Posted by mattcrane | Filed under Uncategorized
Hello All,
I’m on my last day of vacation here in CT, and I’m currently getting myself and the Crane household ready for house party night #6. First and foremost, I would like to thank my mom, sister, and brother for deciding to go to Maine for the week, hence leaving me with an empty house and a crew of old friends to fill it with.
Beers and indecency have followed, as one would expect, which is also why there will be no pictures in this post, as they by and large depict people I’m acquainted with in compromising scenarios. But safe to say, a good time has been had, and I think I am fulfilling my duties as a 23 year old American male to make the most of the summertime and party down.
A question for my older readers: Does shaving become dull and loathsome after ten, twenty, thirty so on years? I only wonder because I always seem to enjoy it, but as it’s a new pursuit for me, I’m not sure how long I might continue to take pleasure in this (usually) daily activity. But I’ve got to say, I like a good shave, although I’m currently working with only about 40% of my follicles, but hopefully further stages of puberty will change that. Anyway, cyclists are anal retentive folk who enjoy trying as hard as possible to turn perfect circles with their feet thousands of times a day, so it doesn’t surprise me that I enjoy the methodical process of using a razor, at least for now.
Ok, its time to musk up. I can’t wait to do a real ride tomorrow as opposed to a spin, but for now I’m looking forward to having the same party I’ve had every day this week, which I find in no way depressing.
Hope you are all enjoying your July!
Cheers
Crane
P.S. Tour? Something tells me good things about Sastre…
Summer Vacation Update #1
Posted by mattcrane | Filed under Uncategorized
Hello People
I have to apologize for my extended break from blogging. I have been on “vacation” at home in Greenwich, CT for the past 2 weeks having decided to hang out for a break in favor of sun and very little stress (haha, like you can ever get rid of that). However, I have been filled with things to say, but unfortunately, the internet at my house has been down the whole time I’ve been here (you can ask Murphy, he was around for awhile), but today, I think I managed to use my remedial abilities with technology to fix it for good.
On to the good stuff: Besides going to the beach a lot and hanging by my pool 50-62% of the day, I have been making small excursions to NYC to visit my friend Donia in Brooklyn, and more recently, to partake with her on esoteric cultural outings. This past weekends’ was at a full moon tribal dance ceremony of sorts in Chelsea at the art gallery (COSM: Chapel of Sacred Mirrors) of Alex Grey (see link at side). The artwork in the galleries was mind blowing, and needs to be seen to be truly appreciated, especially as most of the works were at least 8′6′.
Check out this crazy shimmering example of his work:
Before going any further, let me just point out that a vast majority of the people at this event were tripping so hard that the energy in the place was sky high. I’ll try and find one of their blogs, because I’m sure the descriptions they can give of the scene would be much more entertaining.
In the dance room itself there was total pandemonium, with a large group playing tribal drums in a furious, skillful manner, as flutists and random percussionists joined in; all of them facing out to an ecstatic dancing mass of artists, squares, gays, goths, hipsters, gypsies, hot chicks, beaticks–all manner of New York artsy party folk.
I jumped in the thick of it with my friends Donia and Jen, and I had a great time dancing and screaming for a few hours. With the intensity of the music and also the spiritual element of the affair, I found myself feeling a much happier, almost cathartic sensation than normal from experiencing music and dancing as part of a night out.
The next day I had a kick ass brunch with Dones before navigating the subway from Brooklyn back to Manhattan and then the train back to Old Greenwich, all of which allowed me plenty of time to continue reading “Infinite Jest,” which is the best book I’ve EVER fread, and one I can’t recommend enough.
I’m trying to keep updates smaller and more regular, so with internet hooked up, I will work on that. Lots to talk about, I’ll keep you all posted on previous goings on and future happenings!
Take Care
Matt
Back in New England
Posted by mattcrane | Filed under Uncategorized
I’m back in the good old Yankee North right now to touch base with the fam and do some privateer style racing during the lapse of team races for the summer. So far, I’ve been getting my ass kicked! Cox Charities had a surprisingly good course, and I will definitely try and do that race again. I wasn’t quite opened up enough to go as well as I might hope, but I drove to the race with my boy Andrew, and we had a good time catching up on the way, plus it was cool to have him come out and check out one of my days at the office.
Anyway, I’m currently hanging out in my hotel room here in Fitchburg. I had a decent time trial yesterday for 8th place, so I was happy about how this race was going until todays embarrassingly bad performance on my part. I think the only redeeming factor about my road race today is that I did some truly cathartic suffering up Mount Wachussett. By the last 500m, I was riding at about 50rpms and weaving all over the place, but I got up it!
Hopefully I will fare better tomorrow in the circuit race, but regardless, I am having a lot of fun doing some “summer vacation racing.” I definitely appreciate my team’s staff a lot more after this week’s reminder of how draining it is lugging all my stuff around and figuring out logistics, plus how many stupid little things there are to do that I’d forgotten about. So here’s to Mike, Joby, Jen, Randy, and Eva; thanks guys!
Ok, time to find something to eat, then after that I get to clean some bottles and my bike! I love this race, so hopefully I can ride a little better in the next 2 days. I’ll let you know!
You Know Who: Thanks for staying on top of things! To my credit, I haven’t had internet the last few days, but all the same, right you are!
Crane
