i'm always looking for wonderful inspiration... i happened upon the painter Kim Piotrowski's blog and i LOVE what she does! please enjoy it, she is so talented.

http://kipiboo.blogspot.com/

i love a good brainstorm session inspired by all of that.

also, thanks mostly to the urging of caitlin #2, i decided to FINALLY upgrade my darn phone. i've long been drooling over the iphone, mostly because of the camera. i mean, i love my mac computer and all, but the phone has the nicest camera of any cell phone, ANYWHERE. i finally got one.

and with much happiness, i started a new mobile-photo-only tumblr of "iphoneography".

http://takingitallwithme.tumblr.com

enjoy please!

obviously, i still have the other tumblr at http://caitlinrhamilton.tumblr.com if you want to see photos and none of my blathering on about them.

much love!

as promised, some lovin from the USGP in Madison, day 2.
also, a shoutout to http://madcross.org and mr. ryan knapp (and, as always, the wonderful fiance erik) for linking to me on their respective sites/pages. it's those little things that get me so excited sometimes!
first, the lovely nicole borem in ye olde women's race:




and please don't mind the weird scatteredness of these photos; they are actually in chronological order, though i'm sure it will look like they aren't... for some reason I started with the middle of the pack and went forward.
neff:


the run up goodness:












i liked this great angle at the barriers, and i just kept going back:














kabush, before getting naked for his post-race interview at cyclingdirt.org:


























all in all a great day.

i'm thinking i'll have more to post tomorrow after i spend some time in riveting ashley and hudson, indiana. what? you've NEVER heard of ashley or hudson? ....shocking. not. although i discovered today that there's some very shootable places there; after family obligations tomorrow i may wander around a bit. i just hope i don't come across an extra volatile meth lab (as we all know, rural indiana is plagued with meth labs) and blow up.

something that i found

so there's this pretty sweet stats section that appeared on blogger at some point... and i just now noticed it. but it tells you referring sites and all sorts of other seemingly useful things. BUT apparently I've been getting traffic referred from mollycameron.com , so i decided to see how the hell that was happening.
i swear, sometimes i wonder how people find this stuff! BUT molly posted a link to my blog here in the photo section of the website because of the photo from this entry back in december when erik and i were at the USGP in portland. incredible! so, a big thank you to molly, and i have more where that came from, especially after this weekend in madison. which i will post today, i promise.

any day that starts with sopranos is a good day.

i stumbled on this, which i absolutely love:
http://thegreatbookshavebeenwritten.com/

I found this and i love it, thanks to one of my favorite photo teachers ever, Elizabeth... it's a collection of slide photos from WWII from the library of Congress here. lovely.

on a happy note, check photos from the best of afternoons spent with cricketts and erin and stacy:





















Also, I'm trying the watermark out. however, i'm not sure if it violates any copyright laws, hah. different font, plus it has my name in it so who knows. i didn't put it on all of them, maybe i'll just throw my actual name on it and be done with it.

GREAT wonderful day yesterday.
1. I slept in. WHAT?! i know, right? I wasn't even sure sleeping in existed anymore.
2. I rode to the Bakehouse with Hazel. Riding everywhere puts a smile on my face and muscles in my legs! Saw Katy R upon arriving and had excellent coffee to wake up.
3. I rode to the bank and deposited money. This is an important point because I have not deposited much lately and I now feel much more responsible having earned moolah instead of spending it.
4. Rode to meet Hazel and Kristina at Soma for a second Hazel hangout, 1st Kristina hangout. Cockroaches (and sorority hairspray) were discussed. Wireless was used. Bloomington Velo-News was read. Nice couches were sat upon.
5. Traveled a far distance up a flight of stairs to have lunch with Kristina and Hazel at Laughing Planet, and relocated outside to eat our yummy lunch. Sunshine was enjoyed (and then we nabbed a shaded table when someone abandoned it), good food was had.
6. I got to see Erik on my way to work, always always a plus as he is lovely.
7. I went to work where I asserted my authority to a sometimes sassy coworker, and all went swimmingly.
8. Rode home. Upon returning home i was surprised with my very own 22ouncer of fat tire and a trip to the arboretum to hang out and get realquality Erik time under zee stars.

