I love hanging out with old people these days

I thought about driving to the beach for a few hours on Monday. But from what I’ve heard, the closest beach with nice water and sand is Orange Beach in Alabama, three hours away. When my alarm went off at 7am, the thought of driving all that way by myself wasn’t enough motivation to make me get up. So I slept in and spent the day catching up on emails, writing letters, doing laundry, etc. Being about my business, as my high school history teacher would say.

Tuesday market was oppressively hot. Here’s me protected from the weather: baseball hat, sunglasses, cold cloth around my neck (a farmer gave that to me). I’m also decked out for SEED, with my CCFM t-shirt, my CCFM sticker, my CCFM pen and my clipboard.

Even though I tried to stay in the shade as much as possible, my Chaco tan progressed considerably. I tried to add a new picture but it won’t upload right now.

After work, Tatiana, Kelly and I went to Domenica (a John Besh restaurant) for happy hour. All pizzas are half off, so we shared a really fancy mushroom pizza for six dollars total. I was so impressed with the restaurant that I convinced my group to go there for dinner tonight— a special occasion since Vicki, one of the Robertson Program staff, is visiting.

I dropped Tatiana off after lunch on Tuesday, and on the way home I made a spontaneous decision to visit the photographer I met last week on my run. We shared another extremely interesting conversation.

We talked about things like the meaning of creativity and the purpose of art. He said, “To the creative mind, everything is input.” He said an artist’s job is to help others see, not to show them what you see. He said being called an artist is a compliment, but calling yourself an artist is presumptuous.

We talked the age of technology and what it means for writers and photographers. He keeps little moleskine journals, each one devoted to a different category such as “quotes” or “books to read.” He writes it all down by hand because he likes his words to be tangible. He said there is power in the physical act of writing.

We talked about how he has run five miles each day for the past 6500-odd days, without missing a single day. He said he has run with cracked ribs, with a foot injury, with a fever. I asked if that can be healthy and he said, “When you have a fever, your body is raising its temperature to kill the invasive disease cells. By running, I’m helping my body raise its temperature.” What an interesting perspective! What an interesting man! He gave me his card and told me to email him my opinion of the books he recommended.

Tuesday night I had dinner with family friends from Tarboro: the Urquharts! Alex is moving down here for Tulane Law, so his parents are in town for a few days to help him move in. We went to dinner at Luke (another John Besh restaurant) with a couple from New Orleans who share a very close mutual friend with Billy Urquhart. It was very fun getting to know the New Orleans couple and getting to catch up with people from Tarboro. Plus the shrimp and grits were amazing.

My day in the office today passed agreeably enough. I’m keeping myself busy by planning kids’ activities the market coordinators can use in the non-summer months when there are no interns to take care of it.

Eleven of the twelve went to Domenica with Vicki tonight, and it was a wonderful time. We all are excited to have her here and show her where we work and what we’ve been doing all summer. She’s the one who matched us with our internships, so it’s fun for her to see how each of us fit in our placements. I’ll be meeting with her one-on-one Friday.

Comments

  1. Susan - July 19, 2012 @ 2:47 pm

    I can't believe that Alex is old enough to be entering law school. I also heard that Mary McCall broke her wrist. Two totally detached insidents, but both came to mind when I started this. You continue to go your own way, experiencing everything available, and broadening your life. What fun. I want to be just like you when I grow up!

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