Road Tripping: Let’s Acela-rate*

There was the time my roommate and I got stranded by the bus six miles away from our apartment in Ithaca. There was the time I tried to fly out of Ithaca in winter. There was the time my bus disappeared.¹ This time, my travel plans involved no planes because it’s more trouble to fly from Ann Arbor (Detroit) to Chicago and no buses because there were no buses running. That’s right; my latest brilliantly thought out travel plans included journeying on Memorial Day. In my defense, I had planned to travel on Tuesday, but when I went to buy tickets, the Amtrak site gave me an error after I entered all my credit card information. I didn’t want to be double charged, so I waited until the next day to try again, at which point all the Tuesday tickets were sold out. Besides travelling on Memorial Day, I also thought it would be a good idea to take a train that left Ann Arbor at 7 in the morning.

Sunrise

Shockingly enough, the buses were not running on Memorial Day, especially at 6 in the morning. But I eventually made it to the train station, seeing the sunrise on the way, and had a smooth ride to Chicago. Yes, I said smooth. I had plenty of space, more than on the bus, it was quieter, and we didn’t have to sit in traffic. There were no detours through New Mexico, no attacks from monster geese, and no freak June snowstorms. The train was about half full on this trip. It made three stops between Ann Arbor and Chicago and arrived at Union Station pretty much on time.

We didn’t have a lot planned for my first day in Chicago; my mom met me at Union Station, we waited for my cousin to arrive on a different train, then we went back to my brother’s condo. We all had lunch together then walked around Millennium Park and along the river. My mom, my brother, and I finished out the day with dim sum for dinner and Shaun the Sheep back at the condo.

*The train I rode was not the Acela Express, which refers to the Amtrak route along the Northeast corridor between Boston and Washington, DC. I rode the Wolverine, which goes between Pontiac and Chicago via Ann Arbor and Detroit. The post title comes from a math challenge some math team friends and I voluntarily participated in one weekend in high school. The problem involved the Acela Express and train speeds and money, and yes, we obviously made that pun all day.

¹Moral of the story: I would make a terrible travelling companion.

April Showers

After the freezing rain came the normal temperature rain, and after that came the flowers. Because April showers bring May thunderstorms flowers. Following the purchase of my camera, I read a couple of photography books, but the best way for me to get better at taking photos was to start taking an excessive number a lot of photos. Therefore, my camera started coming along with me on my Saturday errands, which neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stopped me from.

Top left: Tulips in my backyard (leftovers from some previous tenant)

Bottom left: Purple flowers (possibly some sort of violet?) on central campus

Right: Pink flowering tree (vaguely cherry blossom-esque) by the library

Top: Butterfly weed at the arboretum

Bottom let: Dandelions.  Everywhere.

Bottom right: Some pink flower that was labelled at the arboretum but

of course I wasn't paying attention to what the sign said

In case you couldn’t tell, I know a lot almost nothing about floriculture. The only flower I’m pretty sure I managed to identify was the butterfly weed, because there are approximately two species of bright orange wildflowers. The tulips and dandelions don’t count because those are basically common knowledge. Thanks to a seventh-grade science project, I can, however, identify a couple dozen species of trees that grow in New England. We had to collect leaves and seeds from at least twenty-five deciduous and coniferous trees and look up other information about them (the scientific name for the red maple is Acer rubrum, in case you were wondering; don’t ask why that’s still in my memory). Turns out that was one of the projects that (somewhat) has real life applications, like tracking the phases of the moon and writing checks in elementary school. Unlike, say, fugacity.

Fit to be Tied [June 2018]

June 2, 2018, vs. New York Red Bulls, 2-1 W
So I was away in Chicago when this game was played and never got around to watching it, but the Revolution won. Diego Fagundez scored in first half stoppage time to level the game and Teal Bunbury got his 8th goal of the season for the win.

June 9, 2018, at Chicago Fire, 1-1 T
This game wasn’t terrible to watch, but the Revolution were unable to capitalize on their chances, whether through build up play or fast breaks. Bastian Schweinsteiger scored for the Fire on a standard “everybody lose your mark in the box” defensive breakdown from the Revolution. Bunbury equalized for New England after Fagundez pressured the Chicago goalkeeper into dropping the ball on a routine catch. Add that to the pile of weirdness the Revolution have experienced so far this year.

Win at home, tie away?, June 13, 2018, at San Jose Earthquakes, 2-2 T
Right before the World Cup break, the Revolution reminded everyone that they’re still the good old Revolution. As good as Matt Turner has been in goal for New England, the first San Jose goal was a direct result of poor distribution from Turner. On the other hand, the Revolution’s second goal was a direct result of Turner getting the ball to Krisztian Nemeth quickly so the front three could counterattack. The Revolution went into the half up a goal (Fagundez free kick and Christian Penilla from the fast break), then promptly allowed San Jose to score again within ten minutes of the second half. Frustrating because of the team’s inability to hold on to a lead and because this looked like a game they could win. Not the result I was looking for when I stayed up past midnight to watch this one.

