More from the road

Today I'm in Black Mountain, NC, just outside of Asheville. I found myself here almost two years ago for a conference, and fell in love with the town. By happenstance, D has a friend working here who is letting us stay with him for a few days. The place is entirely different in the winter; many of the shops downtown are closed or have shorter hours, so wandering around yesterday didn't take nearly as long as we expected. (Don't panic; the chocolate shop was still open, and I took full advantage of that). The shops here fall into three basic categories, with a few renegades: outdoorsy awesomeness, artsy coolness, eco-friendliness. Some even fall into all three. I had a small moment of exhileration when I found North Face pants on sale for only $20 (which is less than I pay for my crappy jeans that fall apart in less than a year); but alas, they were cut funny and didn't fit very well (or maybe I'm shaped funny?) At the General Hardware Store (or something along those lines), one can wander around for hours looking at all the random stuff. Jason (the friend we're visiting) said that he's never gone in there and not been able to find something he's needed. It's not just hardware, either - there's housewares, toys, all sorts of fun old-fashioned gadgetry. I think my favorite find was the sink strainer decorated with a frog. If I had $8 to spend on a sink strainer.... or a sink to put it in... that would definitely have become part of my collection!

Last night we went to a place in Asheville that they call the "Brew & View." It has a real name, but of course I can't remember what it is. It's a movie theatre/restaurant, and incredibly cool idea. The movie only costs $3, and the food is really good. We saw the latest James Bond flick (my first, I must admit), and the only downfall was the random shouting from the bar in the back when people's orders were ready. "Susan!" shouted out in the middle of a tense movie moment kind of breaks the mood. Although I have to give props to the kid who put his name in as "I. P. Freely." Added a little comedic relief to the place, I think.

Other adventures in Black Mountain included hiking, of course. Within the first hour of arriving, we were climbing up a mountain. It's called Lookout Rock (right next to Lookout Mountain, which is also the name of the mountain where Nature's Classroom in located), with an elevation of 3,500-ish feet. Jason is a ranger for Montreat, so he hikes that way frequently and has all sorts of cool knowledge about the area. It's a beautiful hike; the trail is surrounded by rhododendron so even in the winter it looks lush and green. There's also a cool geocache (sp?) stored along the trail. The top of the hike has incredibly views of all of Black Mountain and all the other - taller -mountains around. It was also, incidentally, incredibly cold, but quite worth it for the view.

Prior to our arrival in the western part of the state, we were able to stop for a night in Charlotte to visit my college friends Spoulton & Crystal. I hadn't seen Spoulton since last May, and hadn't caught up with Crystal in almost two years. Spoulton lives in this nice neighborhood called Dilworth where everything is within walking distance and the houses are beautiful, so it didn't feel at all like being in the city (except, of course, the for insanity of driving into and out of Charlotte). If I ever have to live in a city, I would love to live in a place like that. D was awesome and offered to make dinner - his famous manigolta - so the three of us girls could just sit and talk and catch up. We had a back-up plan of watching a movie, but midnight rolled around and we still hadn't run out of things to talk about. The visit was definitely something I needed; it was refreshing and filled my soul. I forget sometimes how important girlfriends are, and I think we all needed the visit. I felt like a starving person filling myself up with nourishment - trying to get as much as I could in one night. It was so wonderful to have an intellectual conversation, to talk about books and politics and life-in-general. We are all in very different places in our lives, but it didn't matter at all; the connection we formed at Hollins is still strong. I worried slightly that D would feel out of place or left out, but he surprised me later by pulling me aside to tell me how impressed he was with my friends and the connection he could feel between us. He said it was really neat to listen to three intelligent (yay!) women sit and talk and be passionate about things. So all in all, it was a great weekend.

Update from the road

Today D & I are leaving Camp Caraway and our good friends Jeremy, Michelle, and Zack, and heading to Charlotte to see my friends Sarah & Crystal. Time here at camp has been relaxing and very enjoyable - it's a beautiful campus to wander around. We had a chance to take Violet (age 4) for a walk the other day, and it was so much fun to see everything through a child's eyes! She was obsessed with the small patches of snow lingering on the ground, and kept bending over to poke her fingers in it, always shocked by the icy coldness. I showed her how to draw faces in the snow, and she became convinced that every face I drew was her dad. I also broke off a little piece of ice from the lake for her to hold, and tried to explain to her the difference between snow & ice (she just calls everything "ice"). I think I lost her when she started stomping through the "slimy ice" and I introduced the word "slush." She stopped at a willow tree by the lake and pointed out how it had no more leaves on it; I tried to explain why leaves fall off the trees, but was halfway into the spiel when I remembered that she was only four, and the blank stare I was receiving was most likely warrented.

