While this blog is primarily for “Atlanta things”, today is special. Today is Raise Your Voice, which is an awareness campaign for Type 1 diabetes. While the majority of people who have diabetes are Type 2, we are the chosen few, and the public is often misinformed. It is the hope that this campaign while help to teach, inspire, and share.

I was never very good with numbers, but the best way to share what Type 1 diabetes is, does, and what a Type 1 diabetic has to do every day may be best shown this way…. with numbers.

1 - Type 1 diabetes is a disease in which the body stops producing insulin. Insulin is a hormone that takes glucose from the blood to the cells, where it is either stored as fat or used as energy. If there’s no insulin, the body will burn fat, releasing ketones as a byproduct. Too many ketones causes the blood to become acidic, creating a state called “ketoacidosis”. If not treated, the body… dies. Type 1 diabetics must have insulin to survive.

2 - Type 2 diabetes is a disease in which the body produces some insulin. The body may have become resistant to the insulin it produces, or there may not be enough insulin to handle the daily tasks. Type 2 diabetics may be able to take oral medications or follow a diet and exercise regimen to control their diabetes. (Of course, there is also the possibility that they may take insulin as well.)

7 - This is the number that you want an A1C to be under. This is a test (also known as HbA1C), that shows what the average blood sugar has been over the past several weeks. It’s a good indicator of how “in control” the diabetes has been. Keeping an A1C under 7% can help to prevent complications - or to keep any existing complications from getting worse.

5 to 10 - This is the percentage of Type 1 diabetics in the diabetes pool. (”Hey, pool party! Marco! Polo!”) This means that there are approximately 700,000 of us - and we’re growing in numbers.

31 - This is the number that showed on my blood glucose meter at 5am last week. This was also the first time that I have asked my husband to help me bring up my blood sugar, as I was afraid to get up off the floor to get sugar. (Yes, I woke my husband by calling to him from the kitchen. I thought I was going to pass out.)

70 to 120 - These are the numbers that your blood sugar should be between. My target that I set with my doctor is 100, but some days, I feel like I’d be happy to hit that number once during the day. If it goes too low, then you are at risk of a hypoglycemic episode - you need sugar to bring it back within range. If this number is too high, then you need to bring it down, either with an extra dose of insulin or exercise.

174 - Billion. Yes, billion. This is the number of dollars that was spent last year on diabetes care in the U.S.

778 - This was the highest recorded blood sugar that I ever had. Not, it was not at diagnosis, but during a difficult teenage episode where I just didn’t care anymore about having the disease.

1441 - This is the number of diabetics who participated in an important study called the DCCT (Diabetes Control and Complications Trial). The trial showed that the risk of complications were decreased when the Type 1 diabetic maintained their A1C as close to normal as possible. Without these 1441 people, there may not have been such a push for technology that allows us to bring our blood sugars into tighter control.

13,243 - This is the dollar amount that was quoted in 2002 as the “average medical expenditure” for a diabetic each year. For most Type 1 diabetics, the longer we have it, the more expensive it becomes to control and maintain. (This is due to increased amount of laboratory testing, procedures, equipment, medication…. you get the picture.)

30,000 - Approximately 30,000 people are diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes each year.

36,500 - The number of times I have tested my blood sugar, give or take a few. This is calculating 4x/day for the last twenty five years. There have been times in my life (bad me) that I didn’t test that often, but other times when I tested 8 to 10 times per day.

Incalculable - The amount of hope that all affected with Type 1 diabetes (and that means family and friends, too!) have for a cure. There is no way to quantify this….

Learn more about Type 1 diabetes, the differences, and what people have to say about this disease by going to this page at Six Until Me, and clicking on any of the people who have raised their own voice to be heard.

We watch Good Eats, and in our household, Alton Brown’s name is uttered with a reverence reserved for religious figures. When we decided to move to Atlanta, the watching of each episode was punctuated with: “Hey - let’s go visit there!” It was during one such show that we found the Cook’s Warehouse.

With three locations: Midtown, Decatur, and Brookhaven, there’s really no excuse not to visit if you are in the area. Why would you bother to trek to any of these stores?

They have everything related to cooking. Period. Williams-Sonoma? Sur La Table? Ha. Please. From knives to cutting boards, espresso machines to spices, I have never been in a place where you could outfit your ideal kitchen. The Midtown location is dedicated solely to cooking, while the Decatur and Brookhaven locations also have a wine and beer section (Sherlock’s Wine Merchant). (I must admit, I haven’t yet visited the Brookhaven location, but that will be rectified soon enough.)