Home cooking, June 30, 2018, vs. DC United, 3-2 W

Back at home after the World Cup break, the Revolution started off a three-game homestand with a win against DC United, who are not doing very well this year (okay, they’re dead last in the standings). In typical Revolution fashion, instead of putting a home game against a poorly performing team away early, they dragged it out until the final whistle. The Revolution’s first goal came from another Turner-Nemeth-Fagundez-Penilla sequence. My current opinion is that Nemeth has been better on the wing than Juan Agudelo because he’s been able to hold on to long balls that lead to goals and he’s strategically drawn fouls in/near the penalty box. He has, however, not scored yet this season. DC then scored off a free kick that deflected off of a United player’s face. Not sure what Turner could have done about that, but the original foul right outside the box should probably not have been committed. In first half stoppage time, Bunbury put the Revolution up again, setting his single season record for goals scored, previously 9 with Sporting Kansas City in 2011. The second half did not look great, and the teams traded penalty kicks to finish off the game. The call against the Revolution was again a foul that probably shouldn’t have been committed, and the DC foul appeared to involve Andrew Farrell’s shins being headbutted/tackled. Not the prettiest game, but they came away with three points.

Bonus game: US Open Cup, June 5, 2018, at Louisville City FC, 3-2 L
The US Open Cup is a yearly tournament that spans all tiers of organized soccer, from MLS down to amateur club teams. The farther down the soccer pyramid a team starts, the more games they have to play to reach the final game, but theoretically, every team in US soccer has a chance to win. In reality, an MLS team has won every year since MLS began in 1996 except for in 1999, when the Rochester Rhinos, a second division team, won. The end result was too painful, so I didn’t watch any replays and can’t comment on how truly awful or not this game was. Sadly, I can’t say I was entirely surprised by the result. The game came in the middle of their 6 games in 3 weeks, wasn’t an MLS game, and featured a lot of players who hadn’t been getting regular minutes in MLS.

Disregarding the Open Cup loss, MLS play went fairly well (first undefeated month since August 2015). Friedel returned to the 4-4-2, and more consistently played Jalil Anibaba and Antonio Delamea as his center backs, with Claude Dielna as left back with Chris Tierney out for the season and Gabriel Somi somewhat inconsistent. The back line still feels one wrong move away from impending disaster, but they got the job done in June. The Revolution head into the second half of the season with their best start since the 34-game schedule was implemented in 2008.

Record for June: 2W-0L-2D
Overall record: 7W-4L-6D

Ice Ice Baby

We’re going back to February April for this post. Three weeks into astronomical spring, as defined by the vernal equinox, and a month after the end of Punxsutawney Phil’s predicted six more weeks of winter, Ann Arbor was hit by an ice storm. You know, that clear, hard, slippery stuff that’s the solid state of water. Density of approximately 0.9167 grams per cubic centimeter. Only exists below 32°F at atmospheric pressure. That stuff. A month into spring, when people are supposed to be wearing shorts and raincoats, I found myself in gloves and snow boots, but at least I got some good pictures out of it.

Ice on branches

Ice on grass

Ice on soccer net

A couple weeks after the ice melted, spring kind of arrived. The weather ping ponged between mildly warm and sunny vs. cool and rainy for the rest of the month, then moved into hot/sunny/thunderstorms for most of May. We got 2.6 inches of precipitation in April and 6.74 inches in May, according to U.S. climate data (2.89 and 4.91 inches from Weather Underground). Average is 3.23 and 3.43 inches, also from U.S. climate data. It was cooler than normal in April, warmer than normal in May, and we hit 90°F multiple times before June was over. My un-airconditioned apartment reached a maximum of 87°F. If it hits 88, I think a time travel portal opens in the basement or something.

On a non-weather-related note, April brought the end of classes and TA’ing for me, then I took my preliminary exam (written report + oral presentation about my research and thesis plan) in May. Immediately after passing the prelim, I took off for Chicago for a week to see my brother and all the other things I didn’t get to see there last year when I moved his things into his apartment for him. Posts and pictures to come, because yes, I took way too many pictures. My excuse is that:

1) I’m a grad student. I needed a new hobby to go along with solving the daily crosswords and jigsaw puzzles. I am aware that I have the taste of a retired seventy-year old grandmother. Should I take up knitting, cross stitch, bridge, or bingo next?

And 2) I’m already that person that nobody notices at events. I might as well be that person nobody notices with a camera. [Funny/not so funny fact: People lose track of me because I’m below their sight lines. One moment I’m on their right, the next I’m climbing through their bedroom window at 3 am on their left. I also apparently walk without making enough noise, and semi-frequently startle people.]

I think that’s enough random rambling for now. #PeaceOut That’s how the cool kids do it nowadays, right?