Closing Streets

Jack from BikeTexas, telling a cyclist
what kind of work we do.

A couple of weeks ago, Chad and I went with BikeTexas to Síclovía in San Antonio. For a few hours on a Sunday afternoon, a major street through downtown San Antonio was closed to motor traffic and open to walkers, skaters, skateboarders, runners, cyclists, dogwalkers... you name it, people were out doing it. There were people near us playing something ping-pong-ish in the road. Children deployed their sidewalk chalk. UT San Antonio Pharmacy students had a hula-hoop and jump rope station.

The parade at Síclovía.

Taking advantage of the closed streets.
That yellow thing in the corner
is Jack's (above) cargo bike.

BikeTexas was "renting" out bikes-- they were free for people to take and use, so long as they left us with some credit card information in case they and the bikes didn't come back again. (They all did.) Chad helped with the bikes, at his first BikeTexas event, while I was at the membership/petition-signing booth. I'm not very good at the spiel, by the way, but I did get credit for one guy becoming a member. (The abbreviated spiel: A lot of BikeTexas' funding comes from the dues people and organizations pay for us to do bicycle advocacy on their behalf. We need members!)

GE's logo thing.

A robot at the GE booth.
I'm not sure what it does,
because it was standing
still the whole time.

Also in the closed-streets department: A bunch of streets in downtown Austin are closed this week for South by Southwest. Ordinarily, a closed street brings me delight, since I can walk across it without fearing for my life. Not so during SXSW: The closed streets are clogged with pedestrians, bicycles, pedicabbers, and food vendors, so getting around is not as easy as it sounds. Yesterday, the whole of BikeTexas rode from our office across downtown for a GE Mobile Fridge (I think that's what they were calling it) event. They were making some non-conventional bike racks, which as I understand it will eventually be deployed around Austin.

At the GE event. These are a couple of the bike racks;
in the background is the workshop where things were
happening!

Everyone who works for BikeTexas always wears a helmet while riding, in a "set a good example" kind of way. So there was quite a train of helmeted riders trying to cross town yesterday, and we mixed in with a bunch of other cyclists on the way, some with helmets, some not. So many helmeted riders in one place are such an unusual sight that a pedicabber behind me said, "Wow, everybody's wearing helmets; that's awesome. All except for that [deleted]. He's gonna get killed."

And finally, a closed-street event that isn't a marathon or SXSW is coming to Austin: We're getting our very own Viva Streets. What's more, it's the weekend of graduation. That means I get to drag my entire family downtown to see what all the fuss is about, plus they'll get to meet all the lovely people I work with at BikeTexas. And, of course, it means I'll get to enjoy the festival without having to stand at a booth. Yay!

The Viva Streets route through Austin. Are you going to be in town
May 20th? I know a fun place you can go! Source.

Have you ever been to a street-closing event? A massive music/film/whatever festival? Something else really fun that I'd love to know about?

Do You Have a Diem That Needs to be Carpe-d?

I don't know; this seemed like a
"Seize the Day" kind of picture.

I saw that on an ad, I think for some sort of coffee, a couple of weeks ago, and thought it was hysterical. But it's possible that I was running on too-little sleep that day.

So! I've had many occasions this week to consider this verse: "So watch your step. Use your head. Make the most of every chance you get." (Ephesians 5:15-16, The Message) It has occurred to me that "chances" come thick and fast, if I have my eyes open to watch for them.

Yesterday morning I was at a volunteer event and ended up in a (Spanish) conversation with three Venezuelans, one Colombian, and one Mexican. Which was absolutely fabulous, because I wasn't expecting any Spanish practise when I got out of bed. Anyone who has learned a second (or third) language knows that part of the challenge is not only the words, but also the voice; each person's voice and accent are just a teensy bit different than everyone else's. Not a problem in one's native language, but an extra hurdle for the language learner. And even countries that speak the same language and are neighbours don't use all the same words in the same way (like the US and Canada, eh?). I managed to jump into the conversation when we started talking about Congress Avenue being blocked (for a different event). If any of them were surprised that I had been listening, they didn't show it.

