Clifftop

Clifftop

Friday, November 4, 2011

I'm popular

Just fyi, my blog is famous around the world.
These countries have viewed my blog:
Germany

Japan

Poland

France

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Austria

Canada

India

Zambia
Hope all you non Americans are enjoying my nonsense.  

hula hoops and dance class

The results are in - 87% of you want me to keep the blog, and the other 13% wants me to only write interesting things.  Well sorry 13%, but I'm going to write about boring monotonous things just because you voted incorrectly.
Since getting back from the hurricane in Florida, I've been non stop busy.  It's really November?  Seriously?  bleh I'm getting old....
When I flew back to WV from Florida, I got to the Charleston airport around 9.  As it was, I had tobe in Charleston the next two days for AmeriCorps training and swearing-in.  I wasn't about to drive two hours back to Lewisburg just to drive back in the morning. So what did I do?  What would anyone do in this situation?  I drove to the nearest rest stop and slept in my car of course.  And that my friends is why you should own a van or station wagon.  Camrys are not conducive to a restful night's sleep.  (And yes Mom, I lied to you about where I was sleeping because I knew you'd worry and freak out.  Oh well.  Get over it.)

The next two days were a blur of silly training exercises and so called inspirational speakers.  "Alright everybody, get into groups of people you don't know and stand in a circle of ten people.  Here's a hula hoop.  Everybody point your two index fingers straight out in front of you.  Everybody's fingers have to be touching the hula hoop at all times.  Now you have to lower the hula hoop to the ground, keeping it parallel to the ground the whole time.  You have to work together to do this.  No one can move faster or slower than anyone else.  Communicate.  Listen.  Work together."  What am I, in kindergarten?!  Give me something to do that I can actually apply to my job.  That's some real hard core "leadership" training alright.  Glad I had to leave my real job to do this nonsense.  But for real, I like AmeriCorps.  It's great.  You should join.
Unfortunately because of this training, I was unable to make it to a good friend's wedding in Atlanta.  I'm sure Elyse was a beautiful bride and I wish her and her husband Nathan all the happiness that life can offer. 

I had a full week of work after having the week off for rain and leadership.  But I had something to look forward to - Halloween weekend.  Carnegie Hall showed The Rockey Horror Picture Show, the community came out in drag, and the audience participation was top notch.  If you haven't seen this movie in a theater, I highly recommend it.  Unless you're freaked out my dudes in lace panties and platform heels, in which case you probably shouldn't watch Rocky Horror anyways. 
Saturday night, Pretty Penny in Hillsboro was having a Thriller themed Halloween party.  I could have gone as a zombie, but I had already decided on my costume: Liz Lemon.  If you don't know who that is, it's the greatest TV character of all time.  It's Tina Fey on 30 Rock.  It's also Tina Fey in real life.  It's also me in real life.  I could watch these videos all day.
this is what my costume consisted of: jeans, tennis shoes, sweater, eating a lot, being awkward around people I don't know, being awkward around people I do know, making fun of everything around me, being mean to people and not even realizing it, eating, dancing awkwardly, eating, and eating. 
Nobody knew who I was.  Partly because no one around here has basic cable and partly because they thought I was just being myself.  Basically it was the best Halloween costume of all time.  Slutty nurse?  psh Slutty witch?  psh Slutty anything?  psh  Imma be Liz Lemon always and forever.

So Halloween came and went, but it was time to get back to reality.  In my reality, I went to my first Hip Hop class.  And I freakin rocked it.  It was so much fun and I didn't look too terribly awkward, but only because there were some middle aged women in there that kinda took over in the awkward department.  But you know what, props to them for getting out there and shaking what their mother's gave them.  (I sincerely hope you read that in the whitest voice you could think of.)
Not only did I join a hip hop class, but I finally, finally FINALLY joined a ballet class.  I haven't taken a ballet class in four and a half years, until last night.  And oh my goodness it was amazing.  I felt terrible and unbalanced and unflexible, but it was the most amazing feeling to get back into ballet after being gone for so long.  This class is considered the adult ballet class, but I'm the oldest person in the class.  The rest are all in high school, and some of them just started learning ballet this year, after having just had modern classes.  So it's not quite what I expected, and I know it will never challenge my technique, but I think it's better this way.  It's taking me back to the basics.  I need to sort of start over and ease myself back into it.  Ballet is tough on your body and your mind, so I should focus on taking it slow.  The kids kind of marveled at my turns (which, I'm not gonna lie, I'm freaking awesome at), but I told them practice makes perfect and you'll get there and I've been dancing longer than you've been alive.   Ugh I'm old.  Seriously - a decade and a half of dancing.  SO OLD.

Friday, October 28, 2011

Florida vacation + rain = still better than not being on vacation

So I've lived in Lewisburg for about a month now.  Things have definitely settled down compared to my life in Pocahontas.  But I'll sum up the last couple weeks for you.
My best friend, Bethanne, came for a visit.  We had a lovely time.  TOOT (Taste of our Town) was on Saturday and they shut down the main road in Lburg and all the restaurants had samplings of their food.  First Friday was also that weekend.  Tent City boys don't know how to function without some form of drama, but they performed as Casasanta again and it was pretty good.  We also went hiking along the Scenic Highway and saw the Honeycomb Rocks and ate at the Pretty Penny. 

