Or the armadillos will flee. True fact.
Exciting news, Readers! Cold weather has finally arrived in Lexington!!! (And yeah, negative people out there, it IS supposed to reach 81 next Tuesday, but I don't want to hear it. Allow me this short time to revel in the rain and cold.) It has rained and stayed in the low to mid 60s for three days now!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!! I do tire of endless summer days. My poor herbs died weeks ago, due to excessive heat.... and the fact that I kind of stopped watering them.... really shouldn't have children.... and my flowers died too, but I think that may have been due to the arrival of a very large and very creepy bug that took up residence under the soil. BLEGH, it ran mad circles around the pot when I'd water the flowers.... and then, horror of true horrors, I found it a few weeks later in my living room. Needless to say, I could not eat for days. Kentucky has the creepiest assortment of big a** bugs that I've ever seen in my life.
Anyway, onward to happier topics! I'd like to give a shout out to my brother, who recently began his college adventures at the University of New Mexico. The Boy joined the Navy ROTC and I will now share exclusive pics with y'all. Looking sharp, Boy! Keep that iron handy....
Cheers.
Oh. My. God. Who the hell is that??!! EVA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
That's right!!!! Two weeks ago I drove to The Plains, Virginia, to see EVA!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and begin our excellent West Virginia adventure. The first night we took the party to the house of her fiance's parents (who were nice enough to accommodate me, a perfect stranger, with absolutely no notice.... West Virginia hospitality at its finest!) The next morning we performed the first of several grueling hikes, and reached the top of a mountain near their house. The hike was totally worth it, however, as it presented us with the above view upon its conclusion. The scenery of West Virginia is best experienced at great heights, I think, and perhaps you will agree after seeing more pictures of our travels.... Our Massive Mountain Death Hikes also gave me the exercise I so desperately needed.... I spent far too much time this past year shluffin' about in the starbucks kitchen and not enough time out in the wild blue yonders....
The above picture is another view from the same mountain top and shows the rocks that an industrious group of guys proposed to ropel from. They have guts.... I would sooner confront a black bear than drop myself from those heights.... maybe....
Eva looks absolutely no different than she did from Yellowstone. It was incredibly surreal to see her again after FOUR years. The last time we met was outside of the Canyon employee dining room (EDR for you Yellowstoners). Ha, sad day. Time goes by so freaking fast!!
This map shows the area of Dolly Sods, where we spent the second night camping 300 yards (or was it feet....) from the roadside, off of one of the trails. 300 yards (or perhaps it was feet....) may seem like a scant distance from the road.... until you're consumed in darkness and every little night sound can be attributed to a massive black bear roaming about your tent. However, like the hardened Yellowstone backcountry hikers that we are, we laughed in the face of the imaginary black bear!.... and spent the night in terrified sleeplessness. Ah well.
Dolly Sods is an extremely beautiful wilderness area though, as evidenced by the above pictures taken from a scenic overlook. Look at all of the rocks!! And the most lovely field!! And the printed notice that warns of highly explosive bombs still present in the area! And the stunning mount-- Wait. What? Hmm.... black bears and bombs.... Bring it.
Here I sit ensconced in my backcountry rock throne, further down a trail in the Dolly Sods area. Huzzah! And thank you to all of the backcountry pioneers who made the Backcountry Rock Court possible.
Following our Dolly Sods adventures, we hiked to the top of nearby Seneca Rocks, which is shown in the above picture. Upon reaching the top of the rocks, we were confronted with this Sign of Doom.... Alas! What would hardened Yellowstone backcountry hikers do?!
Bypass the sign of course! As if there was any question! Huzzah!! Another excellent West Virginia view!! (The very first picture of this post was also taken from the top of Seneca Rocks past the Doom Sign).
Blogger is starting to flip out due to the large quantities of photos I have uploaded.... hopefully it consents to publish this post.... I shall wrap it up now.... I don't think we could have asked for a more brilliant time to catch up and do the things that we both enjoyed in Yellowstone. Here's to sisters who continue to share excellent experiences! We will see each other next in September, when Eva and Daniel get married! Huzzah!!
It would seem as though I have recently become re-obsessed with Yellowstone, and tonight I found this (click "this", it's a link even though it doesn't look like one) blog post during my internet meanderings. Some people located the elusive Tomato Springs last summer (or so they claim.... and their pictures look really freaking convincing, blast them). However, the post doesn't give step-by-step directions to the springs.... obviously.... they traversed meadows and forested areas until they reached the general location where their guide knew it to exist, and then he went off and tracked it down and led them all to it. It's settled then.... I've got to find this guy, pay him off, and have him lead me out there.... unless any of my current readers has a better idea or some kind of hidden Yellowstone knowledge. I'll pay you too!
Until that Happy Day arrives, I must content myself with completing the usual menial tasks that shape my everyday existence. I went to work today.... O the joy.... It's just 80 hours of drive-thru between me and freedom now! No reason to put me on bar anymore, gotta train the hapless newbies instead and hope that one of them shall in time become a fitting replacement for me. Ha, it won't happen though. The current new people stand around and talk, much to the chagrin of our shift supervisors, and only one of them has shown any aptitude for bar. I will have the last laugh, as I drive off into the sunset in my sweet a** Kia. Muhahaha.
Holy cow, as soon as I click the Publish Post button I will have updated THREE TIMES IN TWO DAYS. WTF? Who can possibly have that much to say, when they spend their days doing pretty much nothing?.... Me, that's who. Give me Blogger over Twitter any day, I will dare to string together more than two sentences at a time!
