The Art of the Potluck

When I think of a potluck, food comes to mind.  And people coming together for these gustatory celebrations.  Sometimes, the potluck is centered around an event: Thanksgiving, Superbowl, the Inauguration.  Sometimes, we put a theme on the potluck ala Iron Chef: Everything must have chocolate in it, you must bring red food.  And sometimes, it is a competition, like a chili cook-off or a pie competition.  But, you know, more than the food that shows up, its the people that make the difference in a successful potluck, and the unique talents and gifts that they bring.

So, I suggest that a potluck can describe just about any group where the uniqueness of each individual is celebrated... even, say, a bike ride.  What got me thinking about this?  Well, I actually did start over with my training for the year.  No more sickness, dehydration, or snarky stummy.  And last week, was my first "base week".  And to help me get out the door for my long run/ride, I joined the groups.

On Saturday, it was the HOTV runners for a turn around Bald Hill, Mulkey Creek, and back to Oak Creek.  I jumped into the middle of Gerhard's and Jeff's 2:45 run for my piddly 1:10 (it will get longer!).  The potluck part:  Between the five of us, not one attended the same church, worked at the same place, or spent our free time the same way (even family time we discovered differs among us).  But, for that brief time, we were all running 7:45 miles, discussing the football play-offs, TV shows, Sports Illustrated, and of course food (we were hitting up Great Harvest for their anniversary celebration after the run... free coffee and cookies, baby!).  It was a potluck of personalities where we all brought something new to "the table".  Gerhard even brought a new runner :-).

On Sunday, I joined a different kind of group.  I met up with the OSU triathlon team (a collection of alumni and current students and faculty like me) for a little pedal-pushing.  And did I ever push those pedals!  These guys are pretty speedy, multiple Hawai'i Ironman qualifiers among them.  We headed for the valley, "stagnation inversion" be-damned (which I can't tell the difference) under clear skies and light winds.  After a little 10-mile warm-up, the groups split and I jumped behind the longer group and just held on for dear-life.  The ride proceeded like many others before... with people off the front, hills, pace-lines, pee-stops (where it was discovered that I am a girl when I jumped into the woods... up till that point I had fooled at least one of my fellow riders).  And then a dog ran into our group... taking down Ben.  He took it like a champ, rolling off the pedals onto the ground and only sustaining a sore shoulder and a de-trued wheel courtesy of running over the dog.  We gave the owner a piece of our mind.

I probably took it a little too hard this time, but it was hard to tell my fitness before-hand.  Among the group, I was one of the few who still had some legs on me for the final push.  And as it turns out, I got to go to a real potluck that evening... the best kind.  The impromptu kind where someone says, "Hey, I bought this huge salmon and it is about to expire.  Let's grill it up and potluck."  That's what we did.

I want to dedicate this post to my friend Smeth, who still gets my award for "Most classic potluck moment".  Smeth was bringing the bread and butter to our Thanksgiving celebration of the Usual Suspects a few years ago.  He was late, and we were all wondering where he was.  Within minutes he triumphantly arrived, proclaiming "I went to three grocery stores, but I finally found turkey-shaped butter!"

Thanks, Smeth!  Shaped butter always tastes better.