don't push me, cuz i'm close to the edge...

well, not literally but spiritually and emotionally yes. in case you haven't heard i'm looking for a job. not just any job, i have one of those. i mean a great job! one that isn't a soul suck and that needs my passion and energy to make it happen. actually we all need this and i wish you all the courage to search for it. this will be my third career and since i'm a classic late bloomer, it will surprise none of you that it took me this long to get here. whatever! i'm here and i'm ready. they call it transportation demand management or more simply finding another way to get there. i want to work in the arena that encourages folks to get out of cars b/c there are healthier options, and ones that pollute less and dont create code orange smog alert days every day of our lives. to me those things look like: commuter trains from the suburbs, high-speed passenger rail in between major cities, street cars for quaint downtown business district or trolleys, bicycle paths and greenways, and yes hybrid cars for routes within your own hood (and beyond actually).
so i'm walking the talk, going to all the conferences and workshops and having coffee with anyone i can think of  who will hire me, connect me with someone, or just give some good advice because you can never have too much of that. so if we haven't talked lately, chime in. who do you know? i want to do this work in athens or decatur/atlanta because i feel i truly want to give back to my hometown and help it get to where many other great cities are in terms of resolving transportation gridlock and congestion nightmares. its doable and i vacation regularly in those places...when i get close to the edge and cant take it much more. so tahoe, here i come...atlanta better hope they dont hire me away out there.

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.

westside ladies who bike...in skirts if they wanna

i'm startin a social: westside ladies who bike...in skirts if they wanna.

and to encourage and educate i put up some pix on facebook of how i dress when i bike about town daily.

p.s. the real cycle chic can be found here:  
http://www.copenhagencyclechic.com/

here's a sample route, 6-miler around town...

westside ladies who ride

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Reroute the gambler to help raise awareness of the Firefly Rail Trail

It's the same general area and the pitstops are way cooler, they would be in old railroad depots! Anybody game? If so, help me reach Gene Dixon and the Twilight crew ASAP. Let's make it happen in 2011.
Coming to you April 29-30...see ya here.

View New twilight gambler route in a larger map

escape to DC

georgia had a white xmas and after we took it in with all the family, we hit the road headed north. we did wait out the storm a day just to avoid all the nutters and rookies on the road. then we hit the mountain route north which was scenic and snow covered. pitstops at VaTech, Skyline Drive made for nice diversions en route. fancy gap isnt all that fancy but they do have some serious fog. i'd consider a rename myself. the metro wasnt crowded, the museums are still all free, and annapolis still has the best crabcakes on the planet. all told it was a fine week of monument seeking, museum strolling, dog walking, picture taking fun. a few moments like attack of the stink bugs and an emergency root canal weren't planned, but we dealt with them and were back on track lickety split. all told, it was a fun, cheap, refreshing, week in DC.

• avis rental car $325.00
• 5 tanks of gas $200.00
• lodging 0.00 (thanks con & howdy)
• meals 0.00 (thanks dad)
• groceries $35.00
• root canal $2000.00 ouch!
• almost made it into the priceless category.
• GT $560.00 for 2 peeps, 1 dog, 1 SUV, 1 holiday week in DC

Folks whose great work impacted me in 2010

Janette Sadik-Khan - NYDOT Summer Streets architect
Mia Birk - President ALTA Design and author of Joyride
Ray LaHood - USDOT - Bike-Ped policy inclusion, creation of Office of Livability
Barack and Michelle Obama - President and creator of Let's Move Healthy Campaign
Keith McLaughlin - Rails to Trails Director, AAA campaign
Ginny Sullivan - USBRS profiles of leaders
Kirsten E. Gillibrand, NY Senator kicking butt
Karl Enchelmayer - bike ride from Seattle to Miami for 'Aids Athens'
Rebecca Serna - Atlanta Bike Coalition Director - Streets Alive
Carrie Roetger - Teacher Morningside Elem.
Alice Waters - Community Gardens Awards
Jan - Athens Farmer's Market Manager
...thanks for all the great work and leadership. i'll try to follow your lead in 2011.
happy holidays to all!

