An Eventful Weekend...

I began my "weekend" Thursday at 3 a.m. My dad decided to invite me to go with him on one of his trips to PA to check out some sort of coal processing plant, train a new guy with safety procedures, and calibrate a methane detector. All in all, we spent more time being tourists than we did anything else.



I had the chance to go to the infamous United Flight 93 crash site (the PA field from September 11)....



This was very sad. I was shocked that the plans to build a REAL memorial will not be put into place until next year. It won't open until the 10 year anniversary of September 11th? I'm upset with the government, since they haven't really done much to get the ball rolling regarding buying the property and making a national monument out of it. It shouldn't have taken 10 years to get a memorial up for the people that sacrificed their lives to keep the plane from making it to Washington D.C. While the memorial there is nice, it sickens me that heroes of such stature have only a "temporary" memorial for people to pay their respects.


Yep. That plane was headed straight for the capitol building in D.C. In particular, the terrorists managed to plan out the flights around the schedules of many of the members of congress, etc., most of which were at the capitol building on September 11th. The passengers of flight 93 actually planned on taking over the plane above a rural field to prevent more deaths, at which they were successful. Such a patriotic sacrifice.





Here's the field. The little white dot is an American flag. The trees on the edge have yet to grow back...




Here's the temporary memorial site.









A nice shot of "Old Glory".






Here's a Pennsylvanian farm...








A clean-coal preparation plant... Dad is the safety manager for a construction company that gets contracted out to build plants like this, among other things.

and...... the Pittsburgh Steelers stadium...


As for Pittsburgh, we just drove through, but it was neat getting to see all those shiny buildings. Skyscrapers are rare for me.




After all of this fun, we went to another site in Morgantown, I sat there for 3 hours while Dad talked to a few "higher up" people in the company, then we commenced to driving ALL of the way back to Beckley. UGH. It was a LONG drive, but at least we stopped at the waffle hut in Flatwoods. It was a beautiful evening back in WV.







Next was sleep. Lots of sleep.



The next day, I went to Richwood. On the way, I stopped at the Fayette Co. magistrate's office to pay some on my traffic violation. $40 down, and $129 to go!




That afternoon and evening, I went fishing with Dad, and sat around the campfire and visited with my cousins.





Here's the river that runs by the cabin. I just HAD to do a black and white shot. The fisherman adds a nice touch... He's my neighbor at the cabin :)

The next day, I woke up at 6:30 and ventured out with Dad to the Cranberry Wilderness. The trail I was on was motor-vehicle-prohibited, so we rode bikes. Dad fished quite a bit, but only caught two. I put about 20 miles on that bike...uphill half of the way...Ironically, my legs are not sore, but my arms are. I guess the Glenville hill and steps are more beneficial than I originally thought.

Saturday ended with a trip up to Glenville to play dinner music and sing the Alma Mater at the GSC Athletic Hall of Fame banquet. The most hilarious part was when all of the tone-deaf athletes tried to sing along...YAY, a gig that pays! Ugh... a gig that pays towards a fine and not something fun, like a passport so I can go to Canada.

Now it's over... That was a really long and eventful weekend. I'm wore out in a good way. :)

If that's what makes you happy...

Here we are in bolstering 2009, where the importance of an education is dire. There's so many career oriented people at Glenville that I get confused when I log onto my myspace and see the majority of people I graduated high school with holding toddlers-- their own toddlers, or they have a nice big belly and engagement rings. While I am happy for them because they seem happy, I am upset over their ignorance of bigger and better experiences. It isn't that I am against getting married to a coal miner and having children at such a young age. My mother was that woman, and she made her career out of being a mom, and an excellent one at that. In fact, motherhood is part of my plans. I have my entire 20s to figure that out, so why not get a fulfilling college experience?

I want to throw up when I see my classmates making a "career" out of working at Dollar General as a cashier. That's a summer job for a high school kid, not something anyone would want to do for all of their life. Where's the intellectual stimulation? From working at Wal-mart for a summer, I couldn't imagine making a living from being a cashier. After a while, I was SOOOOO bored. I need something fun. I suppose I've developed the idea that I have to love what I do to the point of my job not actually being work.

