Clifftop

Clifftop

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?
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