I must say.... It was a somewhat perfect day (apart from the lack of photographic documentation of said day), and those are hard to come by.

i've spent a lot of time counting down minutes today.

the indiana driver's safety course (aka defensive driving) assigns a minimum time to read each "chapter" of their course online. so even if i read it and it takes me 3 minutes (and i've read it all, mind you), they assign it 12 minutes. so frustrating. it has a little minute counter downer in the corner.

i wish i had my camera. it's just so nice right now. i'm at soma leeching wireless so i can do said driver's safety course. rode my bike everywhere the last few days, it feels great.

i ran a 5k on saturday morning completely randomly. kristina texted me friday evening and said "what are you doing at 8am tomorrow?" when i replied "aboslutely nothing," she informed me that i was, in fact, running a 5k in the morning and that she would report to my house to pick me up at at 7am.

a great time was had with kristina, katie, and kate (PLEASE read her recap at her blog, when i speak of her to people i often reference that she is an absolute RIOT. everything out of the girl's mouth [including her blog and tweets] is hysterical).

my legs STILL hurt.

hurts so good. i like it when my muscles remind me they still work.

also, i stole this heinous photo of me and kristina afterwards from kate's blog as well... i was trying to look strong, but ended up looking a little lost and confused. please laugh a lot:

headed to Cincinnati on saturday, resulting in photos on podium insight.com again, EXCELLENT.
i know you wanna see the photos here... also, i'm slightly sad that podium insight doesn't follow me on twitter, even though i've contributed to their site 3 times now. lol, i can't believe i had that thought because twitter isn't real.

also, something else great happened; riders' collective magazine contacted me about a photo i posted 6 months ago on my blog of pro cyclocrosser Molly Cameron at the portland USGP and using it in their july issue. which is sweet... a link to come when it's available. photo sampleyness:

my faja came to bloomy yesterday and it was lovely. hung out at the bakehouse, hung out at oliver, hung out at upland. it was what i call a winning day. evidence:

winning weekend.

i had mixed emotions this weekend.

i got the call on friday that could have been great news. it was not great news. now i know what it's like to literally pour all of your free time and energy into something, something you think matters, and then realize suddenly that your best isn't good enough. i just don't know how to excel at my job, and it's frustrating. so i'm sad a little. so bad news, i did not get promoted to a full-time position (which would, ironically, be less hours a week than some weeks that i've worked lately).

but this weekend something great happened. it just so happened that Geraint got to write race reports for Snake Alley and Melon City for Podium Insight and my photos went up on the site to accompany his reports!! so exciting. like, seriously. super stoked. it's a big deal! whee! so i have spent a good portion of today attempting to sort through the 5000 photos I took this weekend. some of my favorites will go up hopefully later tonight (the computer meera has lended to me is good but it is a little older, so it's taking me a little while to get through it all!)

while it was a weekend that started with bad news, it's slowly swinging upwards towards great things. as linda put it this morning, so positively, at breakfast: "i hope that because you got denied the position, something you couldn't have done if you had gotten it opens up... a better job opportunity, or the opportunity to go on a great adventure that you'll remember for a lifetime."

i really do live the most amazing life, with the most amazing people in it. thank you to everyone who made this weekend one of those times when i looked around and thought to myself how incredibly lucky i am.

my friend caitlin (whom you may remember) graciously gave us a shoutout on her blog and wants to photograph us!! vote vote vote for us: http://caitlinsullivanphotography.com/blog/?p=1258 because no one has yet and i think we deserve some lovin!!

i decided that i have a happy affair with richard misrach.
it started with this photo. but i spent the last hour perusing online and when i found an abstract of his (from Desert Cantos) i knew it was for sure: "As interesting and provocative as the cultural geography might be, the desert may serve as the backdrop for the problematic relationship between man and the environment. The human struggle, the successes and failures, the use and abuse, both noble and foolish, are readily apparent in the desert. Symbols and relationships seem to arise that stand for the human condition itself. It is a simple, if almost incomprehensible equation: the world is as terrible as it is beautiful, but when you look more closely, it is as beautiful as it is terrible. We must maintain constant vigilance, to protect the world from ourselves, and to embrace the world as it exists."
and i agree.

i'm shelling out and buying erik's old cross bike.
and i'm stoked to try it out. i think i'll like it.
off to cincy for racing next time.

"last song" by matt pond PA just appeared on my itunes shuffle. i like it. shuffle win.

okaythat'siti'mreadyforbed.

talked to kevin via ichat tonight. OMG his kitten is so.so.so. adorable. i just wrote "OMG" and "adorable". write it down, that happens about as often as i cry.

oh man, i must look bored.... dr dre was on the itunes as i'm sitting here at the lab doing nothing, and some random lab-goer said "thug. do you like rap? you should check out this website." and then directed me here, which has proven to be most amazing. win.

erik visited. awesome.

and i just got hungry.

....for a cookie. OH I HAVE ALMOND JOYS.

i'm not on crack, i promise.

i think i worry too much. resolution to stop that. done.

lots to do today. POST OFFICE. so important. AND drop off the YAL photo drive. muy importante.

meera's back on the grid :-D i've missed that girl.

we went a-to yogi's last night, and also managed to see and hang out with kevin there; such a baller, my fav professor ever. he took some photos. you know. tried 2 new beers and an old favorite and only paid for two of them. happiness comes with knowing your bartenders and your bartenders' friends.

had fazoli's with corey. (AND saw adam. double whammy.)

i hate it. everything was fine. but i always feel like i have someplace better to be. i guess it's because i do. i just feel as though i come off as a bitch, which i don't mean to. i guess i didn't though.