What are you?

I had this revelation today while riding. Perhaps the idea has always been stuck in my mind but I decided to finally think it through. It’s about how people try to live up to what others think of them. I guess it happens to everyone.

For instance, I always get introduced to people by my friends as “this is sarah, she rides her bike a lot, works out a lot… yadda yadda yadda.” It’s always been that … ‘crazy athletic sarah” … so a part of me feels as if I have to live up to that because that’s what people think of me. When I did my first cycling race my freshman year I ended up winning the uphill time trial … from that moment on I was coined “a climber.” Immediately I had confidence that I could excel on any hilly course because people had faith in me that I could do it… which trickled on down to me believing in myself. However, climbers and sprinters don’t go hand and hand. More than likely, you’re one or the other. So, along with me being coined a “climber” I was also intuitively coined a “non-sprinter.” I still have trouble overcoming that one…every race weekend I believe I can do well in a road race but I hope just to be in the finishing sprint for the crit… with not much belief that I’ll ever be fast enough to win it. Amazing what one sentence 4 years ago can do to ya.

I find it just weird that sometimes you don’t believe in yourself until someone you trust reaffirms your idea. My senior year of high school was the first time a guy I liked actually told me I was pretty. My entire childhood I just thought that all boys thought I was ugly, until this one guy told me that one sentence. From that point on, I began having a little more self-esteem. I guess it’s just a shame that we feel like someone has to confirm things for us to believe them.

Same goes with personality. Basically everyone who meets me realizes in a quick second that I laugh at everything. I am pretty easily amused. Sometimes I’m not even happy and I’ll laugh just because people expect it from me. Yes, you might think that’s stupid. However, it also prevents people from asking you if you’re okay or if something is wrong. The moment one of my friends sees me not laughing and smiling, they immediately think something terrible is going on. But hey, I’m human and have bad days just like anybody else. It just sucks sometimes to feel as if I have to be all laughing and smiling in order for people to think I’m okay. But with all that said, I am actually a pretty happy person.

I guess I just wish human nature would exist without people feeling as if they have to live up (whether it be good or bad) to what other people think of them. Maybe, it’s just me… but I seem to constantly notice it in other people as well. I think sometimes we just aren’t fully aware of why we act the way we are. It’s the power of words.

When I meet someone I try to give them a clean slate, whether I’ve heard good or bad of them. It doesn’t always workout well, but I believe I should try to let them prove it to me instead of taking what other people say as truth. Everyone deserves a chance to prove people wrong. There are actually people out there whom I’ve met who think I’m a completely quiet or shy person (just because of the day that they met me) … if that notion of me went around the world, people would end up thinking I was drugged every time I’m acting incredibly silly and laughing at everything. There are many people whom I’ve met that have proved me wrong from opinions spoken of these people beforehand. I guess everyone views someone differently.

Anyway… I guess my advice is to just be cautious of what you say. You can change someone to be better or worse… all depends on how that person operates inside.

So what are you? Are you going to be what everyone has always thought you to be? Or are you going to be who you truly think you are?

Bucknell race weekend!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3LbjKQTVsA

It's been awhile since I've posted but I've been so busy! Good busy ... with lots of good stuff to do.

So, last weekend was my first REAL collegiate cycling race in 2 years!! I did race at Philly over spring break but I was still dying of bronchitis during that race so I'm not counting that one. Here's a recap:

Road Race: 45 miles, 2hour 15minutes, average heart rate = 173 ... yeah... my heart rate was at 87% of its maximum for over 2 hours ... indeed it was a hard race.

We had five laps of a rolling course with 2 moderate short climbs. At the end of the 2nd lap Princeton (Rachel) got off the front, I caught up to her, and we worked together for about 10 minutes until UNH (Susannah) and Lehigh (Andrea) caught up with us. We had a good group of 4 hard workers and we were making more and more time on the pack. At the end of the 3rd lap, 4 other girls caugh up with us ... including my teammate Erica Allar! (yay!) :) They were DRILLING it!!! 8 women pacelining like we were in a national team time trial ... hence my incredibly high heart rate. In the middle of the last lap, Erica and Kim Geist (LaSalle) broke away and it was only me, Susannah, and Cailtin (MIT) left. We worked together for the rest of the lap and then got stretched out toward the end... and I ended up 4th!! It was a really exciting and exhausting race to be in, but it gave me my itching to race again.

Criterium:
This course was crazy!!! 0.87 mile loop with 8 turns each lap ... 50 minutes ... lots of sprinting and attacking!

At the beginning of the race I led the pack at a good pace because I wanted to get a good feel for all the corners. By the end of the 1st lap, though, I had a little gap on the field. Williams (Katie) caught up to me and we worked hard together for 5 laps ... she is QUITE the time trialist. With 15 laps to go 4 other girls ... including Erica again!! ... caught up to us and all of us pacelined it for the rest of the race. The motorcycle lead vehicle basically knocked Susannah off her bike once but she hopped right back into the race. Williams kept attacking and I would chase her down because I knew Erica has a kickass sprint and she needed to be up there for the final sprint. I got a lot of prime (intermediate sprints throughout the race) points which helped my race standings a bit... It's always nice to get some of those, especially because I never consider myself much of a sprinter. The last final stretch of the race was about 3 blocks and I started an attack early to the line to throw people off and let Erica take the sprint ... and ... it worked!!! Erica won and I got 4th again... yay! It was such a FUN race to compete in and it was awesome to have a teammate up there with me too.

