SLACKER!!!

Holy crap.... where does the time go?? My mom keeps telling me I need to update my blog and I didn't realize how long it has been... Sorry... Well, I am no longer in the shit hole they call Kentucky. I left there the first part of May and headed out west. I made a pit stop in Phoenix to see my mom and take care of a little business. Amazingly, I was able to downsize and sell the trailer!!! YIPPEE!!! I then headed back to Santa Clara, California where I am working at a hospital here that I worked at last year. The road trip went well except when I lost my bike off the back of my car TWICE in Palm Springs. Here I am, just tooling down the road, and this lady comes up beside me and starts waving her hands and pointing back... so, I pull over (mind you I am on the side of the interstate in the windiest part of Palm Springs) and here is my poor bike hanging by it's front tire. How long it was like that, who knows.... So, I strap it back on and head out again. FIVE minutes later, another lady flags me down... this time I had to pull over on the left side of the freeway and looking back, that wasn't probably the smartest thing to do. My butt was puckering as I was hoping somebody wouldn't plow me over... Once again, my bike was hanging by the front tire. The strap on the bike rack had broken and so I put it back on the best I could and had to find the nearest store and bought a bunch of bungee cords and strapped it in place... Very well, as it took me 20 minutes just to get it off of there when I got here!!! Needless to say, I am in the market for a new bike rack!!! I have alot of friends here and we are a very social group, so there is always something planned... hence the lack of blog additions. I am living in an apartment that I swear is on the runway of the airport... all day long I get to hear the roar of planes taking off.. thank GOD I work alot!! I am currently looking for a new place as we speak. I have extended here until the first part of the year, so I DEFINITELY need to move... Work has been keeping me on my toes as we are a very busy lab. The weather has been fantastic!!! I have been so busy I haven't even had a chance to go golfing... I did, however, take the dogs on their inaugural bike ride. I have a basket on the back of my bike just for them. So, I put them in, put the safety leash onto their harness and took off. Next thing I knew, Moco was flying off the back... He wasn't having it and bailed. The velcro on his harness gave and it set him free. Luckily he wasn't hurt, just a little stunned.. I put him back in and eventually he got the hang of it and actually enjoyed it. Bailey, of course, loved it. I have tried to take them to dog parks, and for the most part it is OK, until Moco decides to beat up another dog. He really isn't that bad, he just needs some manners... He needs to go to school and I am looking into it. I went back to Montana for a week in June and had a great time. Since I have 2 dogs now, I couldn't take them with me, so I had a dog nanny come and stay with them while I was gone. Yes, a DOG NANNY... no joke, there are people who will come stay at your house and take care of your dog... Sounds crazy, but it is pretty big around here. Back in Montana...7 girls that I went to high school with met in Cour' de Alene, ID and had a reunion weekend. It was a BLAST!!! Hopefully it will be a yearly event. Upon returning to Great Falls, I had some bad news. My good friend Heidi's husband was killed in a motorcross accident. I was glad that I was able to be in town and be there at the hospital for her and am very thankful that I was able to attend the funeral. I think of her every day and my heart goes out to her and her boys. On a lighter note, we are planning a houseboat trip over Labor Day weekend. We rented a houseboat on Lake Berryessa and 12 of us are going and it is going to be a BLAST!!!! I can't wait!! I am sure there will be some stories to tell!!! Peace out, until next time!!!

