Still Sick, Trying to Avoid the Automobile

I decided to wimp out and drive to school today. I think I probably could have biked. But I was feeling tired and icky in the morning, and decided to sleep in.

I feel a little like I'm cheating. Part of the reason I'm biking so much is for proof of concept. I want to see that I can manage without a car once I move for grad school. I'm trying to commute by bike, grocery shop by bike, and generally avoid turning that internal combustion engine over.

I suppose a little cheating is ok. I'm living in a city that is not particularly conducive to utility bicycling. The layout is poor, streets are not in the best condition, and motorists are not accustomed to sharing the road. As well, the public transportation system is poor, especially in comparison with Chicago. Buses run once an hour, and stop in the early evening. The timing of their arrival is such that I would sometimes need to get to school almost an hour early to ensure I won't be a few minutes late to class. Living in a large city, public transit would be my backup for days when I don't or won't bike. In Kenosha, that doesn't work very well.

Anyway, I'm sneezing and sniffly, but I really have to be here today. It's the first meeting for the group of us who are going to Chiapas in March, and I want to be there so I know what's going on. Beyond that, I have a lot of anxiety about missing classes, regardless of the reason or infrequency. (In fact, I'll likely miss some of my history class for the Chiapas meeting, and though I have an acquaintance there taking notes, it still makes me nervous.)

It's a little ironic that, though I've biked the other four days this week, I ended up being late only today when I drove! My brother has been using the car, and though he put some gas in at one point, when I got in this morning the gauge read low enough that I was concerned I wouldn't make it to school. I had to stop and put gas in the car, which made Tim (the other brother who was riding with me) and I a few minutes late. I'll have to talk to the driving brother about ensuring there's at least a quarter tank of gas in the car when he's done with it.

Trip to a Zapatista Caracole

I'm back from school. I'm still feeling sick. My mother said this only lasted a couple days for her, so I hope to be better tomorrow. In the meantime, I have a guy coming to buy my drumset tonight, in theory. The money will pay for a hammock for me when I'm in Chiapas.

This weekend, I will likely hole up in my room and do reading. I have pieces related to people of color in general (there's a piece by Bell Hooks, who is a postmodern feminist thinker on topics of gender and race) and Las Zapatistas in particular. I have an article about paradigms in the field of urban history. And I have a few books that I need to work my way through in the next few weeks.

At some point this weekend though, I need to get out and buy some girl scout cookies. Speaking of issues of gender, I will go out of my way to support girl scouts for their inclusive policies. And they have damned good cookies.

I had my first meeting today with the group I'm travelling with to Chiapas. Including the professor, there are only five of us. That's good in its way; I feel optimistic about learning to tell them apart visually and get to know them. We talked about our itinerary. As I was so very much hoping, we are going to spend a day at the Mayan ruin of Palenque! We will be travelling within a Zapatista caracole (Caracoles are the Zapatista governance unit; the name refers to a conch shell.) to a town that very few non-indigenous people are permitted to visit. We'll be travelling with the local folks for stretches, probably via sitting in the back of pickup trucks and bouncing along the trails.

I'm really excited about this; my first time outside of North America! I want some culture shock!

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"The Zapatista caracoles and Good Governments: The Long Walk to Autonomy", from an online journal called State of Nature.

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And this is the Mayan archaeological site we'll spend a day at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palenque

Paperless Walgreens

The Walgreens near my house is now offering paperless receipts via email. I dig it!