10 best moments in 2010 came from freedom/focus

there are many, but since this is the year of bike/ped for me, my list truly has to start with the epiphany to focus on bike/ped policy in may as a volunteer at a conference that David Byrne headlined. perhaps it actually started in january in joan prittie's grantwriting course where i wrote a small grant to fund the REM Murmur trestle restoration. she gave me freedom. but the first time i knew it and acted on it was GA rides to the capitol on March 22 where hundreds of us descended on the capitol to lobby the general assembly to pass the 3-foot law.
1 - volunteering at CNU18 conference all week in exchange for attending anything i wanted including lectures from Andres Duany, HUD Sec. Donovan, Island Press authors, Charles Brewer, Mayors Reed, Franklin and of course David Byrne. many of you will say, duh, um tracie have you looked in a mirror? you are bike/ped and have been...what took you so long? well if i knew the answer to the latter many things might have come to pass by now. be that as it may, its a fine time to be involved in bike/ped.
2 - independent study on greenway corridors where a professor who sponsored my research said, oh, by the way, your keyword is 'active living' and thus focused my entire body of work on active living which cleverly combines transportation policy + public health policy.

3 - being asked to join Oconee River Greenway Commission and bikeAthens as boardmembers and joining up with a fine group of folks poised for the next chapter of alternative transportation solutions for athens
4 - being allowed to join the Firefly Trail advisory group and design their npo development plan
5 - are you sensing a theme here? yea, well it continues. each graduate school professor gave me freedom to write about bike/ped: cycling advocates as atypical leaders, greenway corridor plans, economic analysis of ciclovias, trail coalition development, active living as solutions to obesity, and grants for railroad trestle restoration...even though we dont offer a transportation policy degree. ha!

6 - attended three free transportation summits, bike summit 2010, Macon intermodal summit, and CNU18 whose focus was transportation solutions for ATL and being sought out as uber volunteer to help at CNU19 in Madison, WI
7 - being supported by it all by a patient, encouraging partner and the best hound dog ever who takes good care of me when my mind is on other things
8 - biking about a 1,000 miles and enjoying perfect health, weight loss, vacation adventures, new commuting & cycling friends and only incurring one loss, a broken seat post which josh, at sunshine cycles repaired in minutes and so far, is still holding
9 - managing to take the career on the horizon, all the passion, support, and new focus associated with it to shush the discontent from current job burn out
10 - holding out to see how the year finishes up...2 job interviews and lots of apps out, PMF, CDC, NPS, ATL, Beltline and such. 

ukelele by bicycle tour comin to athens this week

aaron lee is due in athens thursday by bike...he's been riding from maine since
february. all his songs feature the word ukelele. its gonna be fun. have a sneak peek or listen here and then swing by the Globe for an early show at 8pm Thurs 11/18.

meals from trader joe's new store in athens

I've eaten from this store for years, but not IN years b/c we didnt have one in Athens. Now we do and i'm thrilled. I can pretty much buy all i need to exist at this store. $88 buys all this and there will be several servings and thus numerous meals from this sampling...i'll let ya know how long it lasts.

breakfasts

• 10-grain bread with balade light butter and pumpkin butter
• greek style yogurt with canadian maple syrup on wholegrain waffle
• maple brown sugar whole grain oatmeal w/tart mortmorency dried cherries, w/toast n balade light butter
• oolong tea w/organic blue agave sweetener
• soymilk w/organic raisin pumpkin seed crunch cereal
  

lunches

• vegetable pad thai
• dover sole with butterbeans n spinach
• tarte d'alsace w/ham, carmelized onions, gruyere
• ham n cheese croissants w/ savory rice crackers w/flax
• mixed lettuce w/peppered turkey, cherries, cashews
  

snacks

• dark chocolate truffles, cashews, snapea crisps, peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets, dried cherries, super seeded tortilla chips w/flax, chia, & hemp seeds
  

dinners

• scallops n mushrooms in emmentaler cheese
• grilled comte cheese sandwich with colombus pepper turkey breast w/sweet potato chips
• arugula n reggiano ravioli with vodka sauce
• country potatoes with haricot verts and wild mushrooms
• roasted corn, chopped basil cubes
  
• organic tomato & roasted red pepper soup w/comte' french cheese and real bacon bits

note: almost every single item here is free of preservatives, artificial colors, flavors, organic and a trader joes brand except the turkey, cheese, tarte, butter. bon appetit y'all.

