Day 1: West Virginia?

Day 1: 4 states

The adventure has started! I had expected this moment to be me riding into the sunset, windows down, sun shining, music blasting! RAIN. LOTS OF RAIN!

I had to rearrange my car to put my bike inside, no one on the road could tell what an awesome adventurer I was...bummer. It was still like I was sneaking off and running away from home though. It's just I recognized EVERYTHING for the first 5 hours or so. I think I still might not understand fully that I am gone. It feels like just another weekend trip. Maybe tonight when I don't go home it will be different...

So I gassed up...

I set my mileage...

And then I drove off!

Pennsylvania, I love you, but you are old news. It took me hours to get through you and everything I always see. Then I saw the sign for state number two! Yes! But, it was Maryland. Maryland I lived in you too...old news. And then to West Virginia! Getting better, didn't live there, visited a couple weeks ago, but West Virginia was getting more adventurous. You know all the stories, west Virginians cousins, family wreaths...

I make jokes about West Virginia like the best of 'em, but really it is a breathtaking place. Even in all the rain and fog, those hills and the green...it's amazing. I even tried to take a picture of it, but as always, no justice was done. The sunset in wv last night was one of the greatest ones I've seen this year:

Now we all know I love nature and sunsets and all that warm fuzzy bologna. But what sealed the deal for wv was actually the sheetz I went to. Because when you walk in to your third bathroom break (more of a sprint really) and you almost slide right into this:

You know heaven can't be too far away. Yes, that's what sheetz has labeled a "beer cave" as in you can walk in and bask in the glory of alcohol just around the corner from the highway. Ahhh la amor! Maybe suffering from inbreeding isn't such a big deal :)

And thus marked my furthest driving experience west. The sun went down and the fog thickened and kentucky was cloaked in mystery. I spent 5 hours in kentucky without seeing a damn thing. Woo adventure! I got to Miguel's Pizza where climbers at the red river gorge come to hang up their harnesses for the night. 1:30am, and people doubted...

Slung my hammock on a tree, snuggled in for the night.

Seriously wondered if this last call would end up with me waking up next to kentucky wanting to chew my arm off...

Here is what I woke up to:

The Mexican kid made me feel like I wa back in Reading... Hahaha

The adventure continues!

Peace Out East Coast!

First song of the trip: http://youtu.be/Y1D3a5eDJIs

Predrive ponder...

Leading up to a very lengthy drive...a deep country solo, there have been many thoughts tossed about. Some of these thoughts were even my own! Some surprised me, some stopped me in mid sentence, and some just had me shaking my head.

The things that pop into my head while I do mundane normal people tasks...well...like driving, get put onto a scale of country wide proportions! This weekend I drove down to the Philly area to crash a party (as per the usual), oh and see a concert with my lovely cousin pappy. Being the Irish skinned variety of white girl, the arm out the window (it's the left arm, for you crazy Europeans) started to crisp up. Normal thought: "ooo that's gonna be a little burnt." Cross the country pondering "crap, in a month my left arm is going to be WAY more tan than my right arm!" (As if my "tan lines" aren't freakish enough over the summers...)

No, no, the thought did not occur to me to put my arm back in the window at all. Sorry, that would be against the code of driving Hobbes...

You know what popped into my head next? That probably means I'm going to have the country's largest knot of hair by the time I'm midway through 'Murcia.

Better buy a brush...

That's right, I don't own a brush, I just borrow my nieces brush when I get desperate. Are you surprised?

Things that pop into family and friend noggins are even more creative than mine:

I wonder how many speeding tickets you will get... Thanks "The Schruf", could have said something when I put the budget together.

This lead me to the thought that I should probably NOT drive through Kansas. There may or may not be an unpaid largish ticket still waiting for me there. Note to self: no Kansas.

And then there's Uncle Bob the ex-marine (I know from NCIS there is no such thing, but I'll say it anyway): he thinks I'm definitely in trouble because of my age and rocking bod (I'm paraphrasing). According to him I'm going to be a victim of a heinous campsite murder. I put his mind at ease however, I let him in on my pretty epic machete skills. At the very least potential wackos will see me coming with a machete and deeply question who is the real wacko.

My Aunt with the best name ever gave me a really good thought I never would have caught onto in any of my own ponderings: (paraphrasing again) what about Bert? What if he sticks his penis where it doesn't belong again and breaks it a THIRD, yes THIRD time! How am I supposed to drive across the nation when I have a rapist dog?! Will he survive the farm life without careful guidance from me?! We can only hope, because if he rips that thing a third time, I'm certain it will need to be amputated...

Mostly though, people are concerned I'm not coming back. Actually most people truly and honestly believe I'm not coming back. I find this amusing and kind of thrilling. Maybe I won't! 

