To quote A Flock of Seatbelts

...or a Flock of Seagulls or whatever that band was called, today, I Ran.

It was the Mayor's Cup 5K in Tuscaloosa today. I had been training for nine weeks for this, and was running for our student FPA group's Relay for Life fundraiser for the American Cancer Society. My training went well until last week. That's when I figured out that the Couch-to-5K program assumes that you are running 10 minute miles. My little blazers top out at something just under 14 minutes, so I was training for a 30 minute run when I should have been preparing myself for a 40 minute effort. Oh, well. For some reason I just lost it last week after my Thursday 28 minute run. This week was a very lackluster effort, but I rationalized by calling it "tapering".

OK, so today's run. We got there early. So early, in fact, that there was time to go back to the house after we had picked up our registration packets to get my forgotten watch. Not-so-good omen #1. Then, just a few minutes before the race, during the pre-stretch warm-up phase, I managed to trip on a perfectly smooth sidewalk and take the skin off of a 5 square inch patch of skin on my right knee. Not-so-good omen #2. Bad words were said, grumpiness took root, but I was prepared to go through with it.

Race time. The nice husband gave me a kiss and we went off at our separate paces. I was going to try to run for 5 minute intervals and walk for one or two minutes in between those. It went well for a while. I managed the first mile in 13:15 or so. The second mile was a little rougher, but I got around the quad and back to the second mile mark right around 26:40. Then, it started to rain. At first, it wasn't so bad. I was running for five and walking for two. Then the rain picked up. Then it picked up some more. Then, I thought I heard God calling for Noah. I was now running for three and walking for two. Thankfully, most of the route was asphalt, so there were few concerns about slipping on the pavement, but by this time, I was not terribly concerned about further woundage; I just wanted to see my husband again.

So I kept plodding along. A woman in an orange t-shirt and I had been trading the lead as we each alternated between walking and running since the quad, so, as evidently running folk do, we entered into a silent understanding that we would finish this damn thing, and about the same time.

The route turned from University Boulevard onto Queen City for a two-block detour to make up the proper distance for a 5K. There were cops instructing people to not turn onto the route, but to proceed directly to the finish line, as downtown Tuscaloosa was under a severe thunderstorm watch at the time. Damn that. I'm finishing, and I'm getting my time so that when I run the next one of these effing things, I'll have a time to beat.

So it started raining even harder. In the most light-hearted moment of the race, one of the guys in our pack quoted Bushwood Country Club's immortal groundskeeper Carl Spackler, saying "The really heavy stuff won't be here for about an hour," which made me want to laugh, but I couldn't.

And eventually, I finished. Joe was there with some sports drinkie for me, and he had found a nice fireman with a packet of neosporin-ish stuff and some gauze for my poor knee. We hung out in the parking garage for part of the post-race party and then called it a morning and headed home. A quick stop at Rite-Aid for some first aid supplies and then back to the apartment and I was just about ready for bed. It was 9:35 am.

So, my race time? I'm not sure. I think it was more than 42 minutes, but less than 43. I had told Joe that my goal was to finish in less than 45 minutes, but secretly I was hoping for something much better. I'll admit that finishing that first minute in 13:15 got my hopes up a bit, but once the critters starting lining up two-by-two, I realigned them.

Joe did quite well and set a personal best for himself. He finished right about the time I got to the 2 mile mark, or, in other words, shortly before the skies opened up. And, as if that weren't enough, he got me home and on the way to dry, and then went to the treadmill to run the remaining 8 miles on his training schedule. He's pretty amazing, that nice husband of mine. Then he went to work for a few hours this afternoon, because he could get a little overtime. We like overtime.

I mentioned earlier that I had dedicated this 5K to Relay for Life. The student group I sponsor, the Capstone Financial Planning Association, has been working on this all semester. Due to the weather, the event was moved from the soccer fields to the Rec Center, which meant that several events had to be curtailed as well. Still, they did a fantastic job. We finished 3rd in all student groups in fundraising and had a good turnout of eight students and 2 boy/girlfriends to represent us. We had a tailgate tent, debuted our awesome banner and had cookies and brownies for sale. I was there at the start to see if they needed anything, which they did not. Joe and I went out for dinner to our favorite Mexican joint (yes, I had a margarita) and then stopped by to see the kids on our way home. They were pleased to find out that I really do have a husband, and once again proved that they are very self-sufficient and know how to manage an event.

So we got home about and learned that our cable is still out. So we've been sitting side by side on the couch and listening to the bluegrass show on the local public radio station and surfing and chatting and all of the silly things that we do with our evenings that make us so darned happy.