The first time we visited, we noticed a heavenly scent emitting from the back. Traversing the aisles, we stumbled onto a group in a fully equipped kitchen creating Thai dishes under the tutelage of a chef. John knew then that this discovery was going to make a difference in our kitchen - and most likely, our wallets.

The Cook’s Warehouse offers classes in all three locations - every day. Some classes are “hands on”, where you participate in the actual making of dishes. Others are much like watching a live cooking show with a local chef. Looking to learn how to cook Greek, Italian, or French cuisine? They’ve got classes. Want to learn how to improve your cooking skills? They’ve got classes. Want to meet local (and sometimes not so local) chefs? Ta-da. They’ve got them.

They have a catalog and a website, and will ship anywhere (free shipping over $99). We’ve found some interesting (and useful) items there - and I’ve already taken a course (with more scheduled…). They also offer private classes for corporate events and parties. It’s a great alternative to the “mandatory fun” events that companies sometimes force you to attend.

Hats off to the Cook’s Warehouse for making me covet electrical appliances. You’ve made me a better cook. And a little poorer, too…but we’ll forgive you. It’s worth it.

The High Museum, located in midtown ATL, is not a masterpiece museum - and that’s fine.

You won’t find gaggles of biddies milling around certain pieces, taking photos of each other next to Van Gogh’s Starry Night. (Don’t think it didn’t happen to us at the MoMA in NYC. We waited patiently as Mildred and Agnes mugged for their Instamatics. We both agreed that Van Gogh would have cut their ears off.)

Instead, you’ll find works that are gentle reminders that there is more to the art world than blockbuster pieces fetching millions at auction. The High Museum’s permanent collection offers up lesser known gems from Monet and Joseph Stella, and a surprisingly nifty collection of Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Dorwin Teague pieces.

What’s Going On Now At The High Museum

From 2006 to 2009, the High Museum partners with the Louvre Museum, bringing pieces from Paris for special exhibitions - Louvre Atlanta. Currently (and until September 2008), the main joint exhibit is entitled Louvre and The Ancient World, which showcases Egyptian, Greco-Roman, and Near Eastern (think ancient Iran and Iraq) selections. As an added kick, an additional exhibition, The Eye of Josephine, adds pieces from Empress Josephine’s (Napoleon’s wife) collection of ancient artifacts from Greek and Roman periods. You’ll also find some furniture and washstands from Chateau de Malmaison, her estate in Paris.

I’ll admit, I was less than impressed when I meandered through the Louvre portion of the High Museum. I’d like to believe that I’m not jaded, having been to the Louvre and viewed some of these pieces in situ, but rather disappointed at the layout of the exhibit.

Too many Greek vases, clumped together in a space that detracted rather than highlighted the differences between pieces. Awkward placement of pieces from different periods (one end of the room held a 19th century piece from Chateau de Malmaison while a few steps away, an Egyptian statue from the 3rd century B.C. held court), and a lack of focus made me wonder if the layout was the result of a fight between the curator and the exhibit team: “Fine - just put them anywhere! I don’t care!”

In June, Josephine’s collection will go bye-bye, and in its stead, we’ll be able to examine approximately 20 works from the Houdon collection. (Jean-Antoine Houdon was a French sculptor who was fortunate enough to capture the likenesses of philosophers and political big-wigs, including George Washington.)

A very cool exhibit on Georgia O’Keeffe and the Women of the Stieglitz Circle mixed O’Keeffe’s complexly simplistic paintings with photography and other pieces from Gertrude Kasebier, Pamela Coleman Smith, Katharine Nash Rhoades, and Anne Brigman. A special treat was photographs from Stieglitz himself (a gallery owner and O’Keeffe’s husband), which presented a view of O’Keeffe that you don’t normally equate with her - a young, sensual woman.

Unlike the Louvre exhibition, this was well staged, drawing you in with small pieces until you reach O’Keeffe’s largest works in a large space which allows you to stand back and view several pieces at once. Even if you are not a fan of her work, it’s worth seeing the influence that these women had on each other.

TRANSactions:Contemporary Latin American and Latino Art had pieces that made us giggle and gasp. We were amused by certain photographs (”This artist’s photo made a auto meet look classy.”) and struck speechless by Solomon Huerta’s UntitledFigure. This exhibit is only here until May, and it’s worth seeing.

Future Exhibits Worth Mentioning

Have you heard about the Terracotta Army? Discovered in China in 1974, thousands of life sized statues stood guard over an underground palace for Emperor Qin. Fastastically, each figure is painstakingly individual - from soldiers and archers to acrobats, intricately designed, posed in different positions, and detailed with unique facial expressions. While over a 1,000 of this “army” has been unearthed, it is estimated that over 7,000 exists.

