Please explain

Yesterday, as mentioned, I took the bus to meet Josh for a Twins game.  It requires just one transfer and drops me at Target Field's front door for the meager fee of $2.25.  It usually also comes with some bus shenanigans, which I appreciate.

I walked a few blocks from my home to the bus stop, where a hipster was sitting in the grass nearby, listening to music while he waited for the bus.  At the sidewalk extension that denotes a bus stop, I noticed two bananas and one avocado, both in pristine condition, sitting neatly next to the curb.  I frowned.  I looked at the hipster and he made 1) no mention of claiming the produce and 2) no acknowledgement of how weird this sight was.  The next step was obvious but also ran the risk of falling prey to some sort of strange prank or performance art.  I took out my camera and furtively took a photo of the scene, my dignity loosely intact.

Minutes went by, as is customary when waiting for this particular bus.  Two other passengers arrived at the bus stop.  Neither one claimed the groceries.  At the very least, this was a sad waste of an avocado, but I speculated that it may have been injected with arsenic.  I started to wonder if it was actually some sort of code meant for someone else.  My imagination began to run wild.

"If one banana is out, tonight's capers are on.  If two bananas and an avocado are out, they're off!"

Then the bus pulled up, and all four of us stepped over the produce and boarded the bus. 

When we drove past the intersection, all three pieces were gone.

Help me!!  What happened?

Last Saturday in August?!

I was late to running club this morning.  I didn't miss the run's start, which would have been an extreme bummer, given that the day's schedule called for 20 miles. But I was That Girl, the one who rolls up with her hair down and shoes untied, just as the coach is wrapping up his instructions.  Oops.

But why was I late, you ask?  It's probably understandable for any event that begins each Saturday morning at 7:00.  Today, though, it wasn't courtesy of an alarm clock failure.  As usual, I stumbled into the kitchen bleary-eyed and started making coffee and my English muffin with PB.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw something orange coming from outside my kitchen window.  I had to learn more, so I put in my contacts. 

Ha!  It was just a beautiful sunrise.  I grabbed my camera, opened the door to our patio, and tottered down the alley wearing my large, fleecy yellow robe to get a better view. Thank heavens no other humans had to start their day with this sight.  But the sight of the sunrise--that was something to behold:

I finished getting ready, and when I jumped in the car 20 minutes later, the sky was back to run-of-the-mill (but still beautiful) blue with puffy white morning clouds.  It was perfect weather to start the run: The temperature was around 60, and more importantly, it wasn't sticky and humid.  (I nearly just typed a smiley emoticon--that's how satisfying I found the weather.) 

Our club had a good showing today--I'd guess 30-40 runners showed up--and there were a ton of runners out on the trails getting ready for fall races.  The route covered Lake of the Isles, a big stretch of the Midtown Greenway, West River Parkway, Minnehaha Parkway, Lake Harriet and Lake Calhoun before winding back around Lake of the Isles to the start.  I felt really good today, too, which was reassuring given that I had a trainwreck of a 20-miler a few weeks ago.  I told my running buddy that another six miles wouldn't have been joyful, but they probably would have been okay. 

But of course 20 was quite enough.  Now I'm home and hydrating, and I have a few important priorities for the day. Notably:

• Assemble a turkey-mozzarella-pesto sandwich from the contents of my fridge.
• Spend some quality time with my couch and my Us Weekly.  ("Jen's Baby Countdown"!)
• Haul myself over to Target Field in time for this afternoon's Twins game via the 21-94C Metro Transit special.
• Eat ice cream.

Speaking of ice cream--and can you imagine a better way to start a sentence?--I haven't been a major consumer of State Fair food, ever since an unfortunate incident that involved Josh and I eating everything in sight at the fair over the course of, like, 45 minutes.  But ever since the reviews starting coming in, I haven't been able to get sweet corn ice cream out of my mind.  This week, I might have to wrangle some.

A full Thursday

Two years in a row makes it a tradition!

Yesterday, Grandma and I had our annual date to a Twins game.  We had originally chosen a game last month, but the mercury soared to 100 degrees that day, and we made the wise decision of postponing.  Yesterday was glorious: about 78 degrees, with a gentle occasional breeze.  We were also in the shade.  We couldn't have asked for better weather.

