Oh My Gawd!

Last week, my friend Aida from sunny CA came for a vizzie. She had flown to Boston where she met her friend Chairdain, and together they were traveling down the east coast. I'd not met Chairdain before, and we were all off for a whirlwind of activity! We met in the parking lot of  Luray Caverns and from there, went in for the grand tour. Chairdain is larger than life, and a fun character. She had me laughing thru the caverns tour. She has the exuberance and curiosity of a child, that I really appreciate when I see it in adults. OH MY GAWD! she exclaimed, throughout the entire tour. IS THIS REAL? she would ask with each new rock formation. As we approached each new stopping point, she would ask a series of questions to the guide. Her delivery comes rat-a-tat-a-tat, like a machine gun. Who-discovered-the-caverns-and how-did-they-get-down-here-and-OH-MY-GAWD-is-this-real? 

Our guide leads the way.

Chairdain takes a pic of a REAL rock formation.

After the tour.

Really cool sculpture on the way into Luray.

 We ate at a local restaurant which I call the Remember Restaurant because I can never remember its name. The irony is that it has Remember in its name. A Place to Remember? A Time to Remember? Moments in Time? Oh, right. A Moment to Remember. Chairdain walked in and said, (you guessed it), OH MY GAWD! And started snapping pictures right away. How-long-has-this-been-a-restarant? What-did-it-used-to-be?  Oh-look-at-that. Was-this-a-pharmacy?

See? There's the "-ment" part of the name on the window.

 Then we did some sightseeing along Main St.and went into the shops. I don't usually do that, but they're sweet to go browsing in. More OH MY GAWDing ensued, along with a few Is this real?

Chairdain wanted to see the rest of the town. I said, "This is it." She looked at me, dumbfounded. What-do-you-mean-this-is-it? Where's-the-downtown? Where-do-you-go-shopping?  I told her we could cross the railroad tracks and head up to the plaza where the Radio Shack was. So we decided it was time to do a provisions shop before heading home. I told her that we needed to get whatever she wanted, because once we got home, we weren't coming back out. Why-aren't-we-coming-back-out? Is-it-that-far-out? How-far-do-you-live-from-here? So we did a shop in Walmart and then Aida & I decided this would be a fine night for Margaritas, so we headed to the liquor store. [Click HERE for John's AWESOME Margarita recipe, scroll down to the end]  

Love the name of this!

OH MY GAWD? This-is-the-liquor-store? But-it's-so-small! What-do-they-sell-here? Why-is-it-so-small?  The three clerks are giving her the "You're-not-from-around-here" stare. Chairdain, meanwhile is OH-MY-GAWDing around the store, and gets a few mini-bottles of something.

Armed with provisions, I lead the way to my house. Aida & I together, and Chairdain following behind. Even tho I can't actually hear her, I can feel her OH-MY-GAWDing down my road. No matter what I say, or how descriptive I am about my road, until you experience it, you just don't have a clue! So we got to my house. As we're walking to the house, Aida says with a big smile, "Oh my God, look at this! It's so beautiful! Look at all the trees! We're in the mountains!"  Chairdain says, "Oh my Gawd! We're so far out! We're in the mountains!" But she is not smiling.

So we went for a labyrinth walk:

Me & Aida in the center of the labyrinth.

And here's Chairdain:

Sometimes a picture really is worth 1000 words!

She looked at my labyrinth. OH MY GAWD. Is this rock real? And here's the short list of other things she didn't think were real, besides various rocks & rock formations:

• ground hogs
• flying squirrels
• wild pear trees

Except. Except for bears. Those were real to her and she kept insisting that bears would come up on my porch at night. Oh, you city slickers.  ;-)

M&M say hello to Chairdain. She was really sweet to them, and they loved the extra attention!

The girls are just a tad bigger than Aida's dog (a chi-wow-woo)

We drove up behind my house  . . .

. . . to the overlook:

And thru the woods, back home again. A quiet evening where Chairdain took a long soak in the tub, and Aida & I had a coupla margaritas, and we were all in bed by 9 p.m. The next a.m. they were up & out by 8:15 on their way back up the east coast. Whew! What a fast 20 hours!

Luray Caverns

Just a few pix. It's really AWESOME down there!

Raw photo, undoctored.

Much better, thanks to my PhotoShop guy. (No link).

