Day 7 (with a few days missing inbetween) - Atlanta, GA

Well. No one ever said public transportation in Atlanta was easy. For those of you who read earlier blog posts, yes, I sold the car on Craiglist which will pay for a decent bike and an unlimited 30 day pass on our lovely transit system - MARTA. A note on Craigslist - it's the BEST free classifieds by the people, for the people. Within 30 minutes of posting my offer for the car, I had two phone calls. Within an hour of posting it, I had $200 cash in my pocket and Jose hauling off my decrepit Toyota to be sold for parts.

Back to the real story. Today, I had the pleasure of being offered a ride by Jai James (Georgia Council for the Arts - GCA) who insisted that I should not lug my lap top from the MARTA bus stop to the Georgia Public Broadcast Building, where the GCA offices are housed and where I would be hosting my 5th and final workshop for 2007. Walking inside of the building, I remembered how beautiful I have always found it - most spectacular is the Georgia State Arts Collection which happens to adorn the walls and the interior. Two artists who attended the workshop, Ruth Gogel and David Eugene Henry, had the pleasure of re-uniting with their pieces in the state collection as they walked through the lobby. Also in attendance today were the good folks from Gateway Performance Productions, Atlanta Ballet, 7 Stages, Beacon Dance, Piccadilly Puppets, Harmonie Universelle as well as, Don Cooper, David Sampson, and the winner for the longest drive - all the way from Birmingham, AL!- Carolyn Sherer. We talked about Web design and Site Optimization - see www.SouthArts.org/workshops for more on the presentation.

I left feeling so glad to be doing the work that I do. So glad to be meeting the people who make the world snap to attention with their creative endeavors. Ben Wilson (GCA) who was kind enough to play my host for the day, shared his pleasure with getting to hear Ruth Gogel point to various pieces of the state arts collection and name the artists with a great sense of familiarity.

This brings me back to the beginning of my story, public transportation. I absolutely loved the fact that I did not have to kill that moment by hopping into my car and fighting Atlanta traffic. Instead, I hopped onto a Georgia Tech stinger shuttle, which is free even if you are not a student - YEA - and ended up in the middle of a campus full of college-age engineers. Although I was trying to reach the mid-town MARTA station and did not realize until 25 minutes into the ride that the particular shuttle I had chosen did not drop off there (the Tech TROLLEY did) my foible cost me only the unbearable misfortune of standing in 75 degree weather on a cloudless December day regretting only my choice of wardrobe. Heels and a skirt are quite hindering to visions of racing over a campus lawn for a few moments with bare feet.