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!