Prepping for Vulcan

With less than four days to go before the 10K, I'm going to run the course for the first time tomorrow morning.

At 5:30 AM.

At least Rosanna will be there to keep me going, and possibly keep me conscious.

In the meanwhile, I'm watching It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown for the umpteenth time and babying my feet, which are a little angry with me at the moment. I got a new pair of tennis shoes last Sunday. While it's possibly not the best idea to try to break in shoes before a race, the shoes have arch supports, which do wonders for my knees. Said arch supports also produce new blisters, however, so I've invested in several products and I'm keeping my fingers crossed...

Weekend happiness

Much goodness has happened in the last few days...

1) Sloss Fright Furnaces is fun, if slightly overpriced at $15 (plus $3 for parking, sheesh!). My friend Roy and I checked it out, and he led our group of us and four idiot girls from the sticks ("Oh my God, y'all, I'm seriously about to pee myself...") through the former blast furnace, where we used to have our May Festival back during grade school. Take away the games and the hot dogs, and Sloss is a decently freaky, possibly haunted, place. What was great was getting separated and cornered by the guy with the chainsaw, and after a few minutes of half-heartedly screaming in an effort to make him let me by, the following exchange occurred:

Him (growling): Are you lost?
Me: Uh, yes.
Him: [points with chainsaw] That way.
Me: Thanks.
Him: I'm going to kill you and poop in your mouth.
Me: You have a good one...

2) I saw Phantom of the Opera with another Phantom fan, Dennis, last night. As in 2000, when it last came through, Phantom was excellent; the set dressing was perfect, and the Phantom, who played Raoul last time, was spot-on. The only downer to the show was Christine - her voice is lovely, but her vowels were far too American.

3) I just discovered that BBC America, channel 100 on my parents' cable, has reruns of Bargain Hunt, Cash in the Attic, How Clean is Your House, and You Are What You Eat. I'm stoked.

4) Ran 7 miles for the first time yesterday, with a mile-long walk home. Then I took the dog for a mile walk, which made a nice afternoon touch. This morning, I tried the Lakeshore trail for the first time, and the five-mile round-trip run is quite nice. One week until Vulcan...

5) Tonight - pumpkin carving!

Mindless Fun

Thanks to MSN, I stumbled upon an amazing little site today. If you haven't seen it yet, go to The Institute of Official Cheer and take a look around. Then scroll halfway down the page to the "Gallery of Regrettable Food" and look for some of these gems:

For the aforementioned Jello-O entree, look at the left-hand side of this next picture...

Yes, that's meat in that gelatin, and man, if that isn't appetizing, I don't know what is. And what's more, the site's author has a book of these pictures, with commentary! Seriously, visit the site. It's awesome.

It's Sunday already?

This weekend has been a tad on the hectic side.

Thursday was my long day, but culminated in a private reception for the Pompeii exhibit at the Museum of Art. If you're in the Birmingham area between now and February, I highly recommend it - they even brought some of the original plaster casts of the body cavities.

On Friday, I had a meeting downtown at 8:30, then dashed home to go to Atlanta with my parents for the NATAS Silver Circle award dinner that night. Though we were in good time, most of our table (and the other guests) were delayed by the typical Atlanta Friday traffic, which sadly included a wreck that killed the driver and her two-year-old. On a much more pleasant note, Mom had her induction, the three-minute video went off without a hitch, and there was much dabbing at the eyes. Mom's was the only video to include congratulations from a governor, but the one that had the most laughs was for Bill Chapman of Turner, whose art department tweaked the old Batman cartoon intro to include his former blond mullet, then had "interview" clips with Harvey Birdman. Then again, almost everyone being inducted had a few laughs, as some of the wardrobe and hair decisions made in the '70s and '80s were scary at best. Think Anchorman, people.