I had to get out of southern WV. Now, I consider myself blessed to have the opportunity to go to college. It's something my parents didn't have due to financial issues, but nowadays, practically anyone can go if they want it bad enough. Debt sucks, but loans are possible. An education is worth it. Doing what you want to do is worth it. I can't imagine going to "work" at Wal-mart when I have the ability to "go be a music teacher". I can't imagine living in Bolt, WV just being a housewife. That's great and all, but there's more out there for me. I see no advantage in starting a family at 20 years of age.

So, I've decided that I must see the world while I'm at it. I'm going to be a teacher, which to most people, it isn't exactly the most appealing job out there. Then again, it's my opportunity to share my music with people. This is what I've wanted to do since I was 7 years old. My original plan was to teach during the regular school season, then get a summer job or continue whatever private music lessons I might be involved with. Now, I've decided that I will take the teacher's benefit of being off for the summers, and become a frequent flyer so I can educate myself about weird non-American/non-West Virginian cultures. I love WV, but I have to get out of the "woods" for a few months out of the year so I can experience bigger and better things while keeping the permanent comfort of living in the hills.

That'll do for a nice blog :)

UGH!

Right before I left.....
"Have a good summer, Mr. Bone"- Me
"You too. If you get into any trouble, take pictures!"- Mr. Bone

I couldn't find my camera, BUT......

I managed to accidentally throw away my beautiful purple cell phone at the New River Gorge visitor's center when I stopped to use the bathroom on the way home from school. I noticed that it was gone and I realized what I had done a few miles down the road, pulled over on some side road to turn around, and in my panicked state, I managed to "safely" run a stop light. The good news is that I watched for traffic before I pulled out and the road was actually clear... The bad news is that I failed to notice the BIG RED STOPLIGHT, and the COUNTY COP sitting on the other side of the intersection. ME=IDIOT! He pulled me over and gave me a nice $168 ticket. I actually told the cop I was sorry for being an idiot and that I normally don't drive terribly. He looked at me and chuckled, then handed me a nice fat ticket. I managed to calm myself down, get to the NRG, and actually retrieve my beautiful purple cellphone! So....the best news is that I am still alive and kicking myself in the butt for being an idiot over that damn phone. I guess I'll be setting up a payment plan with the court house since I won't be paid for the energy express job until the end of June. Dad refuses to help me monetarily over this (not even with a loan), which I've decided is good parenting skills even though I don't like it....Thanks, Dad.

At least the lady at the courthouse was polite when I called to inquire what kind of fee I have to pay...

Graduation

I played Holst at graduation. Despite my virginity status, I'd say it was better than sex (from what I hear....).

So many people I know graduated today. Last year, I think I knew 2 or 3 people. This year, I knew about 25. Quite a few are leaving far-far-away, so I'm a little bummed. I guess I'll have to go to Canada or something...

As for my stuff in my room? Still not packed... I'm procrastinating... After this, I'm going to make it a point to make at least two organized piles of stuff before I leave to go bluegrassin'. I'll have plenty of time to pack before tomorrow.

I must tell the world of the evil "Martha Stewart" PED teacher! She treats a 1 credit hour class like it's SOOOO important. So, she says "warsh" instead of "wash".... Like, "be sure to warsh your vegetables before you eat them. Oh, and warsh your hands too." I've had a rough past couple of weeks dealing with an acadmic appeal. I've lost sleep over this, and the final for the PED class was from 8-10. I woke up a bit late, but managed to get to the final about 2 or 3 minutes late. Golly was Martha Stewart angry! I walked in and she was hatefully asking me why I was late and if I thought I could be late for a job while she waved the final papers in my face. This upset me greatly, mostly because I wanted to punch the woman in the face and couldn't. I didn't really want to bring up the academic appeal, so I just kept my mouth shut. Seriously, a two-hour time slot for a test that took me 10 minutes to finish? Who is getting paid here, anyways? I suppose I should say that I have a "ticking time bomb" personality. I put up with so much that upsets me, that it builds up over time and the least little thing sets me off. I went to my desk, crying, and took the test. I found out later that I had scored a 97% on that test, so there you go, Martha. What a meanie! I win, and I can properly say the word "wash".

That's all that has been going on...Time to change for bluegrass at North Bend State Park!