Hillbilly Festival

Well, today, a friend from work, her boyfriend, another traveler, his wife and I loaded up in the expedition and headed to Pikeville, KY for the annual "Hillbilly Festival". I wasn't sure what to expect, but was certain that I would be in for an education. I was not disappointed. Pikeville is about 80 miles from Corbin, so along the way we decided to take the back roads to see some "real Kentucky".... After about 10 minutes weaving through the country I realized it wasn't such a good idea. Apparently, I now get a little car sick on windy roads.. Neat. So, we  quickly got back on the main road. All was back on track. We arrived at the festival about noon and started walking. It was streets full of carnival rides, fair food.. (fried anything you can imagine), music, a cornhole tournament, even a parade. It wasn't as "hillbilly" as I had expected, but there was definitely some good people watching. Apparently, here in Kentucky, it is fashionable to let your fat belly hang out of your shirt (man or woman)... UUUGGHHH!!!  Oh yeah.. bras are optional, too.. not to mention the teeth... or lack of... When you think of "Billy Bob teeth".. is is truly a reality here. Yep, us 5 were pretty much the cutest people in 5 counties... no joke!! After baking in the sun and stuffing our faces with all of the disgusting fried food, we headed for home.  About half way home, my friend wanted to take us to this place her uncle had taken her to get a really good hamburger. Place called Pete's Pool Hall in Manchester, KY. When she went before, (8 years ago) her uncle ran in to get the burgers because he told her that if she went inside she probably wouldn't eat them. Well.. he wasn't just a whistlin' Dixie.. When we pulled up, the place looked shut down, but we saw the open sign and ventured in... The place was a total shithole... It had a bar that ran the entire length of the building with most of the bar stools missing. The "kitchen" was basically just a grill behind the bar and a couple of fridges. There wasn't a person in there except two women, one chain smoking behind the till. We took in the sights, from the standing water in the bathrooms, to the back pool room that hadn't been used in years and threw caution to the wind and bellied up on the 5 stools that we could find. We ordered cheeseburgers, chips, and a pop. One of the women got to work whipping up our order. While we were waiting, a couple more people came in and ordered burgers. We got our burgers and they were DELICIOUS!!! As we were enjoying our burger, a guy came in with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth carrying a couple of bags. He went behind the counter and unloaded the bags.. they had some cleaning supplies, so we figured they must clean something, even though you couldn't tell.  He was talking to he women and reached up on a shelf and pulled out a stick of deodorant. I was thinking to myself, "Oh no he isn't"... well YES HE DID!!!  He lifted up his shirt and applied a couple swipes of deodorant under each arm, crack and all sticking out. I started laughing so hard I thought I was going to die.. Thank God we were done eating, cuz that pushed us all over the edge, so we quickly paid and got the heck outta there. We laughed the rest of the way home. As I am sitting here writing this I am certain I will regret that burger, but boy it was good. Her uncle was right, though, we should've stayed in the car....

On my own again....

Well, after a year of traveling with me, my mom had decided to move back to Arizona and get some normalcy back in her life. This "gypsie-thing" was not her bag. We had a fun year, though, and I am so glad we did it. Getting her car packed, well, that is another story.. You see, I came to California with just my car full of stuff... yes, it was packed on the verge of busting open, but hey, it all fit... Then mom met up with me in California.. She too, had just a car full... Somehow, in the 3 months we were in California, our stuff decided to be like rabbits and just magically multiplied!! So much, that I had to buy a 6 X 8 enclosed trailer just to get our crap outta there. So, we have been hauling a trailer around since then.. She says it is all my stuff, I say it is all hers.. Well.. last week when she was packing up, she had to make a couple of trips to UPS to ship stuff home. Then D Day came on Sunday when we tried to cram everything else into her car... She had bought a Rooftop bag that we were going to put extra stuff in, but we soon realized that we were 2 roof racks short of a load to make it work... Thank GOD.. because I didn't know how we were going to get the crap up onto the roof in the first place, and she FOR SURE was going to have a hell of a time getting it off.. A friend of mine had suggested the night before a rack-thingy that you put on the back trailer hitch and pile stuff on that. So, we headed to trusty ol' Walmart and picked up a rack. Luckily, a couple of friends from work were there.. (not much to do around here on a Sunday afternoon..) and they agreed to come over and help us put it together... Good thing, because we would still be trying to put the damn thing together. So, we got it all together and mounted on her hitch and loaded up. We wrapped it all up with a tarp to keep any rain out... It was then that my friend's boyfriend piped up saying that it might not be good to leave that sitting out like that 'cuz 'round here people just help themselves...(we totally live in the GHETTO!!!) Well, mom was leaving at the crack ass of dawn and none of us wanted to unload it and reload in the morning, so we took our chances... As it turns out, nothing was bothered and she left the next morning and should be almost to Arizona by now. I will miss her as we had a great year and it was fun to have her around and to get to explore new areas together.. even if one assignment was in Phoenix in the middle of summer... UUGGHH!! So, now it is just me and my 2 dogs, Bailey and Moco. I left them home today for the first time by theirselves and I hope they are OK.. I was going to lock them in the kitchen for the day, but they were both sacked out on the bed when I left, so I took my chances... Hope all is well there.....ZOIKS!!! I kept the curtains closed because Moco thinks he is a big, tough, cat killer and goes CRAZY whenever he sees the cats outside. Hopefully he hasn't scratche dthe door down... Wish me luck!!!!