My landlord went out of two a couple days after I moved in.  She went on a three week safari in South Africa.  Oh, to be rich.  So I had the house to myself for a bit.  It was nice except for her cat....this cat is 17 years old and the loudest thing on the planet.  I think that it's vocal cords don't work anymore so instead of meowing like an animal, it scream like a banshee.  MMMMMRRRRUUUUUWWANKNSACINEA.  Yep.  That's what it sounds like.  And she doesn't do it once or twice.  But ALL THE TIME.  She'll just sit in the middle of the living room and think to herself, "Hmm.  I'm bored.  And I haven't done anything stupid in awhile.  What should I do? .....MMMMMRRRRRUWWWANNANAREAJIFNAEVSE.  MMMMRRRAIWNICFMIERNSIVRSG.  MMMRMWAIISNICASIRVBNRSIHBD."

I miss Cody.

Nothing of great importance happened in the three weeks my landlord was gone.  I went to the bar like twice, but because I didn't want to be the weirdo who goes to the bar by herself, I decided to stop doing that.  It also doesn't help that I hate meeting new people.  If I was a normal person, I might go somewhere by myself and casually strike up a conversation with someone.  But me?  Aw hell no.  I think I scare people.  The normal look on my face is a snarl because I hate mankind and everything in society, so people try to avoid me.  Also, I've realized I'm an acquired taste.  New people don't quite know how to handle me.  When I swear like a sailor, drink like a fish, and make fun of everything around me, new people tend to think I'm a "bitch" or "mean" or a "sociopath."  When in reality, I'm just a big fucking ray of sunshine!

The last two years, my family has taken vacations.  That's a huge freaking deal because we've never done that before.  The last two years, we found awesome mountain cabins in the weeks before Christmas.  And both years, there has been some disastrous snowstorm/shitstorm.  So my bro and sis-in-law decided to hell with the mountains, we need to go somewhere warm.  How bout the Keys?  Great idea!  lol good one. 
record breaking 15 inches of rain in 5 days.  Seriously.  Mother Nature hates the Ramsey family.  That is not an opinion.  That is a fact.

Also, don't ever go to the Yeager Airport in Charleston West Virginia.  They hold you hostage.  As in, my flight was supposed to leave WV at 630 AM.  I didn't leave WV til 11 AM.  So yeah that sucks, but in a legitimate airport, you can eat food, go to the bar, shop, people watch.  In the Yeager airport, you can sit on a chair, sit on the floor, stand up.....umm...go back out of security three times to change your flight and then come back through security three times and then everyone in security knows your name, where you're going, your life story, your hopes and dreams.  Welcome to my hell.  Welcome to my reality.
I'm thinking Yeager airport, that'll be great.  Maybe they'll have some jager.  Nope.  No airport bar.  In fact there was only one restaurant: Biscuit World.  What is that?!  By the time I got hungry enough to actually consider purchasing "food" from Biscuit World, I realized I would not have enough time to go out of security again, buy some food, come back through security and make it to my flight.  For the love of God, I never want to fly again.

Finally I get to Florida.  But not to the Keys.  Just to Miami.  And I know what you're thinking: Miami is at the tip of Florida.  It can't be that far.  Miami is practically in the Keys.  No.  Wrong.  False.  Miami is forever hours away from the Keys.  Advice: If you ever want to go to the Keys, pay the extra money and fly into Key West.  I promise you it's worth it.

We make it to Florida!  WOOO!  Let's get our vacation on! 
Oh wait.  It's raining.  And it never stops. 
Thankfully, inside the house, it was raining wine.  And it never stopped.  After two and a half days, we had downed 13 bottles.  And then we lost track. 

Here's some highlights of the trip.

Z looking doofy.  Not a highlight, just a normal thing for him.

Crazy ass wind.

Ominous skies

sea shell tree

yeah we should totally climb that during a storm.  what a good idea.

spongebob creeperman

Hemingway's writing studio - everything original, except the most important thing - the typewriter

tour guide feeding the 6 toed cats

giant feet!

Turtle race!  Mine won!

End of the line

Dats right errbody - that got Terrapin beer in Key West!
me and momma looking sloppy at Sloppy Joe's
Sloppy Joe from Sloppy Joe's