Yesterday was the drive home, and then I went to Jen's birthday party at Sarah Louise's apartment last night, where it turned out that a second person was celebrating a birthday as well. Sarah Louise is the consummate hostess, and those of us chatting in the kitchen wondered how she got so many matching dishes and forks. The birthday cake had a spiderweb and spider on top, and party favors were served in "Boo Y'all!" cups. Adorable. Afterwards, we headed downtown for karaoke, which was fun but for the fact that Birmingham still permits smoking in bars. My shirt and purse are airing outside today, as I would really rather not take the shirt to the dry cleaners, and I had to shower when I came in at 1 AM, since I refuse to go to bed smelling like an ashtray.

Sunday school began the day today, and then I strapped on my new knee brace and went for another 10K jog around the lake. After the walk home, when I realized I was dehydrated and probably overheating, I downed a liter of water and a cup of shrimp and grits (don't knock it until you've tried it), then showered again to get the dried salt off and crashed for an hour and a half. I'm now going to attempt to write a piece on plum in women's fashion this fall. My family continues to mock me.

Insanity continues

Today, for the very first time, I ran 6.2 miles, mostly around the lake. Then I limped the mile uphill home for good measure. I'm now convinced that Tylenol and moleskin are two of mankind's greatest inventions, and that the 80 or so people who run the Badwater Ultramarathon are both incredibly tough and incredibly crazy. (Check it out.)

The afternoon was spent going to and from a brief meeting with the president of the local PRSA chapter, which is only a precursor to tomorrow's schedule:

10:00 Meeting at Gus Mayer for freelance piece
13:00 Lunch and potential job discussion
14:30 Meeting at O2 Ideas
18:00 Pompeii exhibit with a friend

And then Friday...

08:30 Meeting at Cox Radio
10:00 Leave for Atlanta and Mom's Silver Circle Award dinner

Somewhere between now and Monday, I'm hoping to write a piece and get in a few more runs. We shall see what, if anything, happens.

Possibly insane

It's official. I, the fat kid of the 40-minute mile, am registered for my very first 10K.

I really had no plans to do this, but after running with Rosanna and seeing what pacing is all about, I think this just might be possible. I've been slowing down this week (no mean feat with the dog on my arm), and I did 4.4 miles this morning without feeling like I wanted to collapse in the street. Fortunately for my training purposes, Star Lake's one mile away and nearly flat, so the worst bit of the run is that last mile home, which is mostly uphill. I love this neighborhood.

A 10K is 6.2 miles, so I have a little ways to go, but the race isn't until November 3, a whopping 17 days away. Still, Rosanna, who has been training properly, did her first 6-mile run this morning. Time to play catch-up...

Vicksburg

This weekend, I had the pleasure of heading out to Vicksburg with Rosanna, Sarah Louise, Sarah, and Jen. Rosanna's parents were kind enough to host me, and between them and Sarah Louise's parents, let's just say that the five of us ate very well. Thankfully, Rosanna's in training for the Vulcan 10K, and after a four-mile run, I felt slightly less guilty about potato casserole and lemon tart.

Vicksburg is a former port city known for being besieged by the Union, and its many antebellum homes are testament to its 19th-century prominence. As the Pilgrimage is currently ongoing, we were able to tour some of these homes. First up was Anchuca, now a B&B and restaurant, where we had a lovely luncheon (including a piece of "bonzo" cake split five ways) and walked around the grounds.

After lunch, we headed to Cedar Grove, a former plantation home that's now also a B&B and restaurant. For $6 each, we were given a print-out of the self tour, which was so poorly written that Jen, who works on the copy desk, threatened to pull out her red pen and send them the revised draft. Cedar Grove is actually quite nice, and still has a cannonball embedded in one wall from the siege.

We also had time to take in downtown Vicksburg's Homewood-esque row of shops, where Rosanna and Sarah Louise were accosted by nearly all the sales staff and forced to explain that they were only home for the weekend. Our shopping turned into the puppy tour of Vicksburg, however, as many of the stores we visited had at least one resident dog. A ceramics studio, for instance, had both a tiny dog that wanted no part of us and an overly friendly Husky who just wanted affection. One store did make me laugh - Crown to Heels is a boutique-cum-gown rental-cum-tanning salon owned by a longtime pageant contestant, and the store is decorated with her crowns, trophies, banners, and portraits. World peace, indeed.

