Random Observations

Some observations about Albany:

1. The road conditions. They are terrible! At first I thought maybe it was Jason's tacoma, after all you are bound to bounce around a little more in a truck. I was wrong. You bounce around more because there are gaping potholes lining the streets. If you attempt to swerve out of the line of fire you will invariably just hit another one. Do they ever get fixed? As near as I can tell, no. I have never lived anywhere the streets are this bad ...

2. Crazy drivers. Ok, maybe I am just sensitive because I have not been driving consistently for the last five years. And I am willing to concede that I am not the best driver myself. But I don't understand this mentality that you can stop anywhere in the middle of the road, in non-stop traffic on a one lane street, and as long as you put your hazard lights on this is somehow o.k. Can't you pull over to the side of the street where there is an empty parking spot? I guess that would be too much trouble. I have been driving on my way home only to find the street blocked by a huge commercial truck (the kind that carry small cars on the back) taking up a lane and a half in a two lane road. No way around. No way back. Hazards blinking ...

3. Spare any change? For how small of a population Albany contains, 95,000 or so, I am simply amazed how many people will stop me to ask for money on a daily basis. Sometimes twice. I walk almost everywhere and am getting so that I can see them coming from a mile away. I usually really don't have any change on me, and am not particularly comfortable with handing it out on the street, but still feel a sense of guilt at turning away. But come on, is the best person to ask really the girl in sweats walking her dog to the park?

4. Dunkin' Donuts. Something that people on the west coast might not realize is the prevalance of Dunkin' Donuts out east. They are everywhere. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say there are more per square mile than Starbucks back home (unless you live in Seattle). And people here love their D'D coffee! I had to seek out the only Starbucks in town - located in a B&N of course - because I can't drink the weak brown lattes that come out of their "ready-made" machines. There happens to be a Dunkin' Donuts about 100 ft. from my apartment. Nobody will ever know the willpower that keeps me away from that place. Growing up some of my fondest memories involve donuts (lots of donuts, boxes of donuts my grandpa used to bring home for us when we visited). I amaze even myself ...

5. The wind. It never stops. I feel like I am back in Denali ... Jason has to keep cancelling his flight school because it is too windy. I came home yesterday and all the flowers I had planted over the weekend were gone. Yup, just stems. And what horrible thing was responsible for this? 20+ mph winds. I am sure when it is 90 degrees and humid as hell I will be grateful for all this wind, but right now when it is 50 degrees and raining and I have 10 blocks to walk to work I am not so thrilled. Too bad I already broke my umbrella one of the windstorms ...

6. (In case anyone thinks I do not like it here) Dog park. Washington park has an amazing dog park area where on any given afternoon there will be at least 10 other dogs for Riley to play with. There are so many adorable puppies this time of year, australian shepherds, golden retrievers, great danes, and even an irish wolfhound. People who truly love dogs. It is a great way to socialize him and meet people myself. It is funny that everyone knows each others dog's name but few people actually introduce themselves. Unfortunately Riley is one of the only dogs that still cannot be trusted off leash ...

Happy Easter!

I made this silly bunny out of fruit for breakfast this morning, a very healthy way to start off the day. I spent yesterday at Home Depot picking out some plants for our planter box and back porch. It was actually really exciting for me because I used to do this with my mom in the spring but ever since highschool I haven't had an opportunity for any landscaping. The herb garden is coming along very slowly so I thought I'd hurry spring along with some flowers.

Easter this year was not the nice sunny day I was anticipating... but Jason and I had decided to drive up to the Adirondacks for the day. We wanted to hike but it was pretty windy and cold so we spent most of our time that we weren't in the car on the beach at Lake George throwing sticks into the lake for Riley. Almost everywhere is still closed for the season so it is nice and quiet but in the summer I think it gets out of hand. There aren't a lot of places I saw to camp but there were hotels and resorts lining the roads.

I really hope this summer we have time to go on some roadtrips and explore New England. I would love to get over to the coast of Maine and see Acadia, also the Berkshires in Massechusettes. Then of course north of us are Montreal and Quebec. And always Vermont, which I love. So far my only summer plans consist of trying to do a monster drive to Tennessee in June for the Bonnaroo music fest, and a trip back to Boise for my friend Angie's wedding.

I also would really like to get myself some wheels (a bicycle) for the summer. Right now is perfect biking weather and yes, for anyone who wondered, Jason had no problems attaching my car rack for me. The boy is a genius! So I am all set. I just need the bike to slap on top of the car and I am ready to roll ...

Waiting for Spring

Supposedly spring is just around the corner. Last weekend it was 70 degrees and blue skies, though I should mention that it has been snowing this week. I know it seems ironic since I have spent the last few years in Alaska that I should be so impatient for warm weather, but I have also spent significant portions of those winters on beaches. I decided to start an herb garden this year that I can transplant outside once it warms up. I tried this in Denali but the birds ate all my seedlings before they even sprouted. I have some basil and mint starts right now (I figure the mint will be awesome for fresh spring rolls) and I am busy making some planters in my pottery class.

The other project for the weekend is assembling the new THULE CAR RACK that I got for my birthday!! My little Toyota Echo is running out of space in it, even though I made sure to get a four door for more space. I have a crate for Riley in the back seat and Jason's crash pad is occupying the entire trunk... Jason is convinced he can assemble the rack without any help since he tells me his friend was able to this. I have some doubts. Should be interesting anyway!

I might even try to go running again this weekend. For a couple of months I was pretty consistently going to the YMCA and even got up to running a 5K in under 30 minutes (something like 9.5 min miles). Two weekends ago I did something funky to my ankle when I went running outside on the Hudson river path. I don't remember doing it during the run but for the last 10 days I have been limping around. My goal is to hit a couple of local 10K races and then enter a half marathon (hopefully somewhere exciting like Hawaii). I figure if I combine going somewhere fantastic with the accomplishment of my goal then I will be more motivated. Of course I haven't developed a timeline for this yet...