Craneimal: First of the news

Hey, things are starting to become more final! I've been working on some stuff that I'm really excited about and I should have enough information and direction in the next bit to share with y'all and make you excited, too! Here's a small clue:

Before I share more in a later post, let's talk about what I'm excited about right NOW that's been a bit more public and less behind-closed-curtains. For one.....

Photo: Andy Bokanev

CYCLOCROSS!!!!!

Second.....

photo from Pops! DBCphoto

CASCADIA BICYCLING TEAM!!! #RideSasquatch

Before I get into more, let's talk about those two. With my Jamis contract ending and my serious road racing being more in the rearview, I wanted bikes to be for nothing but FUN. Hence joining Sasquatch, a small local team in Seattle that is made up of my friends. Easy choices! Plus, since it's about fun, if the Sasquatch dudes want to eat pizza the night before the race, heck ya I will! Pizza-legs be damned.

Cyclocross is something that I did pretty regularly when I was a silly little dirt goblin back in the day. Then I got all serious about pedaling on the road, and if I did race a cyclocross race I would do a 3-5hour... warmup.... before doing the dirt pedaling contest. Riding on the road, in a group, and pavement in general are things that are super sketchy to me still, but I need bikes. I feel completely comfortable going 10mph on dirt and I'm racing single speed to... limit... myself on how crazy I can get.

Having weekly cyclocross races has been an amazing thing for my morale, and just having that "competition" back in my life has really made my Autumn be a good one.

Oh, and on Nov. 24 (3months post accident) I got a tattoo. In that post I wrote:

"Also, you better believe that when I win again, it will be very visible in the victory salute. See that! That's being positive right there"

I'll try to win again so the tattoo is actually in the picture, but that dude in the yellow-green shirt is seeing nothing but + right there

So cyclocross is really cool and I've got a couple more races to look forward to this year. Rad!

Next on the new new:

DBCphoto. Thanks dad!

METIER RACING AND COFFEE is the new venture of the people behind HSP- a coaching and training facility that I've been a part of since I was about to start my first cat 3 season. Then I won 5 races in a row, so I guess that foreshadows.... something?

Metier is aiming to be something different and something new and cool. It's a giant space that will have: a bike shop, bike retail, yoga, gym, classes, massage and physical therapists, acupuncture, bike fitting and training for cyclists, and a full cafe serving coffees, beers and wine, food and baked goods.

After deciding that I wasn't going to continue pursuing getting paid currency for pedaling circles, I realized that I would need to make some currency appear in order to continue to, ya know, live and stuff. I spent a month or so really grumpy, frustrated, and sad at my reality as I went from complete freedom to looking for an office job. This was not OK! Sorry to Marissa that she had to deal with me while I felt sorry for myself for that month.

Metier has been in the construction/prep process for awhile, but I had pretty quickly, post the "I need a job" decision, decided that I didn't want to work in a bike shop so I had never thought Metier might be a good spot for me. Then I started to spend more time with Eric Cockrell, as he is also a dirty single speed cyclocrosser like me. Eric is the manager of the cafe side of Metier, and as I talked with him more I saw his passion in the project, learned more about the cafe, and really bought in to the idea of a space like this. I realized that although I didn't want to work in a bike shop, I emotionally needed to be around bikes but also have a step before I started to *maybe* someday work in an office (yuck).

ARE YOU TELLING ME THAT THERE WAS A WAY THAT I COULD STILL BE AROUND BIKES, HANG OUT WITH PEOPLE I LIKE, AND LEARN NEW THINGS AND ON TOP OF ALL THAT MAKE $$$$ ??!?!?!

Sorry for yelling, that's a lot of words. My bad.

But yeah, I'm a cafe employee at Metier! We open officially tomorrow, hence this post coming out, but we've been doing a lot of training, prep, and VIP parties, so we're ready to go.

Photo: Ben Lindbloom

So if you're in the Seattle area, come visit me at "work", hang out in an awesome place, and you may as well buy a coffee or beer from me and sit in our comfy chairs and watch a race on TV or something.

And yes, I passed my WA Food Handlers Permit test. Because I do in fact know that you need to wash your hands after touching raw meat.

Ok, thanks for hangin' with me.