And as usual, we are some of the silliest post-race cyclists ... so here's me and Erica's race report about the crit... well, actually it's up at the top of the post.

Goals for the Week

It is SUNNY outside today in State College. This is strange. It is never sunny here. It was once sunny here back in January but it was negative 20 degrees outside so it didn't really matter. But it's sunny, and that's just grand.

Speaking of grand. I must share my 5 goals for the week with you.
Goal #1 - say "grand" a lot
Goal #2 - say "bugger" a lot
Goal #3 - skip randomly to places around campus
Goal #4 - learn how to say "i like to dance" in French
Goal #5 - eat 3 more zesty nachos from Taco Bell

I've managed to say grand a lot ... It almost sounds like 'great'; however, 'bugger' sounds like 'booger' so I've been having more troubles saying that one. Haven't quite skipped yet. Bugger.

Side note: I'm watching Oprah at the moment and have just discovered that she is left handed.

I learned some French, too. Now I can tell someone I like to dance AND ask someone to dance. I'm really going up the social ladder now!

I don't know if I'll made the zesty nachos goal, but everyone should try them because they are tasty.

okay. the end. :)

Fargo ... the Person, not the City

FARGO is coming!!! Yes, that is her and me ... right there at the top of this post.

Tomorrow that is. I'm stoked. Fargo (her actual name is Alyssa... but I rarely ever call her that, so basically I sometimes forget her name but if you wanted to know her real name, that's what it is, but I will forever call her Fargo :) )is super cool and one of my bestest friends. It's going to be sooo nice to have one of my old friends come back and visit. It's kinda weird being a 5th year at times. All my good friends that I started college with and have built up so many memories with have all graduated and moved away. I still have some good friends around here, but nothing can beat that core group of friends that you can go out with at any time and be guaranteed an awesome time... those friends that are there for you in a blink of an eye and understand what's going on in your mind even before you do. I miss you guys!

I've been fortunate to see Tonya (now in Salt Lake City), Jeffrey (med school at Maryland), Perri (Philly!), and now Fargo (U of I grad student) this semester... I love you guys. You're the best!!! So, below are some picture of you, so the whole world can recognize that you are awesome. :)

Photo: Dr. Jeff and me ... when he graduated ... 2 years ago ... miss you best buddy!

Photo: Tonya and me when she came to visit all the way from Utah ... that night was one to remember and to forget. lol miss you!!

Photo: Perri and me on my 23rd birthday last May! It was soooo good to see you last weekend!!

My friends make me smile. Thanks for all the good times and memories :)

No Green Snow ...

Well, spring break is officially over. My spring break was awesome! I thought having to spend half of it in spring break would be miserable but it turned out to be a good time... from Philly to Omaha to getting a job to 60 mile bike rides in 65 degree weather to watching the awesome movie Spellbound with some friends and even being locked out of my apartment twice. lol This weekend sucked, though. Actually it started Friday when I was snowed in my apartment. For some reason State College hadn't started plowing the roads so I was basically stuck... so, I spent the day riding the trainer and decorating our apartment so that it looked like spring (i.e. we still had Christmas decorations up).

Saturday was going to be great ... it was St. Patty's Day! However, my body decided only to let me sleep until 7am ... I have no idea why. I'm used to starting my weekends around noon, but because of my early awakening, I had biked 2 hours, swam an hour, and had all errands done by noon. I'm not very good with having extra time on my hands ... I can't sit still and like to be doing something at all times. So, I decided to use my buy one get one free Dairy Queen blizzard. I searched all over North Atherton looking for DQ because that's where I thought it was ... only to discover that they had shut down. So sad. I love ice cream. DQ should know this by now.

I kind of went out for St. Patty's day ... but not really. I lasted about 30 minutes at Pickle's before I walked back home (just long enough for my entire aura to smell like smoke) ... just wasn't feeling it.

Today I slept in until noon... excellent. Went swimming. Excellent. Didn't feel like riding my bike at all so I took 2 long walks. Luckily on my 1st walk I ran into Joe and Dana at Qdoba... they saved my day! I had been so bored and really just wanted to get outside and see people. Yay for Joe and Dana! Those two are always a fun couple to be around.

So my weekend started off with snow that wasn't green, no green blizzard, no green burritos (I had really wanted to go to Mad Mex), and not much fun. However ... it DID end on a good note when I discovered that Taco Bell has some awesome "zesty nachos" for only $1.05 (including tax).

Yeah ... zesty nachos make me smile. :)

Toilets

I was at Barnes and Noble today studying with Kelly and Mike. I often procrastinate there by drinking buckets of water and lots of lattes. Therefore, every 30 minutes I'm venturing to the back of the store to visit the women's restroom. Usually, I'm not too disappointed in B&N restrooms... until today. The inevitable happened ...