(A brief sidenote: the day actually started off on a sour note before it turned wonderful.  I was enjoying the beautiful morning on my run and was three miles away from home when a root on Summit Avenue's dirt path got the best of me.  I tripped, flew through the air not gracefully, and landed in what must have been a dirt patch, because a cloud of dust covered me.  I scraped up my palms and knees and generally dented my right side, but the only serious wound was to my pride.  Let it be known that I saw about three cars for the entire run until that point, when about a dozen cars drove slowly by me as I was literally brushing myself off.  Josh tried frequently through the day to get me to admit that I tripped because I was distracted by a dog sighting.  I will deny this forever.)

Anyway, I drove up 94 to pick up Grandma, and for about 25 miles of the trip, there were periodic road signs warning Helicopter work ahead.  Huh?!  I saw no evidence of this on the trip's first leg.  On the way back to Target Field, though, lo and behold, we spotted helicopters flying very low and stringing power lines.  Whoa.

We got to Target Field without incident, helicopter or otherwise, and Josh met us there and walked us to our Section 202 seats, down the right field line.  We watched the Moorhead Middle School Orchestra perform the national anthem, and then the game was underway.  We ate walleye fingers!  We even got a welcome message on the scoreboard in the fifth inning, thanks to Josh!  I briefed Grandma on Ben Revere (she liked his size and speed) and Jim Thome (she was pleased to learn how nice he is).  

We watched eight innings of a game that was tight despite shaky starting pitching. Before that, Grandma was feeling the tension.  She told me that she had used up all of her slang words in her cheers, including "gosh."  If the game stayed close much longer, she said, her language could get really ugly.  The Orioles stretched their lead to five runs in the seventh, so I never got to hear that next level.

It was a fast game, and we were back on the interstate before I knew it. When we got back to Grandma's house, she brought out a bag of cookies and raisin bread (her specialties) plus an embroidered dishcloth for me.  Best of all, she revealed my annual pair of socks.  She knits the most wonderful, warm, cozy socks, and everyone in our family loves them.  The way the daylight is fading in my fair city, I know I'll be wearing them constantly soon.  This pair, unbeknownst to her, was in the colors of my alma mater!!  I was thrilled.

Attached to every pair is a card with care instructions, labeled in her handwriting, which I find exceptionally comforting.  It should be made into a font.

Finally, I noticed this wonderful sign driving through a town not far from her home.  As we head into the weekend, let's hear it for Andy and Celine!

Happy days.

Wish that I was on ole rocky top

Warning: a ferociously, obnoxiously long post is about to ensue.  I gotta get it all out, and then we can move on.  Subsequent posts on this topic will be briefer.

I'm finally taking action on an idea that has been percolating in my head for a long time.  Some readers have heard me mumbling about this plan and asking advice; others will be taken by surprise completely. Some of you will have no interest in this project whatsoever; others will hopefully enjoy (or at least be bemused by) my learning curve over the next 14 months or so.

It started several years ago when I read Alexandra Robbins's book Pledged: The Secret Life of Sororities, where Robbins spends a year undercover in a sorority house at a big (and I think Southern) university.  For context: I attended a small liberal arts college in Minnesota and believe deeply in both my alma mater and the broader values of a liberal arts education and attending a small school.  But that book piqued my curiosity: what is it like to go to a school on the complete opposite end of the spectrum? 

And one of the most obvious "opposite" qualities is a place where college football dominates the weekend.  What's it like to be part of a campus culture where the whole community starts looking forward to Saturday football games on Monday, in a state where no one plans weddings on Saturdays in the fall, in a place where 90,000 people pack a stadium every weekend to watch their beloved team?

At big southern schools, these traditions play out every weekend in a way that seems very different even from the University of Minnesota--my best comparison--where it seems like not every student would necessarily know when, where, or who the Gophers are playing on a given Saturday.  The Southeastern Conference (SEC for short) links southern universities that all have long, storied college football histories. That spills over into the campus culture in a way that draws together history and tradition and fight songs and mascots to create a culture I can't begin to understand.

Unless I experience it, right?

