Highmoon's Ponderings

Today I was to start my car-free commute to the University, due mainly to the fact that yesterday I got a ticket and had my license suspended and taken away (for a supposed unpaid infraction that was actually thrown out of court and reduced to $0, I found out later), and if I’m caught driving, well, it’s the slammer for me. No problem, I have a bike and Miami’s fairly good public transit system at my disposal. Let’s do this.

I biked from my house in South Beach across the Venetian Causeway and into the Omni station at the edge of Downtown Miami (see MapMyRide.com route here). It took me about 35 minutes and it was an eye-opener in many respects: how much weight I need to shed from what I’m carrying (I calculate I was carrying about 30 lbs between the chunky bike chain, backpack with school stuff, laptop and extra clothes due to the 40° weather), how different it is to bike for leisure vs when you need to get somewhere on a time schedule, and how I need to better layer for the cold so I can remove layers more efficiently while riding. All good lessons. And in the end, I did make it to Omni, fairly tired, with a nice burning sensation in my thighs from the exercise, but overall fine and dandy. I was actually quite proud of myself!

Then came the bus leg of the trip, taking bus route 93 from Omni station to 135 St along Biscayne Blvd. The bus pulled up, I brought down the front bike rack and hefted (ugh!) the bike into it. I was always afraid that the 700-size wheels on the Amsterdam would not properly fit the bus bike racks, but they fit just fine, surprisingly (700 is not a common size in the US). It was also my first time using the bike rack so I followed the instructions on the Miami Dade Transit (MDT) website to the letter when locking it, but asked the driver as I got on if I’d done it right; my bike is back-heavy due to the panniers so it felt a bit wobbly and I wanted to be sure. She made a non-committal noise and shrugged; I took that to be a yes.

Elam on the bus bike rack.

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Today is El Dia de Reyes or El Dia de los Reyes Magos, Three Kings’ Day in English (also known as Epiphany). In the US this day means squat, it’s just another day as any, but in Puerto Rico today is a holiday, the culmination of the Christmas season, and a big day in our national culture. I’m not entirely sure how big of a deal Three Kings Day is in other Latin countries or in Spain, but I do know it is celebrated, as we get the custom from our Spanish ancestry. In Puerto Rico it has taken on a life of its own, with parties and feasts all over the island, none bigger than the celebration in the town of Juana Diaz.

Thing is, my Mom’s maternal family is from Juana Diaz, so that Fiesta de Reyes is not only a national celebration, it is also a family tradition, one that has gone unbroken for at least the last 50-60 years (and probably longer – I need to find out for sure)[1]. Every year, all of us living in the San Juan area, would jump into our cars early in the morning and trek down the 2 or so hours to the Ortiz household right on the town’s main street to the central plaza, and spend the day there, wandering the plaza, checking out all the artisans and their wares, and the various musical acts as well. Then we’d have tons of food over at the house, and go back at night, tired and stuffed and happy.

Obviously, not being Catholic anymore, Three Kings Day has no meaning for me, at least not religiously. I can honestly say the religious aspect of the day ceased to have any impact on me even before I moved from Puerto Rico, much more so now that I am Jewish, but the family tradition aspect of it, that still has a pull. It’s been about nine years since I last went to Juana Diaz, but every January 6 I would get a call from Mom from Juana Diaz and at least for a few moments I’d be a part of it.

This morning I was the one to make the call, to my Aunt, and at least for a couple of minutes I was a part of it again. I wish I was able to teleport, so I could be with my family for a little bit then return home for dinner. At least my sister is there with my nephews representing our family nucleus.

This is just a constant with which I live: the biggest drawback to having converted to Judaism was the rift it created regarding my family traditions. I mean, it’s not like I can’t ever go to a family celebration, but it is different. I can’t eat with everyone, for example, and food is one of those universal social glues that hold bonds together. Being that Puerto Rico is very much a Catholic country, the difference in religion is a big deal, especially during Christmas, when a huge part of Puerto Rican culture gets displayed (be it in food, holidays, celebrations, art, music, etc). The physical separation between PR and Miami offers a buffer but every so often emotions seep through, like today.

Like I said, it’s just a reality of my choice in life. I accept it and live with it, even if sometimes, for a little bit, I look with a small amount of longing at what was.

[1] I had my sister ask around while she was in Juana Diaz, and as far as anyone can tell, the tradition of our family to get together there for Fiesta de Reyes is about 100 years old. That is powerful, and I need to reflect on that more.

With the start of the new year and my return to university for my Nursing degree, I have decided to make a radical change in my life as it has been for the last (give or take) 9 years: I want to be car-lite, and eventually car-free, in 2010.