Both Jeremy & Michelle have been a little sick, so yesterday D & I took Lily (~8 months) for a walk so Michelle could have some "quiet" time. In her very cool Jeep stroller (which is absolutely perfect to off-roading, and I highly recommend to anyone who likes to go off the beaten path), Lily dosed off to sleep rather quickly in the mild winter weather. I, on the other hand, had a chance to discover how out of shape I am, pushing that stoller up and down all the hills on campus. I definitely worked up a sweat, and now understand why women like my sister and Michelle always slim right down after having a baby!

Yesterday D & I also went for a hike "up the mountain," which was the longest walk we've gone on in quite a while and definitely reminded me that I have gotten out of shape this winter! Fortunately, we're spending a few days in Black Mountain which will allow for some good hiking opportunities, weather permitting. On the hike yesterday, we (by "we" I mean "D") found some coyote tracks. There were tons of them; it looked like a pretty decent sized group following some deer tracks.

I am supposed to be looking up directions to Charlotte right now, so I am going to stop blogging and actually get on that. Fingers crossed that the sun comes out for the drive; right now it's a little gloomy looking, but at least the weather is mild and not bone-chilling. Gotta love the south.

The road trip begins

Today I find myself in Sophia, North Carolina, back at Camp Caraway. D and I just drove down yesterday, winging it with no directions (because the high winds and snow weren't quite enough adventure). We're visiting my old camp friends, Jeremy & Michelle, their two daughters Violet (4) and Lily (8 months), and another friend Zack. I just enjoyed a wonderful dinner with all of them and am having one of those "I love my friends" moments. It's such a wonderful feeling to be around people I love. I'm really excited for the next two weeks of this trip and what adventures it will bring. :-)

Also, today while getting groceries for dinner, the guy in front of me paid for his almost $20 tab in all coins... mostly pennies. It was pretty awesome.

Nothing else to report - just happy and full of joy:-)

Balaclava Fiesta

In case anyone has been questioning my complete dorkiness, I offer these photos as proof. A while ago D came up with the idea of making balaclavas. Last spring, we froze during staff training in the mountains of Alabama (yes, even the guy from New York thought it was cold). I don't care of it's the south - when you're outside all day long and in the mountains, it gets pretty chilly. So as a way to make staff training slightly less frostbite-inducing, he bought micro fleece and decided that we would make balaclavas. Finding the basic pattern was easy - there are tons online that are free and can be printed off. It was the spikes that proved the challenge - an additional that D really wanted and made the project a lot more challenging. Oddly enough, sewing machines don't like to sew through four layers of fleece fabric. Funny that. Anyway, D's rather skilled when it comes to visual concepts of things, so he conceptualized how to make the spikes. While I have no talent with visual concepts, I do know how to sew, so that's where my part came in. He told me what he wanted and cut things out of the fabric, I found a way to put it all together. I didn't want spikes on mine, though. So D very ingeniously came up with a way to make it a frog. With eyelashes. I am pretty sure we're the dorkiest twenty-somethings ever. However, the balaclavas are warm, functional, and great conversation starters. It was also a great experiment with D & Sarah collaborations - we proved we could work together on a creative project and not kill each other. I am proud to report that the only injuries were from random pin pricks and shocks from static electricity due to fleece-on-hair.

For the pirate in all of us...

http://www.piratelaws.com/

Easiest dessert ever

Okay, while I'm not much of a cook (I'm working on it, though!), I do love to make yummy desserts. A few weeks ago I found this recipe (courtesy of D's mom) that is incredibly easy and incredibly delicious. It's great for a party snack, or as a dessert that will last a couple days around the house. For lack of a better name, we've dubbed them "Oreo Balls," but feel free to get more creative. They're super easy. All you need is:

1 package of Oreos
1 package of cream cheese
Dipping chocolate

Here's all you do: grind up the Oreos in a food processor until they're very finely ground (or you can smash them to death with a rolling pin - either one works just fine). In a medium bowl, mix them with the package of cream cheese. It's best if the cream cheese is somewhat softened beforehand - either at room temp or in the microwave for a few seconds. Mix that up until there aren't any big chunks of cream cheese left and there are no big dry spots of Oreo crumbs. Form into balls about 1 inch in diameter, put on a cookie sheet, and refrigerate for one hour. Then, melt the dipping chocolate, dip/cover the balls in the chocolate, place on wax paper to harden (they cool pretty quick but to expedite this you can put them somewhere cool.) Enjoy!