(Gina I'll totally be there for your wedding, I'll even crash the wedding party to keep up my "perfect bridesmaid" record)

Back to the Grind

I got lost there for about a year. I am back now. At least I think in a manner of speaking...

I'm gone again too, much to mammas dismay. I'm packing my bags and heading to the west coast! I'm driving clear across 'murica.

So far my plan is to hit the Red River Gorge, Glacier National Park, and Arches national park before crossing into California. Everything in between and after is a mystery to me! However, I'll be discovering it and updating my fine followers on the blog. Stay tuned! Travel starts in June!

Have Crayons...Will Make Art.

I think everyone who is on PINTEREST has seen the crayon on canvas artwork.  

Source: megduerksen.typepad.com via Jax on Pinterest

Putting this idea in a teacher's head is just not even fair.  Obviously I had to try it...with my FAVORITE COLOR!

I used old crayons from the bottom of the bin at work that all the kids refuse to use....so this craft was kind of a recycle job!

 

And like a true child...I forgot that...ummm, maybe I would make a mess.

*special note/warning:  Newspaper is a crafters friend!

 

 And then I thought to myself....why do the same boring thing everyone else is doing on Pinterest?  I don't want to go linear...I want it to go SPLAT!

 

COOOOOOOOLLLL...MELTING CRAYON!  And All I had to do was turn on my hair dryer!

  

 And then I was all...I WANT TO MELT MORE STUFF!!!!!  So I lined three of the sides of another canvas and played more with melty crayons.

 It looks like a face to me....like a smiling old lady with shaggy hair.

 Do you see it?

 And then I had four more crayons left and one more canvas, so I was all like "what about sideways?!"

 Cooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooolllllllll!!!!

 I like to think the use of pinterest should not be abused as a way to waste time, but a way to inspire your time.  Plus, there are so many FUN ideas in there.

10 minKNIT

I got bored with my hair again. I am trying really really hard not to cut it all off. Hence, another hair tie project.

Also, my lovely sister, Kate tried to be as super cool as me, and learn how to knit. FAIL. The result was more yarn in the big yarn pile at my house. She does have good taste in yarn though. I had two skeins of this beautiful yarn that is the mix of my real favorite color and her real favorite color. Orange and Red, for those of you who must know. NOT GREEN, as we both once upon a time lied to ourselves about.

I'm trying to read Game of Thrones instead of all of this knitting though. It's a priority so some brothers, friends, and others will get off of my back and I can stop covering my ears every time they talk. And now they're all moving on to Hunger Games, which I have been told I am required to read by the time the movie comes out. My social life is exhausting, and my eyes are starting to burn and my sleeping pattern isn't a pattern anymore.

Anyway, I snuck in a little knitting in my planning period. Oh yes, I will sacrifice grading school papers for just about anything! 10 minutes. 80 stitches. 1/2 of a skein of wool blend(if that). 8 rows later...

Ooops, yeah. My big fat head was too big for the 80 stitches. Thus I attached the two ends with a bow to give me that extra inch of noggin space!

Obviously, I had to put in the buttons. Aren't buttons just cute as...well, buttons!?

In less time it takes to get in the car to get a headband and wait in line at the gross walmart...

Booyah.

Mitten with an "S"

Here we go. I really hope you understood the Clue in the title. Fasten your seat belts. I'm going to talk about how I don't like to talk about feelings.

I'm pretty sure that everyone and their mother know about my aversion to feelings, unless it's a feeling of triumph over evil AKA people who compete against me.

My students, in fact believe 2 awesome things about me:

1. I don't have tear ducts and therefore am incapable of crying

2. I am a vampire and that is why I never turn the lights on in my classroom.

I'm sure you agree about 2 things as well:

1. Wow, these kids are gullible.

2. I sound like an awesome villian.

Meanwhile, back at the cave:

Yesterday, I thought I was going to have to play the villian when the secretary called to say I needed to come to the office. Oh I put on my best "swag," as my kids call it. I stomped all the way down the three halls we have in this school making my best heel clicking, you're in trouble BAMF walk. Game face on, turn the corner....

....Shoot, they're flowers, not an angry parent.

Game face melted.

And then, if the fact that I felt a weird faint thumping, beating in my chest, I can only describe as awkward and this weird face contortion come over my super-villian face...I read this note:

Noooooo.....I don't smile at work! STOP!

And as I sit here and look at these flowers and reread this awesomely funny note, the mitten comes over me....the one that starts with S.

This leads me to do really dorky teacher things like the following:

Oh man. My villian facade is totally ruined.

And Bert got the flowers.

FAIL.

And that, my friends, is as close to feelings as ever I will describe.

******Sidenote: My just absolutely adorable, cheerful, gem of a homeroom thought I bought these flowers myself and had them sent to work for Valentine's Day. Wow, real nice.