick, and I no longer have anyone to convince me to go to the gym. Yesterday I didn't convince myself until almost 9PM to exercise. The pool on campus is either open early morning, noon, or 7-10. None of those really are when I want to go, so I think this was the second time I have gone swimming in the last six months. The water was very thick, and the very difficult to swim through. My weak little arms were not happy with this new form of exercise. They like it much better when I bike or run, because all they have to do is sit there, and sometimes move back and forth. None of this being responsible for the moment of an entire body. They were very vocal in their unhappiness. I could also swear that the pool was not just 25 yard pool, but at least 50 meters. My arms were not the only part of me that informed me that swimming was NOT a good idea. Since I haven't swam regularly since high school I didn't have either goggles or a cap. So my eyes were exposed to the chlorine, and this is never a good thing. Now, I have to open my eyes under water, cause if I don't I run into things. I try only to open them when I am breathing, but this never really helps. The other problem I had forgotten about it when I swim without a cap, is that my hair is not long enough to stay in a ponytail. So my bangs were always in my face. I could kind of alleviate this by breathing every third stroke. But since I am in such horrible swimming shape, I can do this for about 6 strokes, and them I am out of breath. In the end I just decided to kick for most of the practice. I could even wear my glasses while swimming, and the world returned to being in focus. Without my glasses I am legally blind. The big E I haven't been able to see it in years. This rant does have a happy ending though. Today I had to go to the mall, so I was able to buy both cap and goggles. So now I am ready for my next swimming expedition. I just have to motivate myself to go again... Tomorrow is bridge night, maybe I'll go and swim after that. I feel like if I call my exercising expeditions, or adventures it makes them much more fun.

In closing I have no new donation to report, but I would like to thank the following people who supported me on day two of fundraising, which is my most successful day to date. I raised $495 in one day. I walked along Main St. Damariscotta, and along West View Rd. The following businesses donated: Elinor and Anita's, The Mediterranean Kitchen, and Scarborough's Collision. The following individuals also donated: Lynn A., Peter D., Teresa B., Robert and Patricia K., Frank and Cynthia K. I also received donations from the residents along West View Rd. Thank you all for your support.

Ok now it is time for me to go back to the hyperbolic world. I have to write up the proof that if two lines are asymptotic parallel to a third, then they have to be asymptotic to each other. It isn't that bad of a proof.

One more thing. I bought FRUIT SNACKS!! As you can see I was pretty excited.