I've used both milk chocolate and dark chocolate for the dipping, and so far dark chocolate is my favorite, but that's just personal preference. Just a quick warning- once the undipped Oreo balls have been cooled for an hour, they do look rather unappetizing. I promise, they taste much better than they look!!! :-)

Nature: the good, the bad, & the ugly

While I've always had an interest in all-things-outdoorsy (except maybe the aspects that involve certain death, i.e. scaling sheer cliffs of ice with no safety gear or having a pool party with piranhas), because of my work at Nature's Classroom this last year, I've become somewhat obsessed. I have become a person who not only watches the BBC series Planet Earth on an almost-daily basis, but who takes notes. Recently, D and I splurged and purchased a few new games - card games with earth science trivia. Whew-whoo! Let me tell you, we were the life of the party on New Year's Eve with that game. I carry around old middle-school environmental science & biology textbooks, since that is the age I work with most. So yes, I've become slightly obsessed. But in my post-college years, the one thing I have missed most is the opportunity to learn something new every day. Yes, I know, these opportunities surround us all the time, but I think it's much harder to recognize them outside of an educational setting. So I'm taking full advantage of my job and shoving as many useful and useless facts about nature into my head as possible. And now I'm sharing them (hold onto your hats there, friends). Here are three facts/stories - the good, the bad, and the ugly.

THE GOOD
Okay, I'm not very good with politics. I think that the whole bill-passing process is slightly outrageous, what with random amendments and such tagged on that have nothing to do with the bill itself. And I'm sure that's what has happened here - however, since that happens with EVERY bill, I'm going to go on the face value of this one and say "YAY!" The Senate is moving forward with legislation to set aside more than 2 million acres across the country as wilderness. (You can read about it here: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/12/national/main4714088.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._4714088) The article does mention that there are "pet projects" and such tucked into the bill, but as I said, that's not much different than any other bill passed in the last couple decades. It's just encouraging to see that members of Congress recognize the need to protect some of the very quickly dwindling land and habitats. This is a great example of "stewardship" to me.

THE BAD
I could go on and on about the coal ash disaster in eastern Tennessee, or any number of stories out there describing numerous ways in which our environment is being damaged. But to keep this short, I'm going to stick with a simple fact. Out of all of the animals that God has put on this planet, one of my favorites is the frog. There are over 6,000 species of frogs, all of varying sizes, colors, habitats, behaviors, etc. I just find them incredibly fascinating. Unfortunately, because of their amphibious lifestyle, frogs are more susceptible to pollution and habitat destruction - both of their land habitats, and also of their water habitats. Because of this, over 1/3 of all frog species - that's 2,000 species - are listed as endangered. Some have already disappeared completely. Okay, so they're just silly frogs, right? But regardless of how small or remote they might be, every creature on this planet plays a vital role in its own ecosystem, and all of the ecosystems on earth work together. So the possible destruction of 2,000 species of frogs would effect the lives of humans. First, there's the obvious way - what do frogs eat? Exactly. There are already billions of insects roaming the planet - do we really need billions more unchecked? Really? Also, the loss of one species not only affects its prey, but also its predators, who will either start to die off due to lack of food, or will turn to alternative food options, thereby disrupting another food chain, and creating a cycle that continues on and on and on...

THE UGLY
Earlier this week while driving behind a little red Ford pick-up truck, a McDonald's bag flew out the window. It was about 20 degrees outside, so it clearly just didn't randomly fly out the open window on its own - the driver distinctly made an effort to roll down the window and toss it out onto the road. I was a little shocked, as I've never really seen such blatant littering. Unfortunately, because there were cars behind me and no way to pull off to pick it up, I had to leave it there. About five miles further down the road, the window went down again and out came a box of fries and a drink! I was so mad. D was with me and we tried to think of a possible solution. Even though there's a hefty fine for littering, this guy's actions didn't exactly warrant a call to the police; but we were both too mad to let it go. So, we followed him. Just to see where he was going. Luckily, he was going to the exact same place we were heading - Walmart. We had some errands to run, and apparently so did he. So we waited until he left his truck, and then we left him a little note on his windshield. We debated for a while about all of the awful things we could write, but eventually settled on something relatively calm - "What part of 'Keep West Virginia Beautiful' don't you understand? Love, the Earth." Yep, so this is me, Ms. Passive-Aggressive Activist. But it made me feel a little better, at least.