Saturday’s 75-mile bike ride was, surprisingly, the best ride of my life. I’d like to write a bit more about it, but I’m just not sure I have words that would come close to saying what I want to say. Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the crappy on Sunday. It was cold and rainy, and the event organizers ended up closing the course because it wasn’t safe and a few riders suffered hypothermia.

I fully intend to complete this ride next year. I hope for beautiful weather and lots of end of summer sales so that I can pick up all the gear that I need if the weather sucks again. I’ll also begin fundraising a bit earlier, let guys join the team, and stay in a hotel so that I don’t have to sleep in a soggy tent. I refuse to let a lousy bar exam interfere with my training.

Today I headed back to the law school for the first day of classes. Returning this year filled me with less dread than I experienced last year. I suppose I’m just grimly resigned to my fate. I’m taking very tedious classes this semester (Tax I, Administrative Law, Commercial Law, Local Government Law) and only one class for my MPA (Public Finance & Economics).

Today begins 30-days of vegan eating for me. While I feel pretty great about my performance on Saturday’s ride, I feel sort of ucky about my diet of late. I’ve become something of a lazy vegetarian, eating lots of convenience/packaged food and rarely seeing a fresh vegetable. Eating vegan forces me to stop eating processed foods, since pretty much all of them have animal products. I’m more aware of what is in the food I’m eating, and I’m much more likely to eat fresh fruits and veggies. And today’s weather couldn’t be more perfect to eat the things that I had on hand today (oatmeal for breakfast; corn chowder and triscuits for lunch). Mmmm….