A tree grows in Atlanta

Another lovely fall day in Atlanta.
No race today, but I certainly got my exercise in. Three hours of yard work this morning and now all I want to do is soak in a warm tub and take a nap. Neither of those things will happen just yet.
One of the chores outside today was to get the Nuttall oak seedling I got at the Komen Race for the Cure in Houston. The seedlings were being handed out to survivors. I had my choice of an oak or pine seedling. Give me a hardwood tree any day!
Then came the puzzler -- could I even bring it back to Atlanta and plant it? Turns out, you can't fly with gels or liquids, but you can fly with a tree seedling. Thanks to Robert and Susan for quickly looking that up on the TSA web site!
I spent more than a few minutes trying to decide where to plant my seedling. I think I walked around the house at least three times, checking on sunlight, where it would grow compared to other trees in the yard, and how close it might come to the house.
I started digging the first spot, but the soil was so compacted and yucky, I abandoned it. Georgia is known for its red clay soil, and it's a wonder anything but the vile vine kudzu will grow in it.
A little further down, I saw some weeds and vines I wanted to clear out near the fence line. I started pulling and realized the soil there was better. So a second hole was dug.
My little Nuttall oak seedling has a new home.

My new Nuttall oak

And so, a tree grows in Atlanta.

Counting the sunny hours

One of my favorite 5K races was this morning at Historic Oakland Cemetery in Atlanta. That's right, it was time for the Run Like Hell 5K.
It was a cool, crisp morning, but sunny.
I had not picked up my race number and T-shirt earlier this week, so I decided I'd get to the race a little early to make sure I could get them.
The race started at 9 a.m., but I was there about 7:45 a.m. With T-shirt and race number in hand, I had plenty of time to wander the cemetery before the race start.
The irony is, I visited Oakland Cemetery earlier this week. I was having dinner with friends at Six Feet Under, an aptly named restaurant directly across the street from the cemetery. My friend Erin and I met 45 minute early to take a walk together, and we decided to wander the cemetery. The fading light provided a beautiful photo.

Atlanta's skyline in the fading light

The old and new Atlanta

As I wandered the cemetery this morning, I stumbled across this gem. The sun dial was part of a grave marker. And it had rather sage advice: Count none but sunny hours.

Sun dial as part of a grave marker

Count none but sunny hours

The Berman sun dial

The Run Like Hell is pretty much an out and back race down Cherokee Avenue in Grant Park. It runs along one side of Zoo Atlanta.
What makes this race fun is so many people who come out in costumes. This year I saw quite a few "replacement" refs.
The last quarter mile or so really is through the cemetery.

Last bit of the race, headed back into the cemetery

This run wasn't my fastest, but it was spent on a lovely fall day. I'll be counting this day among my sunny hours.

Let's Win the Fight

Another beautiful morning for running in Atlanta.
Spring and fall are truly the ideal times in this city. This morning I ran Winship Win the Fight 5K, a charity race that benefits Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University.
What was great about this race was I met up with four friends.
First, I met Scott Zucker, a local attorney who has written a legal thriller, and the proceeds of the book benefit Winship. I met Scott through my work -- I had a freelance writer do a profile story on him and how he came to write the book. We had emailed back and forth and I was glad to meet him this morning.

Me and Scott Zucker

I also met up with my friends Mary and Erin.

Mary, Erin and me

What's kind of funny about us meeting up today is I know Erin and I know Mary, but I had no idea Mary and Erin knew each other. Turns out, they went to school together in Florida. It's a small world.
But I was really excited to meet up with my long-time running buddy Jessica.

Me and Jessica

I met Jessica shortly after I started working in Atlanta. We met for a business lunch and found out we had running in common. For several years, we ran throughout the week together and ran all sorts of races together.
That changed when Jessica and her husband had twins! We haven't run as much, so it was great to see her today. Here we are on the race course.

Me and Jessica during the race

Here's Erin coming across the finish line.

Erin crosses the line. ;)

And here are all of us ladies post-race. Don't we look fab?!

Erin, Mary, me and Jessica

All of us are talking about some other races we will try to run together.
My day of working out was not over with the end of the race.
This afternoon I began one of my dreaded household chores, staining the back deck of my house. It's a big ol' party deck. It will take me two days to do it, mostly because I get so sore after three hours I have to stop.
As I was finishing up the first half of the deck today I made a rather unhappy discovery. There is a giant hole in the back of the pants I wear to stain the deck. That in and of itself doesn't make me unhappy. These are ratty old blue jeans and I've used them for years to stain or paint. They are well worn.
However, I made this discovery after I had gone to Home Depot to buy some more stain. I ran into the bathroom to look in the mirror. Perhaps the hole wasn't as bad as I thought and no one could see it. No such luck. And I'm wearing bright purple underwear today. Lovely.
As one friend pointed out, "At least you were wearing underwear!"
Well, yes, there is something to be thankful for.
I think instead, I'll be thankful for great running buddies and a perfect fall morning.

