Biiikkkeee!

I bought my bike today! I've been looking for sometime, but haven't found anything either within my price range or something I really liked. I finally found a hybrid bike I liked by Gary Fisher (the Tiburon, ironic since that's the model name of Chris's car!), but the cheapest I could find was $400, not within my price limit. Last night I finally decided to just bite the bullet and buy a bike I liked since it'll be my main mode of transportation in Santa Barbara and Gary Fisher is a good name brand. Chris said we'd go to Bobcat Bikes in Salinas today to check them out since they carried bikes and it was the last place around here we hadn't checked (we checked Aquarian - expensive, some other one in Monterey - expensive-ish, and REI - expensive).

They were nice, I liked them. They let me ride 3 bikes (with Chris staying at the place as collateral - LoL) around the neighborhood. (I think I saw 8 cops on my 3 rides around the block - one pulled over a car too.) I tried a Specialized (the brand name) 17" women's mountain bike, a 15" Specialized men's mountain bike ($50 cheaper than the women's one), and a Trek 16" men's road bike. I originally was going to get a mountain bike, then decided on a hybrid, then was going to get a mountain bike on Amazon.com because it was cheaper, and then decided to go back to a hybrid once I found the Tiburon, and went to Bobcat Bikes with the idea of getting a hybrid. As luck would have it, I ended up leaving with the Specialized 17" women's mountain bike. LoL It's a $400 bike with a front suspension and, I think, 21 speeds. It has v-brakes (normal bike brakes, not disc). Chris likes disc brakes better (and they are supposed to be better), but they cost more and, I tell you, it's not easy to find a bike with disc brakes. It was my original intention to get them and that went out the door (along with my original price range of $150 for a bike...) once I realized how hard it was to get them. I also decided to go with the mountain bike because once I got into shape (boy, oh boy, do I need to get into shape), I can go mountain biking with Chris. :) Granted, my butt will hurt a lot (having no back suspension - called a hardtail bike), but it'll be fun. Chris isn't impressed with the shock I have (urban...soemthing...), which is about the lowest brand of shock you can have, but Chris asked the guy why they don't use rock shocks on the bike. The guy told him it made the bike cheap. :P Chris was concerned about how long the shock would actually last me and the guy said if I went biking in Fort Ord 5-days a week, it'd be a problem, but since I'm mostly using it as a road bike, it'll be okay.

To say the least, I bought a nicer bike instead of a Huffy or Schwinn because this bike will last me. Also, Chris is a biker and knows stuff about bikes and he probably wouldn't go near me and my bike with a 10' pole if I bought a Huffy or Schwinn. :P I also bought the bike in-store rather than on-line because I actually got to TEST the bike and check the height and all that. That was, I must admit, a lot of value right there for me. I'm kind of in a funky range for height of bikes and not all bikes are quite the same, so it was nice to know this bike worked for me. On top of it, Specialized on-line sells the bike for about $450 and some other places sell it for a bit more. So Bobcat Bikes really did have the best price. It's also the 2010 model.

Earlier today I was laughing because I told Chris, "Goodness. You got me into gaming; I know stuff about cars now; and now I know about bikes!" Chris says, "You're moving up in the world!" *rolls eyes* I told him I'll have to teach him stuff about horses and he says no because I'll eventually need to buy a car and I'm biking now so I need to know about bikes. I guess he has a point. LoL (He did read the first 4 Harry Potter books for me, though. :P ) From what I learned from Chris in regards to brands, it goes Huffy, Schwinn, Mongoose, Trek, Specialized, then Gary Fisher. Huffy/Schwinn being close and Trek/Specialized also being close.

I now need to buy a bike light, bike seat cover, bike mini pump, and bike lock. *sigh* I'm bleeding money. Why in the world did I think I could quit Borders on the 14th? LoL

My bike on Specialized's webpage. I have the brown stripe one. I think the picture is of the 15" one because the bar on my bike doesn't bend at all. It's perfectly straight. Chris and I found out there's a bend in some of the bikes to enable them to be "lower," but still support you when you stand.

Grad school roomie and apartment

I got my room assignment and roommate last week! My roommate is also a first year MESM student, which I'm very thankful for. It'll be nice to know someone immediately and understand a little of what I'm going through. I've found from CSUMB that rommates in different majors didn't always understand what ESSP students were going through with their workload and all that. So this will be nice.

I have my address for my apartment now and it's kind of weird, but I have one address for USPS mail and another for UPS, DHL, FedEx, and other independent carriers. Kind of weird...Must be how the city lines are drawn. My USPS address is in Santa Barbara, whereas my independent carrier address is in Goleta. The street number and apartment number are the same, just the cities and zips are different.

Other than that, there's a lot of e-mails bouncing around between MESM students, which is kind of nice. It seems like we're all going to get along really well. So I'm glad and excited about that.

My first registration pass starts at 3:45pm on Sept the 3rd. So I have to register ASAP to get the class times I want (we all get into the classes we want, just the times are different for labs). Most importantly, other than the times I want (I've already mapped out the times I want...LoL), I can't get my financial aid till I register for classes! My apartment fees and first rent is due the 15th of Sept and, though I'll get the money back, I'd rather get it deducted immediately from my financial aid rather than my pocket and then have to wait to get reimbursed.

I'm starting to look at textbooks on-line (the recommended ones to look over and one class's required texts) and I'm also going to need to start some writing exercises or something. My writing has deteriorated over the last year and the last thing I really want to do in the winter quarter is the writing workshop (I'm doing the no-credit calc and statistics workshops this fall quarter ON TOP of my 15 class units...).

My last day at Borders is the 31st of August. My last day at the Aquarium is the 30 of August. My shift is going to go out to dinner after shift on the 30th to have a "going away" dinner for me and for another shiftmate who is leaving for St. Andrews in Scotland for college! No clue about work, but I have another week before I leave to hang out with them.