I have the hiccups right now

So I have determined they were right when they said something about not being able to forget how to ride a bike. However, they said nothing about the process of getting on or off. Yesterday I rode the bike all the way out to the Transformer's house (Matthew, John, and Allan) before we sang Balita by Asin for the SEASSI Poetry Night.

In case you were not there, and chances are good that you were not, its a beautiful sad song written in the 1970's in protest of the Marcos regime (Relevant today still if you are following the political situation in the PI). There is beautiful imagery of birds in golden cages and a particularly poignant line about how once upon a time peace was the lullaby that lulled children to sleep. Then we had dinner with the Ate's-the affectionate name meaning 'older sister' that students call their female teachers-and then had drinks at our favorite spot here called Genna's. I love Ruby Red Vodka, so do my parents, in fact I think I might have found a replacement for my standard whiskey sour once in a while. A Ruby Red and Tonic. Its really nice and refreshing, the Mandarin and Tonic is also quite good.

A couple of kids from the Indonesian program joined us. One interesting girl named Juno (or Chloe, but she doesn't know this) who is actually Filipina. I have not figured out if I like her or not yet. She has this ridiculous laugh that was intolerable at first, but now its kind of endearing. But here is why I cant decide. The first time we met was following a film showing discussion, I forget what movie, probably the Philippine film "Crying Ladies" (not as good as this webpage makes it sound). Anyway during the discussion, she was really excited to talk about research her sister was doing on the Philippine sex trade, something I am interested in particularly after the Pinay sa Seattle showing of "Say I Do". We all went out to dinner afterward, including Juno. I was really excited to discuss the movie and her sister's work with her, but she was entirely uninterested in what I had to say, and had lost all the enthusiasm she displayed during the film discussion. This lack of basic respect is mildly unforgivable to me. But yesterday she was less cold and actually interested in my research, but of course I did not oblige her interest because I am kind of a jerk that way. But now that I have that out of my system, we can move on.

Juno, Julia, and I all brought our bikes with us last night. We all live in the same general direction so Juno guided us home. Julia is only slightly better at bike riding than me. At least she can gracefully start and stop riding. But her brakes require her to back peddle so she is scared of going fast. Juno was really patient with us and me in particular and gave me some good advice about practicing standing while I peddle to improve balance etc... and to date someone who is an avid bike rider and have them give me lessons. Anyway I made Julia (perhaps the most easily frightened one of us) ride with me back to my house because I think someone tried to brake in Friday night.

Its quite possible I imagined it, but here is what happened. I was home alone watching "Short Cuts" on our digital cable (I have decided that if I have to pay $16 a month for it, I better get my moneys worth, and I sure did this weekend). It was around 12:30 am and I heard what sounded like footsteps walking past our kitchen window. The area outside our window is fairly narrow, and with all the big spiders out here there is no way a sane person would want to walk through there at night. So I gave them the benefit of the doubt and continued watching the movie, with slightly lowered volume. A few minutes later, I here the fairly unique sound of someone pulling with great force on the locked sliding door handle in my bedroom.

I am really freaked out now and punch 9-1-1 on my cell phone, noting how bad the reception is in my house, I decide to go shut all the windows and turn off all the lights. I grab a knife out of the kitchen on my way. I do my best spy impersonation sliding around the walls and corners of my house. Nothing scares me more than someone/thing outside a dark window. I don't hear anymore sounds or see anything outside, though I am doing my best not to really look outside so I don't freak myself out further. After my eyes adjust to the darkness, I put my keys in my pocket and put on my flip flops and get into bed, with my phone in one hand and the knife in the other. Then I realize that I didn't here the screen door open or close, while there was plenty of time between when I first heard the sound and when I actually was brave enough to go into my room for it to be closed, I am still suspicious. I go to look, and the screen door is closed.

So I don't really know. The other day, one of my roommates left a shirt on a chair out on our back patio, and in the morning when I got my bike off our porch, I noticed it had fallen to the ground, but that is not really hard proof of anything. I was still really scared though and I hate being alone in that house at night. My mom and I tried to think of things I could do other than, you know move somewhere else for three weeks. Our solutions were to buy a wooden dowel to put in the door jam, tie fishing line at ankle height around the posts holding up the deck, brake a beer bottle and sprinkle the glass outside my door (aka Mission Impossible 1 or maybe The Saint, I don't remember), or just move the patio furniture against my door so it would make a loud noise is someone tried to move it.

I decided on the last option because it didn't require me to go to a hardware store to buy a large stick and a hand saw, or do anything to make myself look shitcrazy or injure myself if I walk around barefoot. So I feel a little better now that the furniture is in place, I made Julia bike me home, and that Eric is back from LA.

Today I woke up late, well 830 then forced myself to go back to bed after getting back around 3am, watched Stanley Kubrick's Lolita until mid-afternoon, then decided to bike out to my favorite coffee shop Barriques. I wasn't sure of the best way to get there so I hopped on the bike path and planned to ride until the point where it was closed for construction last week and make my way from there. Turns out the construction was finished so I decided I could be studious some other time and followed the bike path down to Lake Monona (?). when I got to the path that surrounds the lake, I noticed a good deal of cracking on my bike tire. Now I no nothing about bikes but common sense told me that if the integrity of the wall of something containing pressure is weakened, something that my life relies on while biking at high speed down a hill, I could potentially get myself into a bad situation. I tried calling all the bikers I know, but no one answered, so i continued biking. I rode all the way to the end of the path in a industrial area that I want to bring my camera back to, but would be terrifying at night. I turned around and started back to the lake. I happened to find a bike store and the friendly employees told me that I could probably make it back to the bike store that rented me the bike before the tire blew out, and they should be able to replace it at no charge. That is exactly what happened, and now I am at the coffee shop Indie Coffee, which is across the street from the bike shop and three blocks from my house, trying to read the nearly impossible Noli Me Tangere in Tagalog (wikipedia it) but an old Tagalog that uses the letter 'c' and words that are not in my dictionary. This is strictly for personal enrichment because my vocab and reading skills are dropping, I just picked something of cultural and historical significance that happened to be way beyond my comprehension level. But I am not giving up yet. So...sorry for the really long and boring post, I just realized I have not actually talked to anyone today other than bike shop employees and this barista. Maybe that is why!