BOOGITY, BOOGITY, BOOGITY!!!!

I went to Bristol, TN for a NASCAR race the weekend of March 21-22. My cousin, Duke flew in from Montana to go with me. A friend at work hooked me up with some tickets and some original, down home moonshine... WOO WEE.. that stuff is SERIOUS!! Duke and I took one sip and it gave a new meaning to "Fire in the Hole!!!" We pretty much stuck to beer the rest of the weekend. Saturday when we got there, we checked into our room.. we rented a room in a person's house about a mile and a half from the track. We didn't want to have to drive, and with the short notice, it was as close as I could get. People actually rent out bedrooms in their house to people like us who come to the race, and some of them stay, but our owners left for the weekend. It was kinda weird, but, hey, all we needed was a bed and a shower, right??? So after we got settled, we headed for the track and took in the Nationwide race. We had a great time and afterwards, shopped at all of the booths lining the streets. It was like a huge block party... We had a blast. That night we definately "got our drink on.." Hee hee... We got up early Sunday and headed back to the track. A bunch of people from work were going to meet us there as we all had tickets together. We made it down to where they were filming "NASCAR Raceday" and tried to get on TV, but I don't think they put us on.. We were right in the middle of it, though.. but I think the guy wearing a zebra striped dress and high heels aced us out of our 15 minutes of fame... We met up with my friends from work and headed to our seats. The race was great, however, it could have used a few more wrecks... Afterwards, since we were staying the night and a friend and his wife from work wanted to let the traffic clear out, we walked around and watched the people. I realized that Duke could make friends with anyone when he started chatting up some random guy at his campsite about hunting. We had to literally drag him away from this guy and his CRAZY wife...Then, to top it all off, the beer stands were closed, so ol' Duke came to the rescue and asked some guy if he would sell us his beer and he had had enough, so he sold us his whole cooler full... SWEET!!! That Duke, he is such a hoot!!! We had a blast!!! We spent the night and headed back to Lexington on Monday so he could catch his plane back to Montana. The weekend was a TOTAL success and I am so glad I did it. Next, I want to go to a race in Talladega and do Speed Week in Daytona.... Yeah!!!!!

Weekend update

We went to Gatlinburg, TN a couple of weekends ago and it was quite an experience. The city of Gatlinburg is basically one street lined with shop after shop after shop of the same junk, but of course, knowing m and me... we had to go in every one!!!  To get fueled up for all that shopping we ate at a place called "The Pancake Pantry"... OMG!!!!!  I had the best pancakes... yes, they were 12 million calories, but a true party in my mouth.... YUM YUM!!!  Later that day I even convinced mom to ride a ski lift up the hill to get a bird's eye view of Gatlinberg... Definitely worth it, although she was hating every minute of it, but made it to the top and back down... I was very proud...  The view was amazing... 

That night we had decided to stay in Pigeon Forge at a place called "The National Parks Resort Lodge" (sounds nice, doesn't it?) They had a deal that you could go to dinner and a show for a deal... Well, we checked in and got to our room and immediately turned around and left... Talk about false advertising....."Extra Large Rooms and Log furnishing"... MY ASS!!!!  You truly get what you pay for... for $49.95 a night the room was a shithole!!!!  It was so nasty we turned and burned so fast they didn't know what hit them. Finally we found a Hampton Inn that was great... Of course, we had to smuggle our 4 dogs in... yes, I said 4... mom has 2, I have 2... a real circus let me tell ya..... But, we got all settled and headed out to our "nice" dinner and "Tennessee ShinDig" show....   WOW.. The dinner was comparable to "The Golden Trough".. I mean Golden Corral and the show was so bad we left after the first act... We didn't need to go to Pigeon Forge to see a bunch of hillbillies perform.. all we need to do is step outside our front door here in Corbin.... 

It was a fun weekend all in all... Something to definitely remember... Don't know that I will ever go back, but hey... you gotta try everything once, right??

Last weekend we took another road trip to Asheville, NC. WOW, talk about beautiful!!! We drove through the smoky mountains to get there and even though nothing was blooming yet it was still gorgeous!!! We toured the Biltmore House and were truly awed.. It is the largest house in America and was so huge it took us all day to get through it.  We really enjoyed the Asheville area and mom even thought it would be a good place to live.... 