it's Dec 21 and i've been back twice to TJs. $100, 50 each trip. more delish stuff and a few new finds.

ride the ramble with us...i'll be the pokey one

a few of us are riding 11/7, its a ramble around atlanta organized by the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition. there are many routes and lengths...here is ours:

Ramble 22 - Space

Share your bike routes @ Bikely.com

Campus Sustainability Day

UGA is getting there...as of this spring we have an office of sustainability and kevin hit the ground running to make good things happen. today is a fun day showing folks how to be car free, and take little steps towards sustainability. or big ones.
ben's bikes was there to handle bike tweaks to keep you riding smooth, GORP demo'd all the outdoor gear you can rent from UGA, pumpkins were sold, light bulbs exchanged, food scraps milled, pups adopted, and recycle bags distributed. parking services even told folks how to get credit for a car-free arrival at campus.

bike tour of athens MAP

fabulous map created by brent, bike guru in athens...get out and ride and call me if you want company.
View Bicycle Tour of Athens, GA in a larger map

on to the next quest, down the next trail

so i didnt get the job with georgia bikes but a really great guy here in town did. he's 7 years ahead of me in the NPO world experience and been at the work of bicycling advocacy longer. so it's all good. plus the quest showed me where my weaknesses were so that i could pick really useful classes this semester to build those up. now i'm really on a roll. and last sunday night, bike athens invited me to join their board along with 9 other folks who are jazzed about transportation choices. so i'm delighted and rolling again.

MPA socialization and class pic

Although i'm slated to complete my masters of public admin this spring, i was never oriented the year i began b/c i was off kayaking fjords around Norway. So this year, i joined our newest class in august and sat through our socialization opportunity and served a local organization at the end of the week in our group service effort. It was a worthwhile gathering and now i know the newbies. We are still 4th in the nation in PA programs and recruiting ~100 folks every year. I'm thrilled and honored to be part of such a great program. Who'd a thunk they'd let me in? MPA2011 class pic...a mix of year 1 and slackers like me who missed it and are year 2.

nail biting time - cool & tough job opens up...

georgia bikes is looking for an executive director of their statewide bicycling advocacy nonprofit. so if you know me, and many friends have echoed these words this month,...this job is perfect for me! a lifelong cyclist whose been paying dues forever and finally studying what she loves and intends to work in the field and is only 3 classes shy of a masters in public policy with a concentration on alternative transportation and nonprofit management...this is a dream come true. two rounds of interviews later and i honestly dont know where i stand. i think it went well and i really liked and connected with several of the board of directors, but we all know they never see the full picture of someone in an interview. i wish they'd ask for referrals and talk to some of y'all. y'all know me, y'all have been kind, and y'all are right, i can't imagine more perfect timing for this opportunity. i do hope they see it the same way. i sure am ready to do some good work in bicycling advocacy. so do a little dance for me and i'll promise to make safe places for you to ride when you come down georgia way. ;)

summertime

new look on the blog but same ole me. new passion tho, all things cycling. new you say? why that's not new. well, studying it and working in it is. for me. and that's what i'm up to this summer. all my links and notes are on facebook though, its just easier to grab them and post quick there. pop on in.

bike sharing takes off in europe

http://bike-sharing.blogspot.com/

JulieCanBlog: Sit Down And Pay Attention!

my friend julie, in munich now, and i bought our bikes together in berkeley
12 years ago! at missing link. she just shared a cool bike seat cover marketing idea i love. check it out. p.s. i'm getting that bike, a blue trek 7500 hybrid, tuned up today for the gambler ride on saturday.
JulieCanBlog: Sit Down And Pay Attention!

10th National Bike Summit Rocked!

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood energized and thanked the crowd at the League of American Bicyclists National Bike Summit on March 11, 2010 in DC declaring, “You have a full partner in Ray LaHood.” Today, March 15, LaHood issued his new Policy Statement on Bicycle and Pedestrian Accommodation Regulations and Recommendations.
LaHood then made the most substantial statement the DOT has ever made about bicycling and announced, a ” sea change. People across America who value bicycling should have a voice when it comes to transportation planning. This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of non-motorized.”
summit press in bikeleague.org blog
Photos from facebook: LaHood and others on board.