End of the line!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

eating roadkill? just another day in WVa


The Roadkill Cookoff.  Something I've been looking forward to for months.  The Possum Trot 5k.  Something I've been training for for months.  This was finally it.  I register for the race, drink the rest of my coffee, throw on a vest, and head to the start line.  OH YEAH!  PUMPED!  Not as many people signed up for the race as I would have thought.  Only about 20.  And I didn't know anyone, but I figured that was better.  I'd only embarass myself in front of people I didn't know.
Runners on your mark.
Get set.
GO!
fast forward 20 minutes.  The race was an out and back, not a loop.  So once you got to a certain spot, you would turn around, thus being able to see who was behind you.  But guess what....that's right....nobody was behind me.  Nobody.  You know what that means, LAST PLACE BITCHES!
pause story.  Now  had been training for this all summer.  Not hard core so I knew I would be bad.  I figured the average runner has about a ten minute mile.  5ks are just over 3 miles.  So to give myself some room for error, I wanted to finish my first 5k in under 40 minutes.  Totally doable.  Then I thought to myself, wouldn't it be really funny if I got last place?  Of course, I wouldn't try to get last place, but it would be funny if it ended up that way. 
return to story.  I have a watch on and I know that my time is good.  I'm gonna finish before I want to.  Even though I'm the last person to cross the finish, I am freaking stoked.  People cheering for me, me cheering for myself.  Whatever, it's all fun and games.  Then comes the time to hand out the awards.  Overall winners blah blah blah.  Winners from 14-19 blah blah blah (yeah that's right.  a 14 year old beat me).  Winners from 20-29.  Megan Ramsey.
wait...what?
that can't be right.
I was in last place!
Yeah but you were the only female in your age group.
wha.......HELL YEAH!  HELL FREAKING YEAH!
Sometimes when you lose, you win!
my new hood ornament
Mwuahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha....

Moving right along.  After a quick shower at some friends' house, and eating some of their food, I headed back to the Cookoff because, being the great humanitarian that I am, I had promised Emily that I would volunteer at the Chamber of Commerce tent.  About an hour later, Andew Zimmern shows up with his film crew.  For those of you who don't know Andrew Zimmern, he's on the Travel Channel and eats bizarre foods.  You can read more about his show at the travel channel website.
He was shooting a story about the Roadkill Cookoff and he was one of the judges as well.  Once Zimmern got there, people went nuts.  But I didn't really care about a semi famous dude.  All I cared about was food.  I mean, I ran 3 miles; I felt it was time to consume weird meats.  Mink, alligator, crawdads, crow, bear, rabbit - all cooked in awesome way.  There was gumbo, chowder, kabobs, grilled, sauteed.  I was disappointed that I couldn't find any possum or raccoon.  But maybe next year.
mink

your eyes are not deceiving you: it says deer poop soup




After the Cookoff, some of my Ameri Corps buddies came down from Elkins to hang out and attend the Vest Virgina Vestival.  Note: I've recently become obsessed with vests.   It was a grand ole time.
vests everywhere!




Marlinton has been hosting a traveling Smithsonian exhibit called "The Way We Worked" and it centers around employment in America: why we work, how, where, with who.  And the Pocahontas County Historical Society made a supplementary exhibit focusing on logging in our area.  It's a really interesting idea and I got to be the docent for the exhibit the day after Roadkill.  I got to wear a dress from the early 1900s and welcomed people into the exhibit.  Super easy, and I was glad to be a part of this exhibit as Marlinton was the first place to host it.  It will continue traveling around the state and will eventually make it to Lewisburg early next year. 

After a busy weekend in Marlinton, it was time to think about moving.  At some point, I would have to relocate to Lewisburg.  Driving 45 minutes each way in the mountains to work every day was just not gonna cut it.  Finally, I spent my last night in my trailer on Tuesday September 27.  I had lived in Pocahontas county just over 4 months.  In that small amount of time, my life changed dramatically.  Now, this blog is not about my personal journey and how I've become this new person.  This blog is about telling you all about my sometime ridiculous, but always entertaining adventures.  Moving to Lewisburg was going to be moving back to civilization.  It's a bustling town.  There's several traffic lights.  Options for grocery stores.  I mean there's like 8 restaurants.  It's huge!  Life in the 'burg is gonna be different than life in PoCo.
So as I've made this big move and settled back into life with cell reception, cable TV, and traffic jams, I've tried to decide whether or not to keep my blog.  For the past 4 months, I've attempted to entertain you with all the wacky situations I've gotten myself into.  Now that I'm back to reality, I feel as if I'm just living the same old life as everybody else.
So I'm leaving it up to you, my readers, whoever you may be.  Should I keep the blog?  Or should I say a final goodbye to the summer of my life?
If you've never commented before, or if you comment on every post, now is the time to make yourself heard.
Either leave a comment, or vote in the poll on the right side of the screen.  

Thursday, September 29, 2011

new adventures

After a pleasant trip home, it was time to get back to work.  And this time, I had a real job.  I was to begin AmeriCorps training the day after I got back from GA.  Training took place in Elkins, WV.  Nobody really knows where that is, but they host the biggest festival in the state - the Mountain State Forest Festival, which has been attended by 3 or 4 US Prezeseses.  So it's kind of a big deal.  I rode with Cynthia and we had made plans to stay with a new AmeriCorps member and her boyfriend who was a new VISTA member.  Lovely lovely people.  We had lots of fun with those two.  Big fans.  Anyways, I didn't really have any idea what training would be like.  It turns out "training" is another word for "paperwork."  Is it just me, or when filling out tax forms do you hyperventilate and never know which number to put?  "Do I list myself as 0 or 1?  What if my parents put me down as a dependent but I list myself as independent?  What if the IRS comes knocking on my door and I don't have the money to pay them and they take my dog away because I'm a bad citizen?  What if I go to jail for tax fraud?!  I can't go to jail!  I won't make it!  I won't be someone's bitch!  I should start collecting cigarettes now to pay for things in The Big House."  This runs through my head EVERY TIME I fill out any kind of tax form.  It's horrifying.  I'm surprised I don't have any gray hairs. 