Deep in the heart of Texas

I spent a fast 48 hours in Houston, Texas, last weekend reconnecting with friends and getting in a 5K in my eighth state.
First things first. Houston has some REALLY cool attractions, namely, one of my dearest college friends and her family live there. Worth visiting Houston for her alone.
I haven't seen Susan since we graduated from University of Missouri in the mid 80s (I'm not so inclined to say WHAT year, for fear someone will start counting and realize my true age. My celebrity age is 38!)
Susan has been asking me to visit for the past several years, and now that I've been to see her and seen some delightful areas of Houston I wonder why it took me so long.
The trip to Houston really started last year with my trip to Kansas City, Mo., to do the Komen Race for the Cure in that city and visit my college roommate Patti and her family.
At some point during that trip, I said to Patti, wouldn't it be fun to do Komen in Houston and visit Susan at the same time. A more-or-less casual email to Susan about the idea and suddenly we were serious about the trip.
Got in early Friday morning and ran into Susan at Hobby Airport. She recognized me before I did her, but she looks just as she did in college (only with a few more gray hairs). Even more wonderful was her husband Robert and daughter Caitlyn took the day off and were there too.
We found Patti in the baggage claim area and we headed out to Johnson Space Center to tour NASA.

Caitlyn, Susan and Patti in a mock up of the Space Shuttle

Me in the space shuttle mock up

Astronaut food, looks "yummy"

Hey, didn't we eat this in college?

Hard to see, but some of the training space vehicles

The business end of a Saturn rocket

  

These things were HUGE

But then, so was the rocket

All to get this little bit into space

Cool stuff

Had to buy some astronaut ice cream. It tastes like chalk.

If you ever find yourself in Houston with time to spare, don't miss NASA. The tour of Johnson Space Center is interesting, but it's sort of like herding cattle. First you are loaded onto a tram and given a laminated card with a number on it, which you are told is for "security reasons." I'm not sure what would happen if you didn't turn it back in. None of us risked it, but we did laugh about it, since these cards are well worn and clearly used over and over again.
Then it's in and out of buildings quickly. Until we got to the Saturn V rocket area, we didn't get to just wander around.
Our being shuttled around on the tram became quite an adventure. Turns out, you CAN seat four adults and one child in a row, but not comfortably. Row 16, the row number we  sat in on the tram, became a running joke with all of us. We could now tell Caitlyn "Eat your vegetables, or we're sending you to Row 16." Then again, maybe that's considered a violation of the Geneva Convention. Ha!
Inside the Space Center, a more interactive area, I got to see and touch a moon rock, saw the actual computer controls of the original moon mission -- dear God, did we send men to the moon with THAT? -- and got to see the insides of space capsules of various sorts. I came away thinking astronauts were incredibly courageous and/or insane, and they could not be claustrophobic. My goodness they were jammed in there tight.
Of course there is a gift shop. I bought astronaut ice cream. It's freeze dried and tastes like chalk. But I bought a couple extra and sent them to my nephews who are 4 and 6. They'll get a kick out of it.
Next we went to the Kemah Boardwalk, an area with shops, an amusement park, and several restaurants.

Some Kemah fun, matey

Susan and Popeye

Robert, Susan and Caitlyn

Me and Patti

A carriage ride around Kemah Boardwalk

Our horse Molly

A lovely carriage ride

The next morning Susan, Patti and I were up very early to walk the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure 5K in downtown Houston. Susan doesn't live that far away, so we got there early enough to park and walk around before the walk began.

Susan, Patti and me, before the race

A giant boob, that you could walk through and see what tumors look like. Lovely

Patti and me on the walk

Me and Susan on the walk

At the start

Wortham Fountain in downtown Houston, along the walk route

Patti and Susan at Wortham Fountain

A dragon boat

More of the dragon boat

More of the giant boobs

We finished the race and then finished out the day at the Williams Waterwall.

Houston's Waterwall

 The Waterwall is a multi-story sculptural fountain at the south end of Williams Tower in the Uptown District of Houston. When you are up close to it, it is pretty loud.

Caitlyn at the Waterwall

Caitlyn and me at the Waterwall

A long view of the Waterwall. It's pretty impressive

 One other thing I loved about this weekend was how it felt like there was no time between when I last saw Susan. Twenty five years is a long time, but it melted away.
I reconnected with friends in a whole new way, deep in the heart of Texas.

Breakfast with Andy, Part Deux

There are days I really love my job. Today was one of those days.
As a journalist, I do get some awesome perks. Media preview at the High Museum of Art's new "Fast Forward: Modern Moments 1913 >> 2013" was one of those awesome perks. I wrote about the High's last collaborative exhibit with the Museum of Modern Art in New York City several months ago. The one with Fourteen Modern Masters. Lots of Andy Warhol, one of my favorites.
Well, this year's exhibit takes a look at a century's worth of modern art, but in "six slices." Specifically, the years 1913, 1929, 1950, 1961, 1988 and today.
Some of the art in this exhibit include:

Umberto Boccioni's "Unique Forms of Continuity in Space"

Salvador Dali's "Illuminated Pleasures"

Willem de Kooning's "Woman, I"

Marcel Duchamp's "Bicycle Wheel"

 

Ernst Kirchner's "Street, Berlin"

Jeff Koon's "Pink Panther"

Roy Lichtenstein's "Girl With Ball"

Kenneth Noland's "Turnsole"

That Noland piece made me think at first it was a Jasper John's target work, but there is a Jasper Johns work at the exhibit.
I will say, I was more impressed with the Fourteen Modern Masters exhibit, but this exhibit has some really great works, too. One that really knocked me out was in the 1988 gallery, and was a work that used the word AIDS that looked like the Richard Indiana's LOVE sculpture, which I have seen in Philadelphia. Really cool.
I wish I could have spent a little more time at the museum this morning. I think there was more for me to find and study. Looks like I'll have to go back. But I'm sure at my next visit there won't be coffee and yummy chocolate croissants. You know, breakfast with Andy.