Not a bad day. I'm looking forward to sleeping and to church and Sunday School tomorrow. We were only away for one weekend, but it feels like it has been a month. I miss Canterbury and look forward to going to our spiritual home in the morning.

I Love ALABAMA

I think I’ve finally totally fallen for this place. If I can’t make it here, it is my own damned fault. The physical sensation hit when I came around the bend on Campus Drive towards the Publix on The Strip and saw Bryant-Denny Stadium out of my peripheral vision.

It’s been kind of an overwhelming week for the College of Human Environmental Sciences, of which I am a tiny cog of a large and extremely well-functioning machine. Two big things happened in our department: a faculty member lost a parent, which is not all that unusual and tragic in a group of our size and a population our age, but it was a very sad thing. The other thing was an unspeakable revelation about one of our students, one who is a particular favorite of mine.

It is the second thing that has really touched me. Not to diminish the first one at all; losing a parent is never easy, no matter what your age. We have pulled together, the faculty and our graduate students, to support our colleague and minimize the impact on others. It is the second incident that has profoundly touched me. The student in question is sharp and fun and enthusiastic. The thing that happened to him/her is something that many young people have had to deal with; I can think of times in my life when I narrowly escaped a similar crisis. However, in this instance, the scale of the event rather transcends the reality. But enough about that.

The sense of family enveloping this situation has overwhelmed me. It is like a huge defensive net has descended upon the involved parties and solidified to protect our student, our very real asset. Evidently, our academic family has exceeded expectations in ways that the student’s biological family has not met them. It started with the student combination of a need to protect himself/herself, and to protect the other students at the University and in the College. What an incredible showing of maturity. Then, resources were rallied, committed and executed to achieve all of the stated goals. It has been an amazing and impressive thing to see. The level of personal commitment and personal contact has been inspiring.

There will never be a place that I love so well as Kansas State University. However, I cannot imagine that the circumstances of this week would have been handled nearly as well in Manhattan as they were in Tuscaloosa. Judgments would have been made, resources would have been sequestered; the shared needs of the student and the college/school/university would not have been treated as such. There would have been denial of responsibility and assignment of blame rather than a consolidation of resources and an acceptance of a forward-thinking reality.

It begins with leadership. It is supplemented by tradition, but it is leadership that sets the tone for management and for the allocation of tangible and intangible resources. I thank God every day that He placed Joe and me within this community. I love the University of Alabama and the College of Human Environmental Sciences and Milla Boschung. I am so blessed in so many ways by my husband and the community we have found at Canterbury Chapel. I’ve got a big-assed cloud hanging over my head, but we are so close…..

I think there was a line in “Animal House” that went something like this: “THANK YOU, GOD!!”

That is pretty much how I feel right now.

Requiescat in pace, Aunt Jean

We're back from a three day whirlwind tour to Cassville, Missouri to pay final respects to my Aunt Jean, a truly remarkable woman. She was my dad's baby sister, the youngest of ten children born on a rock farm in the beautiful Ozarks just outside of Shell Knob, MO. She graduated from the University of Missouri and taught home economics for a few years before returning to Barry County where she married Uncle Emory and they gave the world cousins Russ and Stan.

Not only was she an educator (both in public schools and the First Baptist Church), but also a successful business woman who owned a printing company and published a newspaper. Her husband served six terms as a Senator in the Missouri state legislature, and Aunt Jean was still winning the legislative spouses' annual golf tournament well into her sixties. She survived cancer (55+years) and the loss of an adult child. She was an excellent seamstress and craftswoman, and the consummate homemaker. As my cousin-in-law Cindy observed, she lived her life by the Bible and the Home Economics handbook.

When I teach Maslow's hierarchy of needs to students, I use my Aunt Jean as the exemplar of a self-actualized human. In 1984, she and Uncle Emory were invited to attend President Reagan's second inauguration and all of the attendant festivities. In what I feel was the ultimate complement to this recognition of her husband's career and her support and partnership, my Aunt Jean made her own dress. And she looked spectacular. It was a Vogue pattern, I can't recall the designer, but I'm sure it was one of those tres difficile ones, and she made a special trip to Kansas City to scout Cy Rudnick's and Kaplan's for the perfect fabric and notions. I love telling that about her.

Aunt Jean was very ill for the last years of her life, but she was able to stay at home. Poor Uncle Emory, I know he will miss her terribly, but he seemed to be relieved that her suffering was done. My new resolution - an Easter resolution, is that done? - is to write him a letter once a month. He likes history and politics, I should be able to find some thought or observation to share with him.