Anyways, there was lots of paperwork and not much "training" per se.  But the big group of us (23 I think) got along pretty well.  Every night after training, there was at least a small group of us hanging out.  Thursday we went to Canaan Valley, which is a pretty popular skiing destination.  We had planned on camping that night.  What we hadn't planned on was rain.  and cold.  and cold rain.  Some people (the wussies) backed out and went home.  But there was still about 12 of us that roughed it and camped.  It reached about 35 degrees that night.  But we definitely had a good time and I think it was totally worth it.  Campfire stories are legendary. 

At this point, I hadn't seen the Tent City boys in about two weeks.  Surprisingly, I was not going through withdrawals, but I figured they were because, I mean come on, I'm freaking awesome and people can't handle not hanging out with me.  Anyways, I head over to Tent City only to find that no one was there.  They've moved on.  Sigh.  And so it goes.  Well, screw that - I'm moving to America's Coolest Small Town.  I don't need creepy, smelly, hippie boys.  I'm gonna have clean, smart, respectable School of Osteopathic Medicine boys. Oh yeah. I forgot to tell you - there's a med school in town.  Quality dudes that don't smell like roadkill or don't crap in an outhouse.  "Movin' on up, to the east side.  To a deluxe apartment in the sky." 

But alas,  I love those boys, so I returned the next day to find them pressing apples.  Again.  And they roped me into helping.  Again.  But I got some awesome cider out of it.  Again.  So I aint complaining. 

Then it was time to start the new job. 
My position with AmeriCorps is split in between two sites: North House Museum and the City of Lewisburg.  I'll be half time with each site, which prolly means I'll be 3/4 time with each site, which prolly means I'm gona be busy as hell.  I am perfectly fine with that!  Each week I spend 3 days at one site and 2 at the other.  My first week, I was at the North House for three days.  My job there will be to catalog their collections.  But my boss, the director of the museum, wants to wait for a professional to come in and show the two of us exactly what to do.  Until that happens, I've been given odd jobs: researching food from 1820s, finding fake food on the internet, researching values of stamps, posting books on ebay.  My second day on the job, the Mayor calls me.  He's my other boss, sort of.  He calls to inform me that I'll be attending a monument maintenance workshop in Charleston, the state capital.  Everything is paid for and I'll be riding with two people from the Historic Landmarks Commission.  Two days on the job and I'm already being sent away.  HOLLER!  So I finish my three days at the museum and I start my day at the City.  I have an office.  Not only do I have an office, I have an office with a view.  WHAT!  Awesome.  Check my last posting (Norwegia) for the picture.  So I come in and meet a lady from the HLC and she gives me a giant notebook full of properties located within the Historic District.  She tells me, to sum it up, to organize it.  And that's about it.  One of my favorite things as an employee: vague directions.  Not.
But I didn't care because I was going to Charleston the next day.  My work day on Friday was 730 AM to midnight.  And I learned about how to clean stone and metal on monuments.  And I got some free food.  And that's about it.  Worth it?  Heck yeah!  Because I wasn't sitting behind a desk, staring at a computer screen for 6 hours, like I've been doing for the past two days. 

Well that's enough for today.  Tune in next time to hear about the Roadkill Cookoff and my very first 5k!

We camped next to the river.  It was so cold!  but so wonderful!

Thursday, September 22, 2011

norwegia

Lots has been going on.  I'm so busy, I haven't had time to breathe let alone write up a blog post.  I'm even too busy right now to tell you all the things I've been doing.  My birthday was awesome.  Friday night was spent in Lewisburg for First Friday.  Every first Friday of the month, downtown L-burg has a big party with art shows and live music and meal deals and such.  I went down with some of the boys because they had a gig at a bar.
That's right - they had an actual performance in front of an audience.  I have some pictures that don't do justice to the experience.  When I have a better internet connection, I'll post them.  Through the Tent City boys, I met some girls that live in Lewisburg.  And they rock.  I'm so excited that when I move down there, I'll actually know people and have people to hang out with, rather than wishing I were in PoCo. 


Justin, Garrick, Karen, Zachary, Mandy, and Rachel all came to visit on Saturday.  Before they got here, I was able to visit the Little Levels Clothing Center and I bought a crap ton of clothes.  And everything was 25 cents.  Okay, not everything was 25 cents.  Everything individually was 25 cents.  But still 25 CENTS!  Ridiculous.  The afternoon was kind of wasted as people slowly started coming and we had to wait for the others.  But once everyone got there, we went to the Pretty Penny for dinner and it was delicious.  I mean, it's normally good, but it seemed especially good on Saturday.  And there was live music - Shawn Owen. - he played acoustic guitar and he rocked it.  He just did covers, but he was awesome nonetheless.  We had planned on going to the Pocahontas Opera House to see the Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys, but we were running late and didn't want to rush up there to hear only 30 mins of music and then have to drive all the way back to Hillsboro.  So we stayed and listened to Shawn and I believe everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.  After dinner, we scooted home for some DQ ice cream (that's still in my freezer and I am so excited to get home and devour it!) and gift giving.  The boys got together and got me my own mandolin!  WOOT!  It's not even used.  Brand new.  My own mandolin!  Soo much better than the one I've been playing all summer.  And they got me a couple of books, so I can actually teach myself things instead of just fooling around trying to figure things out. 