Update, Guests, & Flying Squirrels

I'm going to take a break from blogging. It's not that I don't have anything to say--lots going on. However, I'm working on a new labyrinth script, I've got some art things that have a dead-line AND I've taken a job with John Morgan, "America's most FAMOUS hypnotist." The latter of which requires a lot of phone time. So here's a lengthy update and then I'll send an email out when I start posting again.

THANK YOU, Ruthie :-)
My sister Ruth came for a visit a couple weekends ago, read my blog post "Labyrinth Mourning," and said, "I think it's clear what we need to do this weekend." So we gathered river rocks and built a new labyrinth. It's half the size of my one in WV, but since I don't know how long I'll be here, I didn't want anything too permanent. I have pictures--but of course they won't upload. Stupid dial-up.

The piece of junk mail worth $19!
Friends Bess-from-massage-school & husband Val-who-did-my-website came for a few days. We went to Luray Caverns and I got in because I could show a Page County address. Yey, me! The caverns are AWESOME! And here's my Seinfeld/Larry David episode: A tour guide who yaks the entire time and manages to say NOTHING. "These formations are called the drapes. As you can see, [indicates with flashlight] the curves of the rock here resemble drapes." And then later, "These formations are called 'the fried eggs.' " Let me guess...because they look like fried eggs? And then! She's quizzing people! [Points with flashlight to rock formation] "What do you think this formation is called?" And she's not asking for anything scientific. There were lots of guesses, all WRONG, of course. What's wrong with silence? What is this obsession in our culture to fill up every empty space? As my old director Ed Steele at Wayside Theatre used to say, "LESS IS MORE."

Red raspberry season!!!
YUM! Bess & Val & I went hiking & berry picking. We also found some wild blueberries. In fact, I'll be picking some more today....

Squirrels can fly?
I have little bird houses on trees around the house from the previous owner. I was sitting in my chair near the telephone pole reading my book, and I heard a rustling in the box above and out pokes a furry little head. Too small to be a squirrel, and it didn't look like a chipmunk. Some sort of rodent, but not pointy enough to be a rat...mystery solved when Val, who's v. tall, tapped on the box with his water bottle and out scampered a little squirrely thing up to the top of the pole. There it turned to face us, unbushy tail twitching at us. And then--THEN! It leapt from the top of the pole into a nearby tree a good 2o feet. It was the most amazing thing to see, right before our eyes. It happened so fast. And there is such a thing as flying squirrels, I remember seeing something on Discovery, or TLC or National Geographic back in my TV-watching days.

Another Seinfeld episode:
As I may have mentioned, I have dial-up. Hehhh.... So I got a package with Embarq (AWESOME customer service!!!) who has a deal with Earthlink (CRAP customer service). Now that I have Embarq, I can cancel my Earthlink account and it will be handled by Embarq. Except I can't. Earthlink cut off my service because I didn't pay the bill--which I didn't because now I have Embarq. 4 live chats, and countless transfers to India and back to Embarq--4 HOURS of life force sucked out of me that I will never get back. My mother was with me for the first 2 of it, and it just became a joke: No! Don't transfer me! And then it was back to India to the v. polite person who would then transfer me to Embarq. So I just went ahead and paid Earthlink. I just got an email notification from Earthlink that my bill is due. Hehhh...stupid dial-up.

4th of July Celebration
Went to Mum's annual concert followed by fireworks. I recorded the fireworks because my nephew Ian was SO EXCITED that it made the experience that much more special. I have him on tape saying, "WOW! This is better than Christmas!" I LOVE fireworks, so it was really great to be able to share it with such an enthusiastic audience. For Ian's birthday on the 11th, I printed out one of the fireworks photos and glued it on top of a Christmas card. I love that he was born on the 11th...because it's one more, innit?

And for Entertainment
No TV, but I have DVD's, so I have had a Christopher Guest Fest. Favourites: Spinal Tap, Best in Show, and Waiting for Guffman. All including with commentary.

Books: I rarely read fiction, but re-read Clan of the Cave Bear. It's different reading a book again 20 years later. It's not even the same book. Right now I'm reading Animals in Translation by Temple Grandin. It's a fascinating account of her work with animals. She's autistic and has an uncanny ability to see as animals see and understand their behaviour. It makes me think of Dave Dobson who says that we are "herd animals."
A friend lent me Labyrinth by Kate Mosse, which I've not read yet. You know what's funny? That's not a labyrinth on the cover, it's a maze.

Well, that's the update. If I find myself feeling chatty, I may post again. For the most part tho, I think I'll take the rest of the summer off. :-) H.