Green Herons and Fried Green Tomatoes

This morning my old college roommate E and I went on a walk on the local greenway and stumbled upon this green heron hunting in the lake. I've never seen one quite so out in the open as this, in my experience they have always been fairly elusive birds. Last time I saw one I almost stepped on it while walking along Shoreline in Mountain View, CA. This one really stuck out to me, but E said she would have missed it if I hadn't been with her as it is quite small, in fact she had no idea herons could be that small. It makes me feel good when I can point things out to people, although I know I disappointed her in my less than exhaustive knowledge of bird calls because she kept asking me to identify every call we heard and I didn't know them all.



After our walk, we drove over to the state farmer's market where I dined on the best fried green tomatoes I have ever had. A southern delicacy if ever there was one. It made me think of possibly my favorite movie of all time, Fried Green Tomatoes, and the book of the same title by Fannie Flagg. All I've ever wanted is to marry Idgie-- a rebel who would make me laugh, who knew how to have a good food fight, someone who would charm bees for me and be tougher than me in standing up to the bad guys and bullies. My ex was also fond of the movie, but she was completely enamored with Ruth. She said it was easy to be the bad girl, but that the harder role was that of Ruth, the one who tamed the bad girl. In fact, she was so fond of Mary-Louise Parker that we watched the TV sitcom Weeds just based on the fact that Parker had the star role in it.

After that very filling meal, I went for a run in Umstead park, which was absolutely beautiful. The smells here are so familiar to me, running through the forest I could just picture my younger self, half a lifetime ago, running the same trails, only faster and more driven. I wish I could travel back in time and tell her what I know now, spare her some of the pain I've been through and help her find her Idgie. Instead, I must be satisfied with the small pleasure of seeing a green heron, a good meal, and a relaxing run.