Rosanna's parents have their own shuffleboard court, so we discovered the joys of cruise ship athletics and pushed the pucks around on Saturday night as we learned about the Gages' local problem wildlife - deer, raccoons, beavers, and an alligator, who, as her father later suggested, might be keeping the beaver population under control. After dinner, the girls graciously agreed to watch Hot Fuzz instead of Mansfield Park, which may have been a poor choice as all four of them fell asleep at one point during the movie and woke to the prolonged shootout and an understandable bit of confusion.

After an extravagant Sunday lunch, we headed back to Birmingham, and Rosanna came across a book on tape that she had yet to finish. With four hours ahead of us, we settled back with Lipstick Jungle, a steamy romp by the author of Sex and The City that made me laugh. One Amazon reviewer wished there were a rating below one star for this particular stinker, but still, the time passed quickly enough as we listened. Sadly, we were never able to finish it, though Rosanna did offer me the CDs...

No. I'm not that desperate to find out how Nico's tryst with the male model ended.

Movie night

Man, I miss college.

Birmingham-Southern offered a free movie night tonight for those students wishing to see The Kingdom, so thanks to my intrepid friend Roy, we got in on BSC's nickel. Aside from the kids chatting in the back row during the climax of the film, the evening was quite nice. The movie's great, much better than I'd thought it would be, as I tend to catch a glimpse of helicopters and run toward another selection. There's just enough violence without being gratuitous, and the ending is appropriate without being overly patriotic or sentimental. Certainly worth the money we paid for it, if not more...

It's always fun to rehash high school, now that we're safely past it, and Roy's stories are so much better than mine. At least we could agree that physics was a subject of some concern and that Mr. Fleming's just about the coolest guy ever.

Tomorrow begins Girls' Weekend in Vicksburg, and I am so psyched for a road trip. It's also Northwestern's homecoming weekend, and not only does Jen get to ride on a float, she gets to ride on a float in a parade led by Clinton Kelly of What Not to Wear fame. I wonder if the stuffed eagle ever arrived...

Job search, continued

No employment yet, but I've begun to make a few contacts. Southern Progress is even allowing me to apply for a January-start internship past the deadline, so there may be hope for me yet!

In the meanwhile, my official job title is Go-fer. At least I'm able to run errands and be somewhat productive. Today, I had an impromptu trip downtown to pick up a pair of my mother's shoes, since the person who dropped them off is running mad with a trunk show. Seeing as I still can't parallel park, going downtown is always an adventure.

And now, Gordon Ramsay is teaching this poor slob how to box and run a restaurant. I'm loving Kitchen Nightmares.

Columbus Day

Since I haven't had this holiday off since grade school, I completely forgot about Columbus Day until my dad told me we didn't have to play car shuffle last night. Of course, it's not exactly a holiday for me, seeing as I don't actually work, but but it's still nice to have someone else around the house besides the dog.

Speaking of whom, Callie is currently resting under the recliner, having realized that I've thrown her three new squeaky balls as much as I'm going to for the next few hours and that my laptop is inedible. She's quite content - she's had a morning walk, a three-mile promenade, a nap, a delicious snack of cardboard paper towel roll, part of my plum, bits of Raisin Nut Bran, and rice pudding. Amazing.

The thing you forget when you're not constantly around them is that dogs are the easiest creatures on the planet to please. The world may be going to hell, and all she wants is for me to toss a plastic ball down the backyard a few dozen times. At least something is simple.

Shiny things

I confess, I have a weakness for shiny things. It all began at the tender age of six, when, while vacationing at the Grand Canyon, my eye was taken by a ring that consisted of a steel band and a blue rock with wiggly eyes upon it. That thing was beautiful, no matter what my parents thought, and I wore it with pride for some time.

I like to think my tastes have matured somewhat since then, but like a moth to a bug zapper, I continue to find myself inevitably drawn toward jewelry counters wherever I go. Consequently, I've amassed a collection of accessories of varying quality from choir tour stops across the globe, from a gold and garnet necklace from Prague, to a particularly fetching pair of turquoise earrings with dangling gold feathers from the Little America Motel in Flagstaff, Arizona, to a dolphin-shaped bone pendant bought on the plane between Brisbane and Fiji (just so I'd have a souvenir). With quite a bit of assistance from my parents, I've also managed to pick up strands of black and white pearls, three opal necklaces, diamonds, emeralds, and one of my latest finds, a necklace and earrings in apatite, a blue-green stone usually reserved for industrial purposes.

