So I'm doing the round trip to my parents' house on my bike in a few minutes, which is about 32 miles round trip.  I made it a point of pulling my never-used helmet out of the closet. I promised myself I'd become a helmet wearer this year, given all the biking I plan to do.  Well, the helmet that I bought is a cheap one and waaaaaaaay too big.  It really is the dumbest looking thing I've ever seen.  If anyone can recommended a smaller, slimmer helmet (one that doesn't weigh my head down so much that it might actually cause me to get into an accident), I'd appreciate it.  Yes, I know, its completely ridiculous that I'm not wearing a helmet.  I'm fully aware of the risks, and yet, in the interest of not looking dorky, I'm still not on the helmet bandwagon. Show me a slim one, though, and I think I'm finally on it.  (Especially that now, it won't mess my hair.)

I think Seinfeld sums this helmlet stupidity up best:

"There are many things that we can point to as proof that the human being is not smart. The helmet, is my personal favourite. The fact that we had to invent the helmet. Now why did we invent the helmet ? Well, because we were participating in many activities that were cracking our heads. We looked at the situation, we chose not to avoid these activities, but to just make little plastic hats, so that we can continue our head-cracking life styles. The only thing dumber than the helmet is the helmet law, the point of which is to protect a brain that is functioning so poorly, it's not even trying to stop the cracking of the head that it's in.

I've been considering the "yoga" post from the other day.  I think I learn towards two paths in terms of what kind of "yoga" I reflect in my day to day life: jnana yoga, or the yoga of knowledge, and karma yoga, the yoga of selfless action.  I suppose this isn't surprising, really, given my Jesuit education.  Pursuit of knowledge and being a person for others are central themes in Jesuit education, and obviously, that's been a major influence on me.  While I may not be building huts for the poor in Botswana, I definately feel closer to my truest self when I help other people.  I really do live to see others succeed, and to help be a part of that success.  Sure, I take great pride in that, but that's not why I do it.  I like seeing other people learn to believe in themselves and its incredibly rewarding for me to help create a rewarding experience for others.  I'll never forget the Emmaus retreat that I led...   during the Mass afterwards, people were coming up one after another talking about how emotionally meaningful it was to them.  Being a part of that, I felt like I was in the right place doing the right thing... but more so than being the "right" thing.. it was MY right thing... what was right for me to be doing.  Thinks like that make me feel closer to doing what I was intended to be doing.

There's also a part of me that is thinking...  ALWAYS thinking and mentally discovering things about the world around me.  When the little mouse on the wheel gets going, I get excited... I feel focused and strong.  When I brainstorm and ponder, I feel full of life--but its not full of extrasensory stimulation, but full of a driving life force from the inside.  That is how I know that knowledge also brings me closer to my truest self.  Too often, people confuse a lot of sound and fury from outside of themselves with a full life experience...  music doesn't inspire the force of life, nor alcohol or drugs or sex or sports...   when I am truthful to myself, I recognize that it comes from inside me, perhaps sparked by these outside events, but definately not eminating from them. 

My parents are in the process of moving...   We're all slowing locating closer to Gino's.  They've got a lot of work to do over the next month, though, because not only did the people who lived in their new house not do much work on it during the 30 years that they lived there, but they probably had the worlds most god-awful taste.  You just have to see it to believe it:

The benches at Swift were really comfortable last night.  They weren't very high, but I felt like the seat to back ratio provided good back support.  I'm sitting on a folding patio chair at DTUT at the moment.  Its alright.  Accident prone Ruby just came in complaining that the deli next door carded her for cigarettes.  No ID, no cigarettes.  Who walks around without ID?  Who still smokes?  Could be worse.  She could be starving to death on national television 15 years after her husband's botched attempt to kill her while the whole country feigns interest as if they'll remember her when the next kidnapping or hostage standoff or sex scandal grabs the headlines.  Don't snicker.  Anyone ask about Elian lately?  You know that baby who fell down the well?  Jessica McClure.  Well, she's in college now.  Now there's someone who'd make a great blogger.  Watch out Wil Wheaton.  Obscurity definitely trumps mediocre celebrity.  The smoochy studying couple next to me is leaving and another couple is taking their place.  I swear everyone in this place looks like they're on an internet date.  The Battery Ventures guys need to come to this place to understand the inner workings of Friendster dating.  I like how CNN now puts people's positions on things right under their names.  Bob Jones.  Against socks and sandals.  Shelly Smith.  This socks and sandals are ok.  By the way, this whole Holy Thursday teachers strike is a crock.  If all of these teachers showed up on church on that day to actually observe Holy Thursday, that would be one thing, but it isn't even a Holy Day of Obligation.  Amazing how, in some schools, half the faculty was so strictly religious that they felt the need to take off.  If I was a teacher, regardless of whether or not I thought I should have off, I don't think I'd ever leave my kids alone for the sake of a union protest.  That's a good sign to the kids that you don't care about them.  They made it to school, you should, too.  Given the kind of music that plays here at night, I don't think this is really the kind of place you should take kids under 10 at 9:30, but yet, people insist on it.  No good will come of this girl walking around with an open smores related flame.  She's walking way too fast and its leaning back towards her, making her nervous and causing her to walk even faster.  Where's the fire extinguisher?  People, if you ever turn on CNN and the headline reads "O'DONNELL:  8th DAY WITHOUT FEEDING TUBE", someone please shoot me.  I'm serious.  I don't care if you're not sure whether or not I'm responsive or conscious.  I refuse to let my dwindling life deteriorate to the point where I'm little more than a ratings generator.  I think I'm one more post away from the first Google page for a "DTUT" search.  I'm the first two on the second page.  Someone link to me.  Push me over the top.  This post needs purpose.  And now I'll check spell, knowing full well I spelled "definitely" wrong again.  You know what's also weird?  "Blogger" is not in the Six Apart dictionary.  Can we fix that?

We'll vote on Coat Idol next week...   I have too  much to do for now.

But, to update, I became a new kind of "cave man".

I caved on the clothing thing.  Why?

Because we were arguing about something really stupid... clothing.  And, its the fact that I think clothing is stupid that was the reason why I didn't want anyone putting any special effort into it in the first place.  Therefore, when I saw that it was all we were talking about, I just pulled the plug in it and quit.

Its just not worth it.

I haven't really talked too much about Adrianna here before, and to be honest, its been part of my unofficial blog policy not to talk about someone that I'm dating.  For a little while, I just kind of let her appear gradually.  Obviously, though, its pretty serious to me and I'm trying to look at the bigger picture.  I shouldn't let something like pleated pants cause an issue with someone if, in fact, I'm serious about the idea that I'm trying to foster a relationship to build something on.

I guess I'm maturing, "temper tantrum" blog posts aside.