The First Emperor:China’s Terracotta Army arrives at the High (coming fresh off the exhibit of the same name from the British Museum) in November 2008.

In September, Medieval and Renaissance Treasures from the Victoria and Albert Museum stops in Atlanta (it’s a traveling exhibition, so if you’ve seen this at other locations, then you’ve…seen it.). It will have pieces from the 2nd to the 17th century, and includes a daVinci notebook (not THE Da Vinci’s Notebook, which includes Paul and Storm, who came to the Variety Playhouse in March.) But I digress, being A.D.D…. look! Shiny!

The Rest of The High and The Nitty-Gritty

We enjoyed the permanent collections of modern art (although there were pieces which inspired a “huh?”, which I supposed was the point…), 20th century art, and the small selection of European art. Both of us were struck by a sculpture by Benzoni, which was a gorgeous example of the mastery needed to create an illusion of veiling in marble. I think that’s what we liked the most about the High Museum - we were surprised by pieces we never expected to see.

To visit as an adult non-member will set you back $18.00, which I have to say, is expensive for what you get. Look, it costs $17.00 for the Boston MFA, $20 for MoMA, and only 13 Euro for the Louvre permanent collection and special exhibits. (And if you’ve been to any of these, you cannot get through them in a day and see everything you want.) I understand that the High Museum may be trying to pay off the building/expansion they did in 2005, but really… and a $2 discount only applies if you buy your tickets online.

It may actually behoove you (see, I’m being intellectual here) to join as a Member of The High Museum. You can get unlimited entry to The High and all the special exhibits, discounts for the Museum Shop and food, discounted parking rates, and discounts on selected tickets for the Alliance Theatre and Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. (And yes, your membership purchase is tax-deductible.)

It’s $65 for an individual, $90 for a couple (which comes with 2 “one-time” guest passes) - and $90 for a family membership (2 adults and kids or grandkids seventeen and younger). You can’t buy memberships online; you must go to the museum to do this. But…. if you go to the museum at least four times in a year, then it’ll pay for itself.

You can visit the High Museum for free - if you are a Fulton county resident and arrive before 4pm on the first Saturday of the month. Kids under 5 are also admitted free, but I haven’t met a five year old who willingly goes to a museum that doesn’t offer opportunities to touch EVERYTHING or allows you to make noise. (They do have a small section for kids in the museum, but it’s woefully lacking in anything that can really connect it to the museum itself.)

The High Museum is closed on Monday, but open late on Thursdays until 8pm. There’s also a Friday Jazz gig that keeps the place open until 10pm.

We did a little video to commemorate our first trip here… enjoy!

We moved to Atlanta two months ago.

In the first eight days, it snowed twice. In Atlanta. The South. My husband found it enthralling the first time. He even got the videocam out. Second time we saw flakes floating past our windows…well, it was no longer quite so magical. (After living up North - like, Montreal, eh?- I’m not amused by frozen water. At all.)

The next month, a tornado hit the downtown and Cabbagetown areas, causing a lot of damage and thoughts of “Auntie Em! Auntie Em!” cycloning through my mind. We had been a quarter-mile north of the tornado that cut a swath of destruction through mid-Florida in 2007. You don’t forget your first “it sounded like a freight train” experience. I still get nervous if I hear a locomotive whistle in the distance.

More than one friend has mentioned that perhaps we brought some bad weather mojo with us when we uprooted our life to move here from Florida, where the sun is plenty, and so are the old people. (Don’t get me wrong… we love old people. Certain old people - who don’t act like old people - we love very much. That being said, we were smack dab in the center of a cultural black hole, so we needed to get out of there…)

We love Atlanta. We wanted to be within a day’s drive of family, but also desired a metropolitan area that offered jobs, good food, and culture. This was the city that fit all of those criteria - and more. Granted, everyone has their own idea of “jobs, good food, and culture”, but if you are looking for new things to do, eat, and experience (although perhaps not all at once…), this is the place.

So, we’re here. My honey has a job (and a blog, thankyouverymuch), and I am jobhunting relaxing and perusing the job boards. As of yet, no one wants to pay me to sit around all day. I’m still looking.

I had intended to move here fifteen years ago, and even sent a postcard to a friend telling him about the city and how much I liked it.

I guess then, that moving here now is the ultimate in procrastination.

We’ve done some exploring, which I’ll share. I have reviews, ideas, and rants. I have questions and answers. I have ideas. Lots of them. Too many.

And you’ll find it all here. And me, too.

Lost in Atlanta.