Over the past year, I really got into riding my bicycle as a regular form of transportation, increasing little by little the amount and distance of riding I’d do. Along with that, my interest in bicycle advocacy was also ignited, due greatly to the lack of functional bicycle infrastructure in the Greater Miami area, and especially in my home of Miami Beach, a place that by all means should be a paradise for bicyclists. As I stand a couple of days away from starting a new phase in my life, I figured it was the perfect time to put into practice what I have been preaching to the four winds: a bicycle, especially when coupled with other alternative forms of transportation, can be pretty much all you need.

The truth is that for a few months now I have been chewing on the idea of getting rid of my car, a 1996 Toyota Camry. I like my car just fine, but I have fallen out of love with it and with the car-centric lifestyle. As I have used it less and less I have noticed that it hasn’t been that big of a deal, and in fact, it has saved us a nice amount of money. That was all well and good while I was unemployed and thus my car trips were few and far in between, but why not take the plunge?

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I was gonna do an end-of-year review, but to be honest I can’t, not month by month; it’s still too draining going back to the early part of the year, and I’d rather start looking forward. So here are a few pictures that show events from 2009.

My nephew came to visit and we got him a bike.

At El Yunque in PR in Feb.

At El Yunque with Mom, after her first hospitalization, in Feb.

Riding our bikes at Bike Miami Days.

My grandmother's 80th birthday, G-d bless her and keep her.

With Mom, my sister and nephews at Luquillo Beach, after Mom's third hospitalization, in Jun.

Good bye Mom.

Our new cat, Yoshi.

My new bike.

Our new apartment's living room, almost done.

At Sleepless Night 09, a few days before our 7th anniversary.

I’m ready for 2010 to start, for my Nursing studies to take off, and for life to get better.

I learned about this from Mick Bradley and I’ve been thinking about it for about a week. Screw it, I’m in. I’m doing Creative Every Day 2010.

I’m doing this for two reasons:

1. To remind myself that every day I have to tap into my creative energy somehow. Maybe a clever sentence, a nice photo, a doodle, a bit of game design, something, anything. Big or small, it doesn’t matter as long as there is a creative aspect to it.
2. To focus my creative monkeys a bit. I tend to be all over the place sometimes, following way too many ideas and hardly completing any of them. This should help me have a goal.

That said, I’m not gonna beat myself up if nothing happens on a given day. If a week goes by and nothing, that’s another matter, and if it ever should come to that, I will be gracious and accept “defeat.” But I’m shooting for it.

Some of it may show up here, or on Flickr, or on Twitter, some of it won’t show up anywhere. This is gonna be by me, for me. But you are all very welcomed to tag along for the ride.

And speaking of tags, follow this series with the “CED2010” tag I created.

The non-stop rains of Wed and Thu gave way to a sunny Friday and a super awesome cold front on Saturday that has lingered around and brought nighttime temps in the Beach to high 40s. This morning I was originally going to join the monthly Bike Miami Ride but at 8:30 AM it was just way too early for this household, which went to bed at 3:30 AM after getting home from my father-in-law’s holiday party (oh man, such awesome food). So I rode my bike to synagogue as I always do, then checked out one of the waterfront promenades, this one in the area South of Fifth. From there I rode down to South Pointe Park and got to see the City of Miami right from the entrance to the port area.

My bike felt wobbly, and indeed it turned out I had two broken spokes in my rear wheel, so I dropped it at the Miami Beach Bicycle Center and walked home. Sans bike, we decided that the weather was too nice to not enjoy, so we went out to check out a couple of stores walking. Yes, we went walking in South Beach. It was fantastic.

We went to Sephora, where I got a new cologne (cause I can rarely find the other one I like and use, Azzaro Silver Black) then just went walking around, checking out stores, marveling at the beautiful blue skies, and chuckling at the SoBe trend-tribes. We are so uncool, we are beyond caring and enjoy it that way, so it’s funny to see those that are SO obsessed with appearances and the trends (and there’s loads of those in Miami, let alone SoBe).

We walked up to 13 St to have a pint at the Playwright Irish Pub, something we haven’t done in years. I love that pub; it’s spacious with great decor, they show soccer and other European sports (rugby!) and they actually know how to pull a pint of Guinness. Right when we arrived there I got a call that my bike was ready, so after a pint we walked down to 5th St again to get my bike. We walked back to the apt for a pit stop, then hit Publix for dinner (frozen pizzas we just threw in the oven).We plopped down on the couch to watch episodes of Pushing Daisies then played Rayman’s Raving Rabbid’s TV Party on the Wii.

Yes, it would have been cool to go out biking in this great weather, but walking around was just so good. We got incidental excercise, got to explore our new neighborhood and had a good time just the two of us.

More like this, please.