Sunday, we cooked an awesome breakfast and geared up for a hike.  We went on the High Rocks Trail, the same trail I took my parents and Billy and Bethanne on.  It's a fairly simple trail with an awesome ending view of the Little Levels valley.  It was pretty hot and humid, but a pretty day.  It didn't look like the weather would be too bad for the pond party we were planning on going to that evening.  But oh how we were wrong.  We picked up some food and headed to Tent City.  Just as we pull in, the boys are all pulling out - perfect timing.  So we followed them over to the Pond Party.  Again, perfect timing, just as we unloaded out things, it started pouring down rain.  So the Pond Party became the Lodge Party.  People playing pool, people jamming in the dining room, people eating bear....yep.  More bear.  Bear stew, bear jerky, slow cooked bear, delicious, juicy, amazingly awesome BEAR.  That was prolly the highlight of the evening.  That, and the giggle berries.  What?  You've never heard of giggle berries?  Of course you haven't: you live in society and don't eat things like bear and giggle berries.  The giggle berries were a gift from Corey.  He was supposed to find me moonshine, but alas he could not.  Instead he brought giggle berries (which is such a fun combination of words).  Giggle berry (noun): A small piece a fruit, usually a grape, strawberry, or small peach, soaked for a ridiculous amount of time in moonshine.  It's better than moonshine in the fact that it doesn't taste like moonshine (which tastes like rubbing alcohol), but instead tastes like the fruit with just an after taste of gasoline.

Everyone left the next morning to go home and live their lives.  And I got to leave too, except I had a 7 hour drive to Greenville, SC.  I stopped at Billy and Bethanne's on the way down home.  12 hours of driving just didn't seem like a good idea after a night of giggle berries.  Those two kids are really awesome.  And if you haven't met them, you need to.  Good people.  The next morning Bethanne and I went to the Goodwill Clearance Center.  You read that right: Goodwill Clearance Center.  America's favorite thrift store has a clearance center for all the crap they couldn't sell in their regular crappy stores.  So of course I wanted to go.  And it was awesome.  Things didn't have prices - everything was $1.19 a pound.  PER POUND.  WHAT?!  Goodwill just reached a new level of awesome.  So I got $9 worth of stuff.  You do the math.

Then on to southwest Georgia.  Nothing much happened in Leesburg.  Same old same old.  But calm down, Mom.  I had a good time.  Nice to be home after being on another planet for a couple months.  The first night I got there, I was playing with Cody on the living room floor.  Good ole Mary Lou asks "Ummm, Megan.  Are you gonna....wash your hair sometime?"  No Mom.  Haven't you heard?  I'm a mountain hippie now.  Bathing is against my religion. 

Before returning to the promised land of WV, I visited my second favorite place in the world: Athens.
It was kind of a blur, for several reasons, so I'll just give you the highlights.
Set off my old roommates home security system and drove away as fast as I could, partied at my favorite bar - Walker's and got to hang out with a hot dude that doesn't live in a tent, saw some of my favorite girls in the world, tailgated for the football game and played my mandolin for everybody.

End of the trip home.  Prolly won't get back down south til Christmas.  Maybe Athens in November.

PS.  I forgot to mention that more family came to visit in July, or was it August?  I can't even remember anymore.  But we had a great time.  Showed them Beartown and Cranberry Glades of course.  They came and ate at Watoga while I was working and we hung out in Lewisburg a little bit.  By the way, Lewisburg is definitely not America's Coolest Small Town when you are looking to eat on a Monday night.  Every restaurant is closed.  Stupid.  Another stupid thing: my cousin Sydney thinks there is a place in the world called Norwegia.  Not Norway - Norwegia.  But I guess I'll let that slide.  She's only 9 years old. 

Tune in next time when I tell you my adventures in AmeriCorps training in Elkins, WV and starting my new job at the North House Museum and the City of Lewisburg!

And just to give you a little taste, here's a picture...

Who's got two thumbs and has not only a huge office, but one with a view?

Friday, September 2, 2011

September? already?