PEE ON THE SEAT!

This is a common occurence on campus at the HUB, but I think it tends to be a college thing as I have never seen so much pee on seats than at the Penn State campus's restrooms. For some reason people have a phobia of sitting on seats. Some women might think that they can aim or something and somehow squat and make it directly into the bowl (where the duck is), but sorry ladies, you can't.

People have these phobias because they are afraid of butt cooties or something. However, it's just skin, and it's not really your actual butt butt. It's your thighs. What's the difference between sitting out in a bikini on a pool deck and sitting on a toilet seat? I don't get it. The bathroom door handle has millions of more bacteria and germs than the toilet seat does, yet people don't seem to have problems with touching handles where people's hands have touched ... hands that have been sneezed on and coughed on, etc, and then eating food with their bare hands.

The most common areas of pee location in women's bathrooms is illustrated above by the speckled yellow dots that I have drawn on this fancy sea green toilet seat, absolutely making it impossible for seat sitters like myself to sit down. This especially bothers me on the days after I have ridden 60 miles on a bicycle (like today) and my quads just don't feel like using my thigh squatting muscles.

So, my suggestion ladies. If you are afraid of toilet seats, please lift up the seat. Just use your foot and flip it up, squat and do your non-aiming abilities, and then flush. That way us seat sitters can sit and save our sore quads from squatting.

And yes, I'm still smiling because I got to include a rubber ducky in a photo for this post. :)

Riding to Alexandria

The weather here in State College was absolutely gorgeous earlier this week. For those of us who stayed in town over spring break the weather was mighty kind to us ... until today. Today it was raining, sleeting, and tomorrow we might get 6 inches of snow??!?! craziness. But we can still be thankful for the earlier part of the week.

So, to capture the spring time weather yesterday, I went on a beautiful bicycle ride to Alexandria. Now, when I say beautiful, I actually just mean warm weather, as it was raining on us for the first hour of the 60 mile ride. However, it was 65 degrees the entire ride. Mike, Tracey and I were covered with mud and rain all over our faces and clothing. That made it even more fun! See picture above of my face speckled in mud. My bike was a mess afterwards ... covered in mud. It took a nice hour to clean it up and make it shiney again. I like shiney. Shiney makes me smile... like the photo.

It's soo much fun riding with Mike and Tracey. There's never a dull moment. 3hours 15 minutes of pure fun yesterday. The way home it stopped raining and I was in shorts and my jersey and not cold at all. Those kinds of rides make me incredibly happy. Once again... refer to picture.

Speaking of cycling... I did my first race since July 2005 this past weekend in Philly. It went all right considering I hadn't raced in forever and was still recovering from bronchitis. My passion for racing has kind of dwindled for the moment. After being forced to take a year off from training last year because of my hip, I've learned that there are so many other things in life that make me happy as well. So, I've turned into a bit of a fair weather rider and just keeping everything low key.... keeping it fun with no stress.

That's what makes me happy. :)

First Post

Hey everyone! So, I decided to start my own blogger thinger because so much is going on in my life and I figure everyone should know about it. ha. Actually, I figure this will be a good way to keep all my friends posted on my post-college-life.

Unfortunately, I only have 2 more precious months here at wonderful Penn State. I'll definitely miss this place. Some days I get a bit tired of the college scene ... but I think that's mostly because I just miss all my friends that I started college with. That's what being a 5th year does to ya.

I've been job searching like crazy this semester. My main problem is trying to figure out exactly WHERE I want to live. I love it here in Pennsylvania... the scenery is amazing... but I'm also wanting to venture into a new part of the United States. The northeast is awesome and everything you would ever wanna do is within a day's drive. However, most big food science companies are located in New Jersey. Sorry, folks, not a huge fan of the place. I'm not a big city girl so living so close to NYC probably wouldn't be the best idea. I love going into cities, but the countryside has to be nearby as well. That's what I love about State College. It's a city, in the middle of nowhere, with stuff to do, but the countryside is so close as well = Excellent. So, I had a spur of the moment idea that I want to live in Minneapolis, MN. General Mills is located there and I hear it's an AWESOME (but cold. lol) city to live in. Unfortunately, General Mills doesn't have any available positions for me... boo.

So, last week I went to the spring career fair at the Bryce Jordan Center. I talked to a couple of companies. Most of the companies weren't looking for food scientists, but were looking for engineers and business people. However, ConAgra wanted some food scientists. They asked me to come in the next morning for an interview and before I knew it they were flying me out to Omaha. Everything was VERY last minute and the trip went by soo fast! I got into my hotel around 11pm Monday and was on my plane back to PSU at 3:30pm Tuesday. Yes, VERY quick trip as well. I'll have to do another post about Omaha itself, but to make a long story short...

I GOT THE JOB!

I don't know if I'll be taking it as I don't have all of the details yet; however, I do know that I would be working in the dairy section. I could possibly be making your future Egg Beaters, Swiss Miss hot chocolate, Reddi-Whip, or Snack Pac puddings! Crazy, eh?

So, that's the big news of the moment. It's exciting and I'm relieved to finally have my gateway to the "real world." :)

Smile ... cuz I am!