This week is bike week here in Los Angeles, which means there are a few cool events going on sponsored by Metro. I know a lot of people feel like this city is not very bike friendly (and I don’t entirely disagree) so projects like this make me super happy. They are a great way to spread the bike love.

It’s no secret that Shawn and I met on a bike ride, so social rides will always have a special place in my heart. Look at how fun this tweed right from a few years back was (you can tell it was long ago since Shawn is sporting a beard). Everyone dressed up and having a grand time riding around the city together. I truly believe that the best way to experience any city is by bicycle.

Pasadena also has some great events planned, like a bike ride around the Rose Bowl with the mayor and a bike in movie showing Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. So if you’ve been looking for an excuse to get back on your bike, now is your chance. Hope to see you on the streets.

I’m having a hair dilemma. I think probably my whole life has been a hair dilemma. Last June, I gave up dying my hair. After years of treating it like crap with bleach and every color and sort of dye, I thought it was about time I gave it a break. Beyond that, I was tired of the upkeep and had no idea what color my hair even was anymore.

But as those things go, I’m bored and want to do something with my hair. I want something fun and new. I promised myself no haircut until I accomplish a certain goal (which I’ll maybe share later), and besides, I basically get the same haircut all the time, so that’s nothing special.

The thing is though, I’m actually really happy not dying my hair. I like the color and while it’s a little softer and wavier untreated, I’m looking forward to having all the dyed bits fully grown out. So instead of doing anything drastic, I thought I’d just reminisce through photos of my various hairstyles in the past years.

Orange is and will always be my favorite. I’ve considered just dying the ends of my hair orange as is it, but I’m not totally sure.

It’s fun and yet still feels natural to me (although clearly it is not).

Bright albino white was also fun, but my hair was the most destroyed by this endeavor.

Further back in time, there was a period of dark brown. I loved this color but it just would not stay in my hair and would always fade to a drab straw color.
Now jumping back a to my college days, a time of more piercings and no bangs. This was the last moment before I got to the haircut that I’ve had for all of my twenties.
Right before that, my hair was short in back and longer in the front. I do miss this haircut occasionally, though I’ve gotten used to having bangs.

Nearly all my teenage years I had short hair with those long wispy bits in front. It never looked right, but it was fun to change the color all the time, as it took no time at all to grow out. I tried every color: pink, orange, blue, black. One summer I changed my hair every week, such as teenagers do.

Well that was fun, and is making me feel a bit better about the fact that I trimmed my bangs just a little too short. The best part of hair is that it grows back, so mistakes are eventually undone on their own.

The pattern was simple and a nice reintroduction to sewing complete garments. Following directions is simultaneously comforting and difficult for me; I like having the guidance but I rarely follow instructions completely. I often cut corners or do things out of order, which can often lead to problems, although not always.

Of course, as I finished it, the weather turned cold again, so I imagine it will be awhile until I wear it. There should be a button on the top, which I may or may not add later, and I sort of wish the waistline was a little lower, but at least I’ll know for next time. Mostly I think it’s fun, and being so simple to make, it gave me confidence in my sewing skills once again.

Spring should be heralded with flowers but today is filled with gloom. Yet, I still have hope in my heart. The world keeps moving on and changing as it always will.

Lately though, I just feel drained. I feel as if it is literally sucking the life and creativity out of me. My motivation has been lost somewhere in the ether to twitter and instagram and it makes me feel like I am no longer myself.

I’m taking a step away from the computer as much as possible, and diving into other things, into making and creating and contemplating.

I came across this pattern for a one hour dress and I thought it would be ideal to get me on the path away from the virtual and back to the real. It was indeed, as this simple one hour dress turned into a much much larger project (I stopped keeping track of how long it took after hour 4). Working at my sewing machine, I felt energized, and even with my mistakes and missteps, I forged onward, until it was done, and I was happy. I found a certain level of gratification in making something utilitarian like a dress that can be worn regularly.

It’s nothing particularly fancy, but it’s exactly the style I like. It’s comfortable. It has pockets. Most importantly, I made it. That in itself brings me a lot of satisfaction.

This weekend I hope to step away from the allure of the internet and continue to make things or simply enjoy a quite walk outdoors. I hope you’ll join me.

*I thought I should add that I do clearly see how it might seem hypocritical to write about getting away from the web on a blog, but my trouble lays in the consumption rather than what I put out there. It’s easy to get sucked into social media and arguments and articles, whereas my blog is my own space.

Often times, Shawn will tell me something she used to make and we’ll try to recreate it. These snowballs fall into that category. A simple to assemble treat that is exponentially more tasty because it is fun to eat. With warmer weather rolling around (maybe?) I can see we’ll be making more of these.

Start with a scoop of your favorite non-dairy ice cream.

Roll it around in some coconut. Use your hands. It’s not even that messy.

Place on a cookie sheet and freeze for 10-30 minutes. That’s it! You now have a snowball.

Now personally, I’m not a fan of coconut, but I didn’t want to be left out of the snowball fun, so I made some “dirty snowballs” with crumbled cookies instead.

Perfect.

Thank you Sharon for still being an inspiration, even though we never met. Mostly though, thank you for raising such an amazing son who I adore so much.

Then I found livejournal. Were you on livejournal? I feel like so many of us were. At first the concept of others reading my own personal thoughts didn’t occur to me, it was just like my computer journal, except stored secretly online. Over the years, connections were made and it became a way to vent as well as bond with others. I still had a paper journal, but the online one was something different, more careful and stylized and intentional. When an ex-boyfriend read one of my journals, livejournal became a safe place with its password protected private posts.

I guess now I’ve grown out of journaling. My life no longer has the drama worthy of writing about. Of course, there is this blog, which takes care of some of it. A fancy highlight version of life, with a few oblique references to internal struggles. That’s not to say I don’t sometimes miss journaling, but mostly I miss livejournal itself, the endless melodramatic posts and conversations they sometimes spurred. I do not, on the other hand, miss the times I wrote about, and am thus much happier to be without it.

My livejournal has since been deleted, fearing someone might find it and connect it to me. Before I disposed of it forever, I made a backup and years later, inspired by a friend, I finally decided to have it printed into a book so it would not be entirely lost.

It took a few hours to format everything into a printable version and then cost about $15 to have it printed. Now it can get stored away with the others serving no purpose at all, except that I have it. It’s not recommended reading. The bits I skimmed as I edited were so depressingly embarrassing they made me cringe. Reading things you wrote in college is not a good idea. That being said, I’m glad to have a physical copy even if it is only to be burned before my death or something along those lines.