oyez oyez oyez...

last june i did a 150 mile bike ride/fundraiser thingy for the national MS society. and i'm doing it again this year. and i want you all to do it, too. because not only do you feel like a bazillion bucks when you cross the finish line (you even totally forget the saddle-soreness, if only temporarily) because you just traveled 150 miles through the power of your own body, but you get to meet a lot of really great people with interesting stories and you're supporting a worthy organization that may or may not have a direct relation to whatever the hell is wrong with my brain.

here's the deal -- it's $25 to register (if you sign up before april 7th, and it's only $30 after that), you have to raise a minimum of $200 (this is pretty damn easy -- i raised about $1100 last year and am totally expecting to do better this time around), you'll get all the peanut butter sandwiches and bananas you could possibly want, and it would be amazing to do this with a group of friends.

we could even have our own team! hari and i rode the MS-150 together last year, and although we didn't actually have a "team", we totally wanted to have a team called "stare decyclists". and yes, i came up with that name. just like how i named the little gnome that krista and paul have in one of their plants "gene" as in "genome". but i promise that if we do the team thing this year, we'll come up with a name that isn't so, erm, emily-esque.

i will say that 150 miles on a bike isn't easy. the whole two day ride is pretty much all hills. and hills suck. especially when you've been in the hot sun all day (sunscreen and LOTS OF WATER are necessities) and you're on mile 80 and all you want to do is rest. but there are stops every 15 miles or so, with food and water, and it's not a race, so there's no annoying competitiveness involved. and day two is all rolling hills, so you get up enough momentum going down that the climb back up is a piece of cake. and there are so many good people and so much good energy all around that you really don't realize how much work it is.

and one of the greatest moments -- in terms of pure personal achievement -- in my life's recent history is riding through the streets of conneaut, ohio (the end point of the ride), listening to my ipod (i was only listening to one headphone, in my right ear, so that my left was totally exposed to the noise of the street/traffic/other riders) and "we are the champions" by queen comes up (okay, okay, so i had made a special playlist for the ride, but i hadn't anticipated when each song would play), and i'm totally singing my heart out, feeling like a superhero!

i want that feeling for each of you. i'd giftwrap it if i could.

so, to all of you fantastic, brilliant, up-for-a-challenge types out there, think about doing this. details are here. the allegheny chapter of the national MS society is here.

this is a call. all those in favor?