Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Noble Ambitions, & Kentucky?


Welp, it’s been awhile since I’ve put anything of substance on here. (By substance I mean worth reading). Especially since my last “post” was written in the deleriums of sickness and captivity to my room.  

But it’s January, the month of new beginnings; a time to make changes, to set goals, to climb mountains, and swim oceans, at least that’s what I’m told. So, in the spirit of January, I am going to take the plunge and attempt, for the umptenth time, to find my muse and update this on a more regular basis. Ok, ok, it probably won’t last, but hey its the thought that counts right, I mean my intentions are good…

To business. Recent travels have “allowed” me to discover Santa Cruz in Kentucky. “Wait Santa Cruz? Kentucky?” Yeah, it’s about as random as it sounds. Friends + grad school = friends throughtout the country. So I got to visit Kentucky adding yet another state to my Contenental US collection.

“What is there to do in KY?” I hear you ask in disbalifef. Well, you can borrow movies from the Library, can’t beat free, go hiking through beatiful coutry to see awesom rock arches, and play in the snow. Gloveless. In jeans. At night, when it’s 20 degrees outside with wind. Minus the needles of pain as your fingers take 20 minutes to defrost it’s great fun. Oh, and eat at CRACKER BARREL, of course!



When the waitress took our order, I surprised my friend Emily, (aka the friend I travled Europe with), by ordering okra. I further surprised her by having eaten it before, at my college dorm of all places. Go figure. (Random fact, the waitresses take a series of tests about the history of Craker Barrel. The stars on their aprons are for a combination of how long they’ve been there and how much they know about the restaurant). The food was pretty good, but the best part was the awesome parkinglot sinage (see pics).  

Some people in this world feel at home anywhere, and some people find home no matter where they’re at. My friend Emily, I discovered, is currently the latter. I do not know how she manages to do it, but she has found the most  Santa Cruz of places in the South. No joke. What else can a pizza joint that’s called Mellow Mushroom be? I was teasing her about this one night as we were going back to her appartment. We walked into the hall and were instantly hit by the smell of, drumroll please, you guessed it, that “herb” commonly called weed. The timing was impecable! I busted up.

Lesson’s learned:

1   1)      People are much friendlier in the South, they actually talk to you. Dad would love it.
2   2)      Booking your connecting flight through Chicago, in winter, isn’t the brightest idea.
3   3)      My pony-tail is too thick for the body scanners. It has to be patted down.
4   4)      Being clad in a bright orange beanie, blue fleece jacket, snow pants, carrying a stuffed light-green back pack, and walking away from the crowd, toward the lone waiting car, makes you invisable to high-strung cops at the airport.
5   5)      It doesn’t matter where you go, once you know what to look for (or avoid), you can always find a little bit of Santa Cruz.  

Friday, January 20, 2012

Rain!

 The wind is howling past the windows to my tower. But that's just a random observation. The real joy, and purpose of this post, IT'S RAINED! Finally some wet to settle the dust. And now maybe what's left of the rye will actually grows.  What survived the dust storm has been sitting there for months, an inch or so from the ground for months just waiting for a sip of liquid from the heavens. And now it's finally gotten a drink. Unfortunately this means the weeds are also happier. If only there was an easier way to get callouses.