Like most people, I can’t stand people that are like me.
It’s not because I see all of my own personality faults in them [I wisely choose not to acknowledge that], it’s actually far more basic. I just can’t stand people who are obsessed with multi-tasking; thinking about 20,000 things at a million miles a minute. If I’m honest with myself, though, I’m equally as irritating as the people who drive me insane.
No surprise then, that I start my day off with a cup of rocket fuel. Strong enough to keep the gears spinning for the next four hours or so, it’s sipped after a quick warm up on the rollers, while I check my inbox, pack a lunch, do my hair, and compile the day’s to-do list in my head. Bold, strong, and hot, it definitely makes this girl’s morning worth waking up for.
Then chugging the slowly cooling liquid, the bike ride to school is done while rummaging around my brain for lectures, events, rides, and errands that have to get done. People to email back, posts to publish, pictures to take. Climb four flights of stairs and change out of my shoes and sweaty clothes before sitting in class, taking notes, checking the NY Times, looking up the weather for the following week, deleting emails, jotting down random ideas, etc., etc., etc.
It’s not like I can’t sit still. I can. Quite well, in fact. It’s just – like most people my age – I’m addicted to multi-tasking. And when you add law school and cycling to the mix, it seems like it all has to be done at breakneck speed. Get to school fast, get reading done fast, get journal stuff done fast, get home fast. Sleep for a little while and get up fast tomorrow.
Rushing home yesterday for another cup of caffeinated diesel because the thin, watery stuff at school just wasn’t cutting it, I plopped down on my couch to fly through a few articles in the October issue of Bicycling Magazine. Even though really good writing seems extremely hard to find these days, I was still ready to read the thing from cover to cover in some ridiculously short amount of time.
Chance dictated that I would open the page to Bike Snob‘s column, and despite the steaming cup of coffee in my left hand, I finally managed to slow down. And think. And relax just a tiny bit.
Because according to BSNYC, I’ve been doing the equivalent of “shotgunning” my life, when it really should be “sipped” and “savored.” Okay, he was talking about bike rides, but when you’re spinning your way through life like you’re racing on 2:1 gearing, the analogy is appropriate. At least my ADD thinks so.
I read just a few articles, slowly drinking my coffee, actually tasting the stuff instead of trying to directly inject it into my bloodstream ASAP. I left most of the magazine unread, for later.
And then I got on my rollers and tried to make the time fly faster while watching an episode of CSI and allotting out sections of my night for whatever long list of things I had to do. Such is life.
[And here’s a Rapha Scarf Friday for you, complete with caffeine…]
Tags: bicycling magazine · bsnyc · coffee · multi-tasking · slow8 Comments
8 responses so far ↓
That’s the first time “really good writing” and “Bicycling Magazine” have ever appeared in the same sentence. I find it the cycling equivalent of People magazine – lots of words and pretty pictures, zero content.
The Boulder Report (on the website) is not so bad. It could be in the magazine itself… I don’t know – I don’t read that magazine either.
Bicycling might average 1 good article a month. i.e., sometimes 2, sometimes none. I realize this is a pretty weak ratio of good content to pages, but it’s worth pointing out if you want to read it at the airport newsstand. Last month had a good piece on Lemond. I thought Strickland’s Tour recap was actually well thought out, and not the usual bowing at Lance’s feet.
Your young and obviously brimming over with energy.
Go ahead and use it, enjoy it – you won’t run out of it until you get a little older. You can smell the roses then.
As Peter Mooney says, “Ride your bike and everything else will fall into place”
Ride On
Chris,
If you’ll contact me at my Rodale email (bill.strickland@rodale.com) and give me your address, I’d like to send you copies of about ten stories Bicycling has done lately that might make you rethink your zero content opinion. For sure, we do our share of telling people how to change a tire six times a year, but we want to stay in business and, god help us all, flat fixes and braking advice and articles with hundreds of tips keep the circulation high. But storytelling is important to me, and to the magazine.
Bill – just want to make it clear that Chris 2 is not Chris 1 here. Chris 2 says thanks for the offer, but I know that already. I don’t read it regularly (and don’t have a subscription), but I do pick up a copy every now and then and flip through it. I did love your article on Andy Hampsten on the 20th anniversary of the Passo Gavia – I bought that issue!
Just read Boulder Report’s article on Evans the Drama Queen. Hilarious and true…
my grandparents have that mcdonalds coffee mug score!
No worries, Chris 1 or Chris 2 or anyone else . . . and no offense intended or taken. I don’t care who doesn’t like Bicycling or People or Granta or Tokion or whatever. I just wanted to help Chris 1 make sure he doesn’t like Bicycling for an accurate reason.