All summer, PSBB has been trying to do these special tours on Sunday afternoons.  No one has ever showed up.  This past Sunday, we tried something new.  Not a tour, but a presentation on genealogy.  Some local guy who had done a lot of research on Pearl's family gave a presentation on how you can research your own family history on the internet.  It was actually pretty interesting and a few people actually showed up.  Not at all as terrible as it could have been.  Afterward, I thought it was good weather for a swim.  I decided to head up to the pond by Tent City, but before I could even get our of Hillsboro, I see a familiar truck.  Andrew and Corey are sitting in the back, so I decided to pull up real close to them.  Well, being boys, they decide to mess with me.  And how do they accomplish this?  By pelting my car with apples.  Tons of apples.  They had spent the day driving all over Hillsboro picking up apples to make cider.  Hundreds of apples.  The entire bed of the truck was filled with apples.  An overwhelming amount of apples.  So.many.apples.  Anyways, we all head to a buddy's house to use his apple press to make the cider. 
There are few things in life as amazingly delicious as freshly pressed apple cider.  Freshly pressed apple cider and whiskey, maybe.  We spent most of the late afternoon/early evening pressing apples, and now there are gallons and gallons of cider!  EmNewt came to help and she was asking if any of the boys wanted to go rock climbing with her the next day.  The next day being a Monday, they all had to work.  I've never been rock climbing.  I don't consider myself afraid of heights per se, but it just never really interested me before.  Well, EmNewt needed a buddy to go with her, for the ropes and belay and all that jazz, so I said, as usual, why the hell not?

That's right.  I went rock climbing.  Not in a gym on a piece of plastic.  On a rock.  A cliff.
No this isn't my picture.  And no I didn't go climbing out of the water, although that would have been totally bad ass.  We went to Summersville Lake, which is unbelievably beautiful and a popular destination for climbers.  There are probably hundreds of climbs around the lake.  I didn't know much about climbing, so EmNewt explained some to me.  Each climb has a rating of difficulty, 1-16, 16 being upside down and you have to be certifiably insane to climb it.  EmNewt said she's comfortable on 8 and 9.  So I figured, me being a newbie, she would take me on a 3, 4, even a level 5.  Nope.  7.  HA!  yeah freaking right, EmNewt.  Not gonna happen.  Oh, but it did.  And I kicked it's ass.  It was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done in my life.  Easily the most terrifying and the most exhilarating experience. 
Hmm...I think I should choose a really hard climb for Megan.

This picture does not do it justice.
how I looked during the climb



















So I survived the climb!  Then we jumped in the lake and headed back to Pocahontas.  I could barely move the next day - legs, arms, wrists, knees, hips, back, everything hurt.  It's a total body workout.

Wednesday, the other Emily, EmLass, told me about a cool tunnel along the Greenbriar River Trail and suggested we ride down and see it.  She said 10 miles.  I assumed 5 each way.  Oh how very wrong I was.  10 miles there, 10 miles back.  This is two days after rock climbing.  What in the world is wrong with me?  Megan?  Athletic?  Are we talking about the same person?  Around mile 5, we come across a bunch of cows on the trail that had somehow gotten loose.  Totally bizarre.  Finally at mile 10, a cross a bridge and get to the tunnel.  Me being a moron, I left my camera at home.  The tunnel was about 500 feet and scary as shit.  You're biking too fast for your eyes to adjust and it seems as if someone has turned off the sun.  Total and complete darkness.  Of course we ride through it, which means we have to ride back through again to go home.  But on the other side is an awesome swimming hole and rope swing.  Water was a little low, but now we know where to go next summer. 

Tent City has been under renovation.  The schoolhouse is now insulated and has new windows.  It's like it's an actual building now.  They even put down boards in the bell tower and there's a table and chair up there.  Not sure why someone would go hang out up there.  I suppose if one of the boys is feeling pensive and wants to write some emo poetry, that would be the place to do it.  The kitchen has expanded and the outhouse is almost ready.  Everybody is really excited about the new shitter.  I can't wait for my first poop at Tent City.  

This weekend is my birthday, bitches!  I have 7 people coming to celebrate with me: the three bros and their significant others and my cousin Rachel, who you may remember, was here a month and a half ago.  I'm excited as hell.  Friday night: First Friday in Lewisburg.  Saturday: Pretty Penny, Black Mountain Bluegrass Boys, pig and lamb roast.  Sunday: pond party and Tent City extravaganza.  Then Monday (hopefully) I'll be heading down south to the land of the pine.  Going home for a week to let my parents babysit Cody for a while and to drop off things I don't need in my new place and pick up the things I do.  Heading to Athens next weekend.  Partying there is prolly gonna seem pretty tame after the summer I've had.  But I'm pumped about going to Walkers and tailgating Saturday morning for the UGA SCarolina game.  Then back to WV and up to Elkins to start training for AmeriCorps.  Crazy crazy busy these next two weeks.  

I can't believe it's September.  Summer is over.  What a terrible, terrible thing.  By far, this has been the best summer of my life.  The last three and a half months have been the most fun, eye-opening, life changing, amazing months of my life.  But all good things must come to an end.

Today is my last day as the intern at the Pearl S. Buck Birthplace.

Friday, August 26, 2011

woop woop woop

So where did I leave off?  Oh yeah, pissing off tent city boys, otherwise known as friendship.

