let me be clear...i'm a commuter, by design

i'm a bike commuter type cyclist. i ride to work. i dont go fast, i dont wear lycra. i do wear a helmet these days, (thanks for the gentle reminder tony eubanks) but i dont race, i'm not a hammerhead, in fact i'm the slowest rider out there. in fact i should print a shirt that says caboose.
so i just wanna make it clear, all the cycling babble that i post relentlessly on facebook and my blog, is about a lifestyle choice for health, clean energy, saving $$, and hating to drive. now i dont mind a good road trip once in a while, but that's a different story and not one i'll be doing in the middle of gas wars.
so back to cycling, yes, i am all things bike b/c i love the peace, beauty, and health it affords me every single day i do it. i even had an epiphany in graduate school, (which they let me into because i said i wanted to be a great public servant) but in what area i did not know at the time. not consciously anyway. those who know me will say, girl, you sold your car back in 1986 and have been on a bike ever since, how could you not know you would serve the cycling world one day? well i just didnt.
i simply rode for me. see cycling has always been an independent thing, just you and your bike, that's all you need. and as for jobs in the early years, i was caught up in my late 20's and floundering 30's with private sector pursuits. and oddly enough, that stint in corporate america has not only gotten me two great jobs since then, and into a #4 ranked graduate program, but it may very well provide the balance in the public sector work that nonprofits need and that i'm poised to do. we've all heard it said, government or nonprofits ought to work more like the markets or private sector. well i have one foot in each or rather i have amassed a skill set from each and maybe, just maybe, that positions me well to go lead a bicycle commuting advocacy organization. we'll see.
in the meantime, yes i'm looking for a job, a great job that aligns with my passions, and during the search you can find me commuting to work daily by bike (in regular clothes), taking a bike with me on vacation, riding in the country on the weekends with folks who go a little bit faster, and trying out every bikeshare fleet i come across in cities across America and in vacation destinations. after all, my motto is: have passport will travel (by bike). yea, i added that last part recently.
you will also hear from time to time about other modes of travel that i also love, like train journeys, with sleeper cars and showerettes, or subway, light rails, street cars. i really will do most anything to use public transit and enjoy the ride before i will jump in a car. yes, i do own one now. its a 10-year old subaru that i bought out west when i lived in snow country out of necessity. dad checked it out last weekend and said its running just fine and will for another 10 years or so. with this mentality or approach to commuting, i have managed to never have a daily drive to work, ever in my life and i have been employed since i was 18...so let's just say 3 decades or so. here's how...
GA (commute 1)
in college, i sold the aforementioned car, a v-8 ford mustang that all the men in my family took me to pick out when i graduated high school. vroom! college campuses are contained, even ones in agricultural states, and i lived nearby so i just biked to work.
DC (commute 2)
i rented from my aunt in virginia when i first got there and i worked on capitol hill, so i learned a good chunk of the metro really well. i targeted a neighborhood less than 2 miles from work (once i left the hill and went to work for mckinsey) and looked for a rental. john & lucinda offered an english basement in cleveland park (where i still visit them today) and i could bike, metro (subway or bus), and on really bad days cab it to work. mckinsey paid me to do it (commuter subsidy of metro cards) my friends remember those b/c i always had a surplus from biking. oh, and mckinsey put in 3 showers for the office. note this was back in 1989! i never owned a car, bought gas, paid parking tickets, insurance, fines, got towed, had fender benders, or had road rage. instead i read the paper, worked the puzzle, got some exercise, got super fit, saved money, and threw away the gym membership. who am i kidding, i never paid for the gym.
CA (commute 3)
in cali, i couch surfed on the peninsula at first and took the cal train, a double decker, from san carlos into SF every day for work. once the couch was claimed by new babies, i rented over in the oakland hills with friends from DC who had proceeded me and scouted the scene. i biked down the hills every day to the bart station, jumped on and rode it under the bay from berkeley to san francisco and read the paper, skipped by the latte shop on the way in and tried not to look straight up like every other newbie in town as i walked 3-4 blocks to work in the bank of america building (no not the pointy one, thats the nearby transamerica building and equally as tall, 52 floors) all this joy, while millions above me drove across the bay bridge at $4 a pop each way and that only occurred after you waited in the slug line and picked up 2+ riders so you could even be allowed to drive across the bridge in rush hour once your lane got the green light, to later arrive at a parking deck in SF where the going daily rate was $25.00 per car per day.
CA (commute 4)
after 1 short year in the bay area, i ditched it all. turns out when i moved from DC to CA, i not only needed a change of scenery and CLIMATE, i needed a break too. so i ducked out to europe for a year. confession, i had leased a car that year, (to prepare for moving to tahoe, which i did later) so i put all my stuff in one of those storage PODS and they came to get it. i left some $$ in the bank and put the credit card on auto pay, (my only obligation), turned in my cell phone (that's what you did back then) and sub-leased my car to a SF coworker who wanted to explore car ownership. and left. i bought a eurail pass and trained everywhere for a year, the pass included subways, busses, funiculars, and ferries. once or twice i ended up in a vehicle when the owner of the guest house where i worked for room/board took us into town to food shop.
GA (commute 5)
then i came back...or ran out of $$. i couch surfed in GA at kim and laura's houses, both of which were near marta stations and i commuted to work in the ATL office of mckinsey for a stint. just like i had done in DC and CA, all 3 of which had a slick dress code in a high profile corporate setting. summer came and i remembered why i had left GA so i returned to CA to get my stuff.
CA (commute 6)
looked for work, squatted in dad's empty apartment left open by early upgrade. biked around foster city by the bay. figured out how to talk mckinsey into outsourcing me and moved to tahoe pronto. took the car with me and walked, biked, or skied, or hitched to work. later when i got the job working for the chamber of commerce on the 'other' side of the lake, (nevada) i drove. so yes, i did commute to work by car, in lake tahoe, wearing shorts, to work by the lake and tell folks where to have fun. i took one for the team there for sure. eventually we all worked on a ski mountain and carpooled or once i even lived at the base of the mountain and hitched rides up to the gate every morning. one road in, one road out.
GA (commute 7)
7 years ago, crap almost 8, i moved back. i scouted athens immediately to see how bike-able it still was from my college days and after house-sitting for a bit, (aint that always the way?) i bought a home within a 2-mile radius of downtown and UGA knowing i would work somewhere in that mix and bike in. i do. its intentional, its been great fun, and its totally doable. now get out there and make some choices people, ones that work for you regardless of what they look like to the rest of society. oh, and enjoy it. i know you will. in fact, holler once you're there.

