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!

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?

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.