July | 2014 | Perle Champion

The Hill & Lister Hill – Walkabout Wednesday

Thanks to the interstate Highway System, it is now possible to travel across the country from coast to coast without seeing anything. – Charles Kuralt

Hoda and KLG have ‘wines day Wednesday’ and although there will be some wine a little later in my Wednesday, this one is and has been walkabout Wednesday for me for the past few weeks. In my walkabout, I find I’m seeing things I ordinarily miss along my way.

I’ve been parking on Southside by the post office at some of the free curbside spaces and walking the 3-1/2 blocks to the Lister Hill Library for their 2-hour 10-week WriteNow sessions. Lister Hill has no parking lot; the nearest lots are 2 and 3 blocks away and cost $4; the closest meter I found was 2 blocks away and I’d have to dash back before the 2 hours is up or be ticketed.

Free parking is better, but as 18^th Street is one steep hill (feels like 45 degree angle), I don’t walk mindwalking downhill to the sessions, but all the way back up that same hill, in this summer heat, is out of the question. I’ve opted for the local transit trolley which is only a quarter for under 62 and 10 cents for seniors (yay, one more perk of being 65).

I signed up for WriteNow in late May, and I have been merrily walking to every session, and arriving by and usually before noon every Wednesday since, hence walkabout Wednesday. Most of the sessions are on the 4^th floor in the Edge of Chaos. I love that name and the room, which is a huge sprawling space with two walls of soaring almost floor to ceiling windows and murals on all exposed wall space and columns.

With the exception of me and one other participant, the group is comprised of academics from the sciences here at UAB working on various theses, article reviews, and dissertations.

Dr. Jennifer Greer, seen here behind a column helping a student, is available for quick critiques, direction, opinion, help with organizing tools and more. Once each month, she conducts a luncheon lecture with food catered by Newks (pretty good sandwiches). She hands out some rather handy tools to help organize our writing, many of which I’ve revised to suit my non-academic writing projects. One in particular, has helped me immensely to set deadlines for essays that are done on spec and hence have no ‘real’ deadline other than mine

I’m confident, I’ll have most of my essays submitted to various publications by the end of the sessions and hope more than a few of them finds a home.

What Are You Thankful For?

“Thank you is the best prayer that anyone can say…” – Alice Walker

It’s the only one I ever say. Just before I turn the bedside lamp off at midnight every night, I write at least
5 things in my gratitude journal that I am grateful for.

Last Tuesday evening’s list lead with two items that are often repeated in my journal as well as out loud on any given day.

Thank you for the strong healthy body and mind that are mine.
Thank you for my mother’s continued excellent health.

I am thankful that at 65, I am healthy and strong as is my 81 year-old mother. Once a week on a Tuesday or a Wednesday, I pick her up around 9 or 10 a.m., and we’re off.

My gift to her and, truth be told, to me is a day of doing whatever she wants to do, going wherever she wants to go. I know for sure, that we will:

Shop. The stores and malls may vary, but she is a consummate ‘Mallee’ who loves to go ‘saleing’.
Eat & Drink. We’ll stop for lunch and a beer or two at whatever restaurant strikes her fancy.
1. China Buffet for a Tsing Tao beer and all you can eat, and boy can she eat. At 5’2” and size 8 you’d never know.
2. Jim ‘n’ Nicks for Taco Tuesdays’ fried catfish tacos and Modelo or Acapulco for Fajitas and Dos Equis.
Shop some more – Birmingham has a plethora of large and small malls and then there are the vintage stores and Salvation Army stores, etc.
Party. We invariable stop for a happy hour which includes bar food or appetizer and something good and wet.
1. Bonefish grill is a favorite for Whiskey n Soda tall and an order or two of Bang-Bang Shrimp.
2. Dodiyo’s for Wine or a Stella Artois and pizzette and hummus.
3. Brio’s for a Peroni, bread and olive oil and shrimp cocktail.
Shop. We always stop at Publix grocery store up the block from her house for miscellaneous grocery items on the way home. She buys a six pack and I a bottle of wine to take home.