And another one (not me this time): On Friday morning I was on the bus and we had just pulled into downtown. A man hailed our bus and explained to the driver that there was a blind passenger coming. So the driver waited, naturally, for the man to make his way onto the bus. Such a simple act of kindness on the part of the man who stopped the bus, and I'm sure he didn't even hesitate before acting, but it would have been just as easy for him to ignore a blind person at the bus stop. He could have called it "Not my problem" and went on his way. But he didn't, and he blessed the man waiting and really, all of us on the bus who got to witness it. I've said it before: I have seen the best of humanity while riding the bus.

A chance may come my way any minute: A chance to show a kindness, or to be an encourager. A chance to give some change to a stranger. Or a chance to learn something and spread my wings a bit more-- at the end of our event yesterday, the woman from Venezuela hugged me and we parted with many "mucho gusto"s (Nice to meet you). Or, just a chance to do the right thing, whether anyone cares or not, like picking up some rubbish off the ground and throwing it away properly. And of course (I have to bring it back to writing), these chances all add up to that experiential life I was talking about on Thursday, and they all give depth and breadth to my writing. So everyone goes home happy.

What about you? What chances have come your way recently?

A Spanish Story, Again

I was quite flattered that the Runner from A Runner's Life requested the Spanish version of the story I posted a couple of days ago. So, if there are any other Spanish-speaking readers out there, here's the original! You can read it in English here (unless you're anxious to get Google Translate some work; in that case, on you go).

A Spanish Story

I wrote this story for an in-class composition for Spanish class, decided I didn't want it going to waste, so I published it on Facebook in Spanish. However, the majority of my FB friends (and, I suspect, blog readers) are not Spanish speakers and therefore couldn't benefit from my mad storytelling skills. ;)

I'm actually really proud of this story, because I wrote it directly in Spanish. For my essays, I generally write in English first and then translate to Spanish (because my Rhetoric brain wins over my Spanish brain pretty much every time; I have to get the ideas down in one form or another, and English is the easiest way to do that). But since this was a fiction story, and my first Spanish writing since I was in high school, I was über-happy with it. And I got an A on it, which is always a bonus.

So I translated it to English to share with you.

New Genre for Me!

A real, live schoolroom from the time
of the school story heyday.

 For years, I've been obsessed with school stories.

At some point in high school, I realised that I was only about 50 years behind the times with my favourite genre, since apparently the heyday of school stories was before World War Two. One of my favourite series, The Chalet School by Elinor Brent-Dyer, is indeed from this time period. EBD's writing style influenced mine a lot for a while, which is kind of a bummer, because it's not really a modern-day voice (and as much as I like her stories, her writing is actually kind of wonky), but I think I've managed to shift her out of my immediate consciousness and found her a place in the composite of authors who all influence me a little bit.

Moving to Britain was a revelation, since there are a lot more British school stories than American, and I could get my hands on a lot more of them. And thanks to the genius of JK Rowling and Harry Potter, the school story as a genre has been brought back from the vaults. Yay!

Litocide

Terry Pratchett expresses so well how I feel about academia messing with things that I like to read:

"Susan hated Literature. She'd much prefer to read a good book... She listened with half an ear to what the rest of the class was doing. It was a poem about daffodils. Apparently the poet had liked them very much. Susan was quite stoical about this. People could like daffodils if they wanted to. They just should not, in Susan's very definite and precise opinion, be allowed to take up more than a page to say so."

I agree with Susan. (I'm fairly certain that Pratchett did not have me in mind, but if he did, I'd like some royalties.) Mostly agree, anyway; I'm happy for people to take up as much space as they'd like to write about daffodils or indeed any other subject, so long as I am not required to read it.

Changing It Up-- Already

I started UT with a double major in Rhetoric and Writing and Hispanic Linguistics.

We've realised that, if I'm willing to sacrifice 1) sanity, 2) a social life, 3) TV, 4) recreational reading, and 5) free time, I could get through UT with a double major by next December. If I give up sleep, I can even do it with University honours. It's the recreational reading and sleep parts that are holding me back (and the free time, a little bit; how can I tell you about my life & times if I don't have time to blog?). 

Language, Language

My last class of the day is Spanish literature (also my hardest class of the day, but those are the breaks). I'm already thinking in Spanish when I leave class, so I generally try to keep my thoughts going in Spanish until I get home and must use English with my husband (although he does do his best to take advantage of my Spanish education in a 2-for-1 kind of way).