After ladies' night, I ventured back up to Elkins for around round of square dancing and absurdity at Augusta.  Saturday was surprisingly more laid back than Thursday, but that was perfectly fine with me.  Came back to next day and the weather was freaking beautiful.  The bluest skies, the puffiest clouds.  Perfect.  A drive, and picnic, along the scenic highway was just lovely. 
Last week I worked a crap ton at the restaurant.  Bleh.  Luckily, I just got a call that they are closing the restaurant until Labor Day weekend, because they're actually losing money by being open right now.  For the holiday weekend though, all the cabins are booked up, so they'll get a lot of business.  Lucky for me, I told them I was done on the 1st.  So I only have to work one more day at the restaurant!  Tuesday I made $7 in tips in 7 hours.  Yeah...definitely not worth my time.

I've been running a lot recently.  I'm sore as shit, but I feel awesome.  On September 24, Marlinton is hosting the Roadkill Cookoff.  It's gonna be AWESOME.  In the morning there is a 5k called the Possum Trot, and you better believe I'm doing that shit.  I cannot wait to wear that tshirt.  It'll be my first 5k, so I'm a little worried since I'm painfully slow, but seriously, how can I pass up the Possum Trot?  I plan on coming in last place.

It's become habit to just drive to Tent City when I'm bored.  I think the newness of me has worn off, so the boys don't ever invite me to do anything anymore.  You think that's gonna stop me from hanging out with them?!  mwahahahah never!  I just show up and they're never doing anything, so I guess it works out.  I went there Friday after (gasp!) both Corey and Josh told me they were burning some couches.  I don't know what is with these West Virginians, but they love to burn couches.  I guess it's the hillbilly in them, who knows.  They start a fire at Tent City, then realize that the couches are at the neighbors.   What to do, what to do.  Well we can't bring the couches over here.  That would just be absurd.  And starting a new fire?  Idiotic.  We should just carry the fire down the road to the couches!  Genius!  That's right.  We carried a freaking fire pit down the road.  And when I mean we, I mean I actually participated.  Jesus, these boys have rubbed off on me too much.
coolest people I know...

Saturday night was a bit of a drag.  After working at PSBB and the restaurant, I went home, had two sips of beer, and fell asleep on my living room floor.  This whole being an adult, having two jobs, being a productive member of society thing is such a bummer. 

Nothing much else going on.  But here's some more pictures from Clifftop and other random pics from the last month.
you can get this on an ice cream cake at DQ.  I might do it for my birthday

favorite things: breakfast and books

typical Clifftop dweller

hoopin' was such a hit


swimming hole at clifftop.  pictures don't do it justice
we caught a groundhog at the PSBB garden.  it had a heart attack in the cage and died :(
fuck dudes.  I buy this shit for myself.
no, they did not pose for this picture. 
Droop Mountain Tunnel, along the Greenbriar River Trail.  It's creepy as hell.
silly pup.  his form of swimming is laying down in the water.

this crazy asshole tried to get into my house

I believe that I forgot to mention the greatest story of all time.  Or at least of Clifftop.  Saturday night.  scratch that.  Sunday morning.  6AM.  Still haven't gone to sleep yet.  People are slowly getting up and packing their things to leave.  Except our group, who has been frying catfish, drinking beer, and playing music all morning.  This dude with a red fiddle has been with us most of the evening.  We should have known that with a red fiddle, this dude was the devil, but we were oblivious.  

He realizes it's Sunday morning and suggests we have a gospel preacher jam.  Everyone is into it.  It's funny, and ironic.  Josh starts a little diddle on his guitar and Red Fiddle Devil Man starts preaching some story from the bible.  Well he gets going and going and he starts getting into it and getting louder.  The Holy Spirit is filling him up with the word of God!  As he gets louder, Josh is forced to get louder on the guitar.  He gets to yelling about some dude with eleven brothers.  Clay is totally eating this up and he starts yelling too. Red Fiddle: "He had eleven brothers!"  Clay: "HOW MANY BROTHAS!!" Josh jamming harder than ever.  Everyone laughing.  Pause.  

Some dude sticks his head around the Corey Mobile.  "Ummmm excuse me.  It's 7 AM.  People are trying to sleep and you guys have been pretty loud for a while.   Maybe you could keep it down until like....9 or 10.  Try to be courteous to your neighbors." (aka Shut. The fuck. Up.  we've all been drinking for 36 straight hours and we're hungover and pissed as hell)   Red Fiddle Devil Man responds with "You can't quiet the word of God!"  or some shit but the rest of us feel bad and eventually the Devil leaves, as does everyone else because now its 730 and its time for bed.  So, blog readers, if you ever get really excited about something, just yell "HOW MANY BROTHAS!"  We're gonna start a trend.  
(PS this story is much more effective in person when I can actually yell these things as loud as they actually were.  Ask me to tell you this story next time you see me.)

Another story I forgot.  
After Clifftop, I decided maybe I should take a break from the boys and socializing and drinking.  HA!  good one.  The day after leaving Clifftop, there was a concert at the Schoolhouse.  I usually like the bands that come through there, and they're pretty laid back so no crazy partying.  I didn't know anything about the band except their name - Little Country Giants.  I pull in the parking lot and there are a couple people I don't know standing around.  After seeing my car, they walk over and ask who's from GA?   I tell them I'm from the Albany area.  "We're from GA.  And we have a song about Albany."
No. Shit.  And guess we're they're from.  Athens.  We got into a big discussion about the reopening of the GA Theater and talked about our favorite bars.  Blah blah blah.  Awesomeness.  
Lately I had been feeling really homesick.  I didn't feel like the boys wanted me around and I was missing my college friends like no other.   I also just wanted to be able to hang out on my couch and chill out with my parents.  So it was a wonderful surprise to show up to the Schoolhouse and have a little dose of Georgia.  It could not have been a more pleasant evening.   