double dawg

GRADUATION BRUNCH
yep, i legitimately walked through the Arch at the university of georgia a second time. in early april i took comps for a master of public admnistration degree. later in may, i put on the cap and gown and walked into the coliseum from the tunnels just like a gladiator and was celebrated on stage with my name announced, my family watching, and fun new shoes just for the occasion. the day was a blast and we followed up the ceremony with brunch al fresco in my pecan orchard back yard eating ham/cheese biscuits from harry's pig shop, red mule yellow grit cakes w/roasted red pepper sauce grilled by dad, fresh fruit w/yogurt drizzle, mimosas, nancy's savory mini quiches, home-made strawberry swirl pound cake, right off the cover of southern living and prepared by mom, along with some cute little mortar board capcakes.
COMPS
an even better part leading up to graduation day was passing my comps with distinction. 60 or so of us took comps from an entry class of about 150 that joined up two years ago. only 6 of us were awarded the pass with distinction award and later shown the remarks by the scorers indicating just such scoring. i mean i knew i was learning plenty in my program, and i knew i was passionate and focused about alternate transportation policy, and i knew with the exception of micro-economics (tedious little stuff) that i was making great grades which i knew i had solidly earned. and even the comps case study, which at first i was faintly intrigued by, turned out to be a social service technique that i could learn a lot about and echoed tales of a public servant i had studied  :about in a leadership course (which by the way was deemed by my advisor to be a wasted class that i hadnt needed to take) dr. rainey, you and i know differently :). the leader i had studied was later thought of by us in the biz as an unsung hero and a giant in public service circles. and i came up with a solution to the case study presented at comps and 2 weeks later went onsite to write about that unsung hero modeling my solution of a champion for the cause, a toolkit, and solid policy after that legendary man.
EXAM DAY
we were assigned exam rooms in candler hall, a swanky, pottery barn decor filled hall. a few of us relocated from the crowded room filled with nervous nellies to a smaller quieter room down the hall b/c it was determined that morning that some front row seats had no power supply and thus laptops could not be used. i was thankful for the quiet room. i went in, sat down with my blank copy of the kennedy school of government case study on wraparound services in milwaukee for behaviorally challenged youth. at the bell, i scribbled out the mnemonic i had created to remember my five main points, textbooks to cite, quotes to use, and began to construct the 1500 word answer i had had 2 weeks to prepare and try to memorize. and lastly, i put it all together, all that i had learned...and the best part was...i loved it! i had such a great experience and i knew i rocked the exam and that i had never enjoyed a test so much in my life. and then, two agonizing weeks later...i got the email.
VALIDATION
tsanchez, you have passed comps. okay. in a few minutes 6 of you will receive another email indicating you have not only passed, but you have been assigned a rare "pass with distinction" by both scorers. i was headed out to a meeting in hartwell where i had to pick up the UGA rental vehicle, load up the students and boogie down the road to their in-person, final client presentation. i stared at the computer screen hitting refresh on my inbox...tick tock, tick tock...tsanchez, you have passed with distinction. eeeek! i let out a yelp and put both hands over my mouth. i squeaked again and regina, my only co-worker to notice (or care) stepped into my office and said what is it?  I PASSED MY COMPS...WITH DISTINCTION...AND ONLY 5 OTHERS DID SO. yay me. indeed, yay me.
like i said earlier, i knew all that stuff was working out, and the progress was evident, but let me tell you something, validation is a cool thing. no matter what. no matter how many times my boyfriend called me smart girl, and no matter how many times my co-workers who wrote letters of reference for grad school (because i only had a GRE of 1050 and under 1000 they dont even let you in), and no matter how many times they said they were happy to because i was very bright, i still did not know that. i honestly did not know i could do it. and that is what is fabulous, now i know. and now i am a double dawg, i walked under the arch in 1988 as an undergrad and in 2011 as a masters graduate. sweet.