I don't like to commit to projects half-heartedly.  So here it goes: this year, I will follow and study one SEC football team.  I will get to know the program: players, coaches, highs, lows and traditions.  I will watch games on TV, read articles from the campus newspaper, and learn the stories behind the players.  I also should clarify that I don't even know the game of football particularly intricately, so that will be another hurdle. 

All of this research will be done so that by the time I reach the project's next stage, I'll get it.  I'll understand the fervent passion fans feel for this team, for its glorious wins and devastating, nail-biting losses. 

And then I'll see it in person!

In fall 2012, with all of the knowledge collected, Josh and I will go to the campus for game weekend to see the experience unfold in person, and I'll be all in: I'll know the fight song and cheers, know the team and its traditions.  I'll be one of the 90,000 people, part of the mayhem.  I will tailgate and wear team colors.

I'm getting ahead of myself, though: that's a long time from now.  I've done a preliminary study of my SEC options, talking to football fans and people who went to SEC schools.  (I really confused one such person when I told her about this "project" and she thought it was a work assignment.)  My finalists included Alabama, Ole Miss, and LSU.

But I've reached a decision: the University of Tennessee (also known as Rocky Top, the Volunteers, and Big Orange) is going to be my team.  It fits my criteria:

• I didn't want to jump on a bandwagon and pick simply the best team. UT is in the middle of the conference but has a lot of young players and is on its way up!  It's sort of a wild card, and I love wild cards.
 



Credit


• Obviously, I want a team with a good fight song and a good mascot ("Rocky Top" is simply the best and the mascot is Smokey the Dog--enough said).
• I want a good coach.  This man Derek Dooley is in his second year, and he seems like a straight-up dude.  He emphasizes accountability and has a likeable blend of optimism and realism.  He is also getting some good recruits!
• Above all, I want the campus-wide passion for the team I've outlined above. 

I'm in the research phase, and beginning it was scary.  I wasn't sure how much real information I'd be able to get from Minnesota.  Luckily, we are in an exciting era of information exchange, and I think this stage is progressing much differently than it would have five years ago.  Here are my resources so far:

• I signed up for a recap of Tennessee football and SEC football articles via the Bleacher Report, so I get daily emails collecting relevant news stories from around the web.  This is a huge help.
• I follow the UT local beat reporters and UT bloggers on Twitter, so I get their insights immediately about how the latest practice or scrimmage went, in addition to player profiles and more in-depth stories.  This was timely and handy this week when Derek Dooley dismissed one of his top players from the program.  Rats.
• I bookmarked the campus newspaper's website, which so far has been a goldmine of player profiles telling the stories of athletes like Nash Nance and Da'Rick Rogers, who went to high school together, committed to other schools, and then decommitted late in the recruiting process because they both wanted to play together at Tennessee. 
• I "liked" Tennessee Athletics on Facebook, so video links and news tidbits show up daily in my Facebook newsfeed.  Reading the comments, largely from die-hard Rocky Top fans, is wonderful because they are busting at the seams to get this season underway.

It's going to be a lot easier than I expected to get informed--and because of the immediacy of online content, get excited--about Rocky Top football. 

It's just over a week until the first game of the 2011-12 season, and it's a little secret I've been hiding: I can't wait.

Good morning!

Hi, readers!  I'm planning a longer post for later, but I had to check in and share a cloud picture with you in case you are feeling in desperate need of cloud pictures.  I know it's catching on with at least one reader because I received the following text message last week:

7:51: Perfect sky picture morn

And it was.  I had noticed it when I was running that morning and thought the exact same thing but didn't have my camera.  BOO!  Yesterday morning, I did, though.  I had to take this snapshot because the white parts of the clouds looked almost metallic, like glittery silver or gold but white.  I risked life and limb for this shot because I was photographing these clouds from the middle of a coffee shop's parking lot, thus standing in the way between people and their morning coffee.  I live dangerously.  Here's the view from my neighborhood:

Later, Josh and I went to a nearby pub to celebrate my brother's birthday.  Look how excited my brother is about celebrating a quarter century of life!

A crew of his friends were there, and my sister and her friend joined us, too.  My sister has been 21 for seven months, but six of them were spent in Africa and Europe, so this was the first time all three of us have assembled at an establishment of the 21+ variety.  

Weird...but wonderful.  In a few weeks, all three of us will be living within two miles of each other in St. Paul.  I feel lucky.