And now that I'm just rambling.... I will leave off and dream of extremely hot tomato soup in a massive grassy bowl.... or something of the sort....
Cheers.
Youtube that, O Readers, you won't regret it! Or perhaps you will.... In which case, you would do well to youtube People in Planes, Music that won't Disappoint. Token Trapped Woman is a particular favourite of mine and recalls days spent Geothermal Hopping and descending to lands largely unexplored. The four year anniversary of Fairyland draws near! How is that possible? And the impending event reminds me of my greatest unfinished project ever: the completion of the Expedition ManBearPig story. Geez, hopefully one day I'll get my act together and just have done with it.For those of you unaware of this week's Big Deal in Television, allow me to inform you that you missed the season 4 premiere of True Blood, summer's greatest smut television programming. Huzzah! I think the writing is fairly legit, however, and the actors/actresses all play their characters really well. They have even mastered the Southern Accent, though the majority of them hail from other parts of the U.S. or from other countries. A big thanks goes out to Starbucks Mike, who was lovely enough to host us for the premiere in his BASEMENT. After freaking out over the debut of True Blood, we proceeded to watch a special on the Waverly Hills Sanatorium, a former hospital in Louisville, KY, that housed tuberculosis patients in the early-mid 1900s. 63,000 patients died before an antibiotic was created, and the place is now said to be "one of the most haunted locations in the world." Mike has been there and claims to have taken a picture that features a small ghost boy. He also saw the Shadow People, which roam the hallways and appear to walk toward you. We are now planning a night-time 2-hour tour to visit the hospital and see for ourselves.... Scary stuff perhaps!Anyway, I am about to be booted from my library computer session so I must wrap up this post. If I don't update for several months, I was either eaten by a ghost.... or decided to return to my previous lapses in blogging. It's probably gonna be the latter....Cheers.
I meant to post a few days ago, when I came home severely psyched out on iced coffee, but the Crash unfortunately followed my arrival home quite closely and I went to bed instead. Tuesday's lesson: Make sure that iced coffee pitchers have not been pushed behind other things in the fridge before re-brewing or you'll have to drink all of the excess to hide the error from shift supervisors. Pretty sure a fellow barista and I killed an entire pitcher and a half. We were uncomfortably energetic.
Guess what though??!! My illustrious career as a Starbucks barista is about to come to an end because.... I got a new job!!!! What what!! And it's not a sh**ty downgrade! It actually requires a college degree!! Yippee!! I shall take up my role as a US Bank banker (BANKER, not teller!!!!) in mid-July. Huzzah!
We went camping two days ago with friends at Red River Gorge, which is about 45 minutes from Lexington. I'll share pictures in my next post cos I'm too lazy to retrieve the camera right now. Good times were had by all! Camping always reminds me of time spent backpacking in Yellowstone, however, and I get homesick. Someday soon we'll return to the most brilliant place on earth....
Cheers.
My readers, who eagerly await updates of my oh so exciting life, should be pumped to learn that I was in SoCal last week. What what! My sister and I enjoyed a day in San Francisco and then spent the next morning and afternoon driving to San Diego. We were able to spend a few hours at Ocean Beach (maybe that was the name?? not sure....) and frolic about in the Pacific before getting extremely wasted in downtown San Diego bars. Ha, just kidding. The third day we chilled at San Diego Sea World and were part of the very last audience to watch Shamu (all four of them.... very confusing.... the original is probably dead, kids....) perform "Believe." O, the memories! One day I might be able to share pictures of the affair.... if only I could figure out how to get them from the phone to the laptop. Blast my technological incompetence!
In other news.... I was not excited to return home, but lattes must be made and excellent customer service rendered so that the cat might have chow. Such is life. I recently considered applying for Flight Attendant positions, but I find that such a career may not be compatible with my intense fear of flying. Travelling is excellent fun. Flying solo with an overactive imagination is not. I wish we could "poof" to our destinations.
Anyway.... I'm out to go swim in our dirty, child-filled apartment complex pool. Huzzah!
Ah God, the first post of this year appears in May. The consistent lack of updating is really quite distasteful, I do think. In my defense, I have begun several posts but left them discarded in the "draft file," as they mostly focused on my hatred for my current job. Who wants to read about that?? No one. Here's an idea: instead of wasting loads of time complaining about the job, why not channel that energy into finding a new one? Ah, but that would be too easy and logical, O Readers! Indeed.
Anyway, if I can ever figure out how to transfer pictures from my new touch phone (that's right, bit**es, it's a motorola citrus, much more efficient than an iphone....) to the computer, I would like to relate my stories of the Newport Aquarium and Tornado Warnings. I have an excellent shot of my fellow coworkers huddled round in the women's bathroom during lockdown, as a large funnel passed through Lexington just miles from our store.
In other news, I have been following the current cycle of America's. Next. Top. Model., as I hope all of my readers have. I must confess to disappointment in this season's final contestants.... One is angry and foul-mouthed, one is mousy and cries too much, and the third is boring and needs to learn how to enunciate. Alas, if only we could bring back the CariDees and Melroses of past Top Models! Even the cycle villains are lack-lustre. At least Tyra is still pretty entertaining, and I am quite in love with Mr. Jay. Huzzah!
And look, we have now produced a post! Quick, to the publish button! This one shall not waste away with its brethren in the Dreaded Draft File, from whence no post shall return!!!!
Cheers.
