Monday, May 14, 2007

Recovery and Displacement

After a 2 week hiatus, I am back on the blog roll. Thanks for being patient with me. The last couple of weeks have been harder than I thought. I want to thank everyone for the good thoughts, messages, emails, and calls for Rebecca.

Rebecca and her family loved the below posts and comments. I wanted to leave them up for a couple weeks as they were getting 40 + hits per day.

As for me, I'm trying to move on and get a routine going. It's been pretty hard. Last week was my first week and weekend here in KC. It's been rougher than I thought. I'm still a bit weepy from Matt's death, and keeping busy here at my mom's has been my main priority. I've also tried to get back onto my bike saddle (so to speak).
Now, when I moved back, I knew that Kansas City was different from Denver in many ways. I knew from my mom that it is a lot less bike friendly. Well, nothing prepared me for my first ride along the new Southern Platte 'bike path' near my mom's neighborhood. A pair of sidewalks put in along Highway 45 connecting Parkville to Kansas City. I thought it might be an interesting ride - and I wasn't wrong. As I rode this 'bike path' and got a response from one drive by car, "GET A CAR" and another closer to the end of the path, "NICE ASS!!!! WOOOO!!!" As I turned off the bike path down a busier street to circle back into my mom's neighborhood, I got honked at (as if to say "get off the road") and as I waved at a car to thank them for NOT pulling out in front of me, I got an old man mouthing something close to, "%$#@*# bicyclist!"
Needless to say I won't be riding THAT path without my ipod!

So Saturday I went to see my rock star friend Greg's band play. It was really fun to see him rocking out like a heavy metal superstar. He was really good, and their band was a lot heavier than I thought. But all the same, I felt displaced. Old people, old places, and yet I still feel like I don't fit in. Even at his show, there weren't any people I could identify with. I awoke Sunday morning severely depressed. Although today I'm feeling better and excited to join the bike club tomorrow, I am starting to feel the pangs of relocation. I've already enrolled in a Spanish class, and am excited to visit my dad the first couple weeks of June - after which I'm debating on St. Louis or trucker road trip with Denny. It really depends on my money situation!

So as I prepare to go downtown to ride my bike around the airport in a somewhat less exciting but safer environment, I'll leave you with some pictures Josh made for me.




6 comments:

Denny said...

dont worry about the money situtation for the road trip, there will be more than enough work for you to do that you can be compensated for. Dont think Im going to take it easy on you either.

Anonymous said...

You should get a big ass rifle with a shoulder strap and wear it on your back while ridding your bike. I bet people will be a bit more "bike friendly".

-joshcoast.com

vivavavoom said...

I say go on the road with Denny to spice it up...maybe make a stop by St. Louis. Or come back to Denver and find a better job and be surrounded by some Mile High love and funk. but make sure denny has cool cities lined up.....like san francisco.

Ted said...

Nice to hear you're "back in the saddle", both literally and figuratively. I was sorry, of course, to hear about your friend -but anything I could say felt insufficient.

I'm a BIG proponent of exercise as meditation/prayer/entirely secular self-therapy. There's a great passage in the book "Virtual Light" about a character - a bike messanger - getting lost in the ride, feeling as if her bike fuses w/ her vertebrae like a tail. Real "one with everything" kind of stuff.

Hope you're well - the cruiser ride season starts this Wednesday - you'll be missed!

Anonymous said...

hi Cassie,
I'm a friend of Paul's, and i've linked to your blog from mine (if that's OK)...
your page is very entertaining. :)
~Damian

Anonymous said...

Sorry we missed you! Jason and I were in town for the Killers concert last Friday, and I didn't know you were in town. We only stayed one night, though.

~Jade