Saturday, August 20, 2011

back in the saddle

Hello strangers!  I haven't posted in quite awhile.  I assure you, I am alive and well, just super busy.  I started a couple of posts last week and the week before, but I realized that I was just bitching and ranting about random crap and that is not the purpose of the blog.  Emotions and feelings and blah blah blah, whine whine whine.  The purpose is to entertain you with my adventures and hopefully, possibly, maybe not make you laugh. 

I've been hella busy lately.  I got a second job, like other than the AmeriCorps job.  I'm working at the Pretty Penny in Watoga State Park.  I told Blair, the owner, the first day that I moved here that I would be willing to work for her.  3 months later she calls me up.  And the restaurant closes on Labor Day, so I'm only working a couple weeks.  For those of you who knew me during my Harvest Moon days, or even my UGA Food Services days, I said I would never work as a waitress or do anything in the food industry again.  HA.  Life's a bitch.  It's not a terrible job and I'm making extra money, so all is well.

The first weekend in August was the Appalachian String Band Festival, also known as Clifftop.  I had heard about this music festival since I first moved here.  Everyone kept saying it was the highlight of the summer.  I went Friday - Sunday and slept about 6 hours.  Friday night went to bed at 6 AM, Saturday 730.  Needless to say, it lived up to the hype.  It takes place in a state park, so everyone is camping out in tents.  Of course the Coreymobile was there surrounded by tailgating tents.  We had a whole compound of Pocahontas County people.  Different areas of the camp had different types of music.  Bluegrass, old timey, traditional, non-traditional, and my personal favorite - cajun.  The cajun tent was definitely the place to be - awesome music, everyone dancing, fresh beignets.  Friday night was the night of a million vests.  Not really sure how it happened, but we had a festival of vests.  A vestival if you will. 
gasp!  I'm actually smiling!  Must be the vest that's making me so happy.

Andrew and Clay were having their own leather vestival.
I got to jam on the mandolin for a couple of songs and it was totally kick ass.  Everywhere you turned, there were people jamming out.  People were still playing at 6AM when I went to bed.  It's hard to describe the overwhelming amount of music that is played at Clifftop.  To burn off all the beers we drank, we started hoopin'.  And awesome pictures ensued.

Try not to look awkward in a hoopin picture.  It's impossible. 

Of course there was square dancing and a flat footing competition.   More music.  More beer.  Less sleep.  The festival lasts a week.  I don't know how people do it.  This was two weeks ago and I'm still trying to catch up on sleep. 

There's another festival called Augusta that takes place in Elkins, on the campus of Davis and Elkins College.  It lasts all summer and there are classes each week that focus on different types of music.  http://www.augustaheritage.com/  Bluegrass week, celtic week, cajun week, swing week, dance week.  Anything and everything.  And last week was the big finale week.  I went on Thursday night, not knowing what to expect, and I was completely blown away.  Every night they have a concert and on Thursday there was a bad ass fiddler and at the very end were group of flat footers.  Watch this guy's videos.   He's awesome in ways that I didn't know existed.  It made me miss dance a lot.  I can't wait to move to Lewisburg and talk to the dance studio down there so I can start dancing again.
After the concert, I went into the chapel to see/hear/feel the crystal meditation bowls.  Sounds weird as shit right?  Right.  Here's a video to help explain: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMWgmV-w6SE&feature=related
In the chapel they had about 6 different bowls and anyone could go up and use them.  It was mesmerizing.  I sat in the back, but the reverberation and sounds just pulled me in.  I had no concept of time or space.  It was totally bizarre and awesome in every way.
After coming back to reality, I swung over the to square dance.  Personally, I don't much like square dancing.  I'm really bad at it and you have to interact with other people, which as you know really annoys me.  But people don't normally let you just sit on the sidelines and watch, so I got roped into a couple dances.  I think watching square dances is way more fun. 

Friday night, I decided to have a ladies' night at Tent City.  I got wind that the boys wouldn't be there, so it was perfect timing.  We went swimming in the pond, cooked up some burgers on the fire pit, drank lotsa beer, and crashed in the luxury tent (have I mentioned Josh's tent has carpet?).  It was quite a lovely evening.  I usually get along better with dudes, but every so often I need an injection of some estrogen.  I can only take so much of the boys before I want to get some pruning shears and start cutting off some appendages.  The boys heard about my little party later and they were a little less than enthused.  But since one of my favorite past times is to piss people off, I just laughed in their faces. 

Well, I'm tired of typing, but I still haven't caught up to present day.  More to come soon.  I've been informed that the Tent City boys have begun to read this.  To that, I say bugger off!  I will make you regret this decision!  To the rest of you, I hope all is well!