What? It was fair trade...

While shoe shopping today, I wandered over to the jewelry counter at Gus Mayer - always a dangerous idea - and began idly examining the offerings displayed before me. A few seemed gaudy, and the Star of David necklace didn't seem appropriate, but then my eye lit on a pretty druzy with tourmaline beading, and I continued browsing. That's when I saw it: The Druzy.

For those who've devoted their brain cells to things that actually matter, take a geode, crack it open, and a druzy is the rough crystal-covered bit inside. They can form in any number of minerals, but The Druzy was a thin sliver in the middle of a turquoise-colored boulder opal, which was set with tiny diamonds all around it. In a word, gorgeous.

My mother, being the understanding sort, dutifully came over to look at my find, and the sales lady brought it out for our inspection. As it turns out, the sapphire-studded chain it was on was sold separately, but this was probably for the best, as The Druzy sold for a cool $7,500. It was the most expensive item in the case, she informed us (blame the diamonds), and while the price wasn't going down any time soon (I asked), she was still impressed that I'd known what a druzy was.

Still, damn.

As I've said, my mother is the understanding sort, and so we turned back to the case next to The Druzy, where the other two drusies were being displayed. Long story short, I walked out with the lovely first necklace I'd seen, while Mom got a nice orange druzy of her own. No, my new necklace isn't a $7,500 diamond-circled pendant, but it should look lovely for Mom's award ceremony in two weeks. That's why we were shoe shopping, after all.

Wireless

Finally, my parents decided to get wireless, thereby allowing me to use my computer as more than a typewriter-cum-Gameboy and my mother to work without feeling guilty about monopolizing the house's single Internet connection. The Bellsouth/AT&T/whatever-they're-calling-themselves-this-month man arrived this morning to install it, and Mom went off to teach, leaving me to learn the system.

Two minutes after I leave him with the computer and the sealed box containing the new router, he calls me back into the room and asks if we have DSL. "I don't know," I tell him, "I've been basically out of the house for the last five years. Why?"

He had discovered that our computer had Internet access, and wondered what the problem was. I then explained that we had a new component inside Box Number One, and he happily went about setting up our connection.

Ten minutes later, it was time to test a laptop.

Ever since I returned from Edinburgh, my computer had been giving me fits with connectivity issues. Essentially, it would find a network (usually our neighbors'), but would refuse to connect to the network, citing DNS errors or other such nonsense. I tried everything - typing odd strings at the command prompt (always fun), fixing proxy settings, removing firewalls - but still it refused to play nice. I even took the damn thing to the Geek Squad down at Best Buy, but it worked for them and I went home, several shades of red.

After the turncoat Vaio made me look like an idiot, I assumed our neighbors had changed their settings, effectively keeping me off, and waited until the new system went in to worry about my computer. Well, Bellsouth Man and I discovered that the Vaio still had no intention of connecting to the network today. He, too, tried a few things, but made no more headway than I had. Eventually, he gave up, so I said I would keep turning things off until it worked, and sat down to try the oh-so-reliable "monkeys with typewriters" method of computer repair.

A few minutes later, I went back to Best Buy with my tail between my legs.

"Hi," I told Jason the Geek Squad agent, "my computer hates me." I then explained that it refused to find the network, that I'd just returned from the world's most restrictive ResNet system, and that the Bellsouth man hadn't been able to figure it out.

"Sometimes I think they pay them too much at Bellsouth," he muttered, then magically removed my proxy settings - the thing I'd been trying to do for weeks - and gave me his number in case the computer still didn't work.

It does. I'm writing this at my kitchen table while Callie gives me the evil eye for not Throwing the Ball. Best of all, the Geek Squad didn't charge me a thing, again. I love those guys.

Alabama moment

As I was walking out of the mall today, a pickup truck pulled up to the curb and the woman in the passenger seat hailed me. She asked the location of a salon I'd not heard of around the mall, but since I've been gone for the last year, I told her I didn't know and pointed her toward the main doors and the directory.

Then I took a good look at the truck and heard the theme song from The Beverly Hillbillies blaring in my head.

Her husband was driving. Between them was a small girl, perhaps five or six years old, and while no child that young should be in the front seat of a vehicle, especially not without chest restraints, the most surprising passenger was the obese woman riding in the bed of the truck. Sitting in a lawn chair, facing backwards, this woman had been given the seat usually reserved for dogs of dubious lineage, as Lord knows she'd never have fit in up front.

The woman asked me if they could park in the deck, and I nodded, then watched as they drove off, the bed sitter seemingly quite comfortable to be riding backwards in an old Ford.

Someone call Jeff Foxworthy. I feel a redneck moment coming on.

Weekend update

I know it's been a few days since I've updated this thing. I'm not lazy, I'm in a house with a single Internet-connected computer that has been turned into a mobile command center (don't ask) for the next week, meaning that my time online's a bit limited. Here, somewhat briefly, is the rundown of last weekend:

On Friday afternoon, I had a "networking" meeting with an old friend of my mother's, which went well until he stepped out of the office to find a book for me and the top button of my jacket decided to pop off. A black button on a predominantly blue Oriental rug is a difficult thing to spot, especially when one can't just get up and start crawling around for it, and by the time he escorted me from his office, I had given the thing up for lost. When the subject of Edinburgh came up, however, we returned to the office so I could give him a few notes (he's visiting in November), and when he turned to his computer, I noticed the button and snatched it off the rug, hopefully without attracting his notice.

Friday night combined several excellent things: Greek food, independent film, and a bunch of lovely ladies out on the town. Rosanna, whose social circle far surpasses mine at the moment, has graciously introduced me to several of her friends, and a few of us met on the southside at the Greek Orthodox Cathedral for the 35th annual Greek Food Festival. There was music and dancing, hundreds of people, and delicious Greek doughnuts, plus the rice pilaf I used to crave all year (until Zoe's Kitchen went in, that is). Afterwards, we carpooled downtown to the Alabama Theater for the opening film of the Sidewalk Moving Pictures Festival, The Ten, which was by turns hilarious, demeaning, and just plain stupid. Mocking trailers has never been quite so much fun.

On Saturday, I had dinner with an old friend, Roy, who can actually cook. Edgar's Bakery kindly supplied the dessert, as I cannot cook, but Edgar's has yet to fail me. We then went to the Alys for the ASO's "Music From the Danube" concert, two hours of Haydn, Beethoven, and a concerto featuring an amazing 26-year-old pianist and one very somber triangle player. Liszt's so-called "triangle concerto" does have an unusually prominent triangle part, and I have to say that the guy on triangle had the best job up there. Someday, I want to wear concert black and play the most mocked instrument known to man, save the cowbell...

Sunday, we sang both the 8 and 10:30 AM services, which isn't easy if one is accustomed to getting out of bed at 8 AM. We're also using a strange service format during the next month best described as the "Baptist Variety Hour", but there's no help for that. Sunday afternoon was devoted to napping to make up for the early service (it's the day of rest, after all), and then it was back to church for choir practice, then home for my dad's delicious homemade lasagna.

After a 2.5-mile run/walk this morning (you can't wear out a border collie), today was a day of errands for me while Mom holed up with the computer, a laptop editor, and the unenviable task of time coding tapes. I drove all around town for a few hours, then came home to find that my new choir dress had arrived. For a choir dress, it's not bad, but that's not saying much. It's also far too large, which, while better than the alternative, means I'll need to have some reconstructive work performed on it before December. (I also have to buy concert shoes tomorrow...note to self.) Tonight was BCC rehearsal, always a good two hours of singing, and as I was coming home this evening, I remembered why I missed my car so much while in Edinburgh: it's the only place I can sing along with "Con Te Partiro" without having blunt objects aimed at my head.