This weekend I am getting ready to go to Bristol, TN for the NASCAR race... WHOO HOO!!!  I am so excited. My cousin, Duke, is flying in from Montana today and we are heading out tomorrow. So, stay posted... Maybe my next post will be from Dale Jr's motor-coach... hee hee...

Off to OZ!!!!

So, my mom finally got here last Friday. She brought me my dog that I had with Dan since he didn't want him anymore.. WHATEVER....  So, we spent the weekend touring the towns of London, KY and Corbin, KY.. well, OK it only took 30 minutes. She spent Sunday putting all her crap away and I watched NASCAR baby (On the computer)!!!  Whoo hoo!!! 

Monday we finally got cable installed... THANK GOD!!!  You never really realize how much you miss it until it is pretty much the only thing to do in town... But, we have TV now so we have some contact with the outside world!!!

Wednesday, while I was at work, we had another Tornado watch and my mom was FREAKING out... I told her that if anything happened, just got to the bathroom and get in the bathtub and cover up with a pillow. By the time I got off work, the storm had basically blown over. I got home and here my mom had two cushions from the couch in the bathroom along with a wind up flashlight, her camera, and cell phone. I thought I was going to die laughing!!! She was prepared for the worst.... Haa haa haa!!! I hope she makes it through the spring here in Kentucky without having a STROKE!!!

We are heading to Gatlinburg, TN this weekend because we have realized that you have to get outta here to find anything to do...  But, I do have a girl at work hooking me up with some Moonshine... gotta get as much culture as I can!!!

WHOA!!!  The last week has been pretty uneventful until today. I work in a Cath Lab that is in the basement of the hospital. We were just doing our thing today and they called a "Code Grey" overhead which means a tornado warning.. no big deal, we went on with our business. About an hour later, they called a "Code Black" which means tornado watch. Apparently a huge storm was brewing outside. They evacuated the everyone except patients and their nurses to the basement (right outside our lab). We had a patient in the room, luckily the cath was done, but we had to hold him there as the elevators were shut down. This lasted about an hour... a couple of us snuck out to look outside and it was pretty nasty... I really thought I might be making a trip to OZ!!! But, finally, the storm moved on and they lifted it and we got outta there!!! That is a first that I have ever had to evacuate due to a tornado and I must say it was pretty SWEET!!!! WOOO HOOO!!

I Made it!!

Well, I finally made it to London, Kentucky. It took me 2 days. The drive was fine, clear all the way. I saw the ice storm remnants in St. Louis, but the roads were clear. I had programmed my new address into my Garmin and after I passed  over the one lane wooden bridge, passed the cows and supposedly "arrived at my destination" in a church parking lot, I realized I was a bit lost. So I called up my landlord and he met me and showed me the way. 

My apartment is OK, smells terribly like smoke, but a little elbow grease and 4 air purifiers and it is livable. Apparently smoking is big here as there are roadside drive-through smoke stores all alongside the road.. GREAT!! Can't get a Starbucks for 80 miles but sure can get a pack of Camels!!!  The people that live above me have a little kid that likes to jump around and bounce his ball all the time... I am about ready to go bounce him right outta here.... SERIOUSLY...  But, other than that, not bad...

I live in a town (Corbin) that is actually 10 miles from the town that the hospital is in, (London), and it is SMALL!!  However, I live real close to the original Kentucky Fried Chicken Cafe.. RIGHT ON!! Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!!!! There is a WALMART here and a Super K-Mart.. oh yeah, I found the mall..it is a store called JC Penneys.. yep that's right!!!

Last weekend I toured around and saw both of the towns in 30 minutes.. But I stopped at the tourist center and picked up a bunch of brochures. I think there is a lot to do near by. Lexington is 80 miles to the north and Knoxville, TN is 80 miles to the south. I plan on taking in the Kentucky Derby and a NASCAR race in Bristol, TN.

The people here are real nice... especially at the hospital.. We are very busy. By the time I leave I think we will have cathed everyone in the surrounding 4 counties!!! The people have taken me under their wings, telling me where to go and not to go due to "too red-neck"...WHOA..  and they are teaching me how to talk.. My phrase for today is: "Is it any count ya reckon?" Which means: " do you think it is any good" .  I have also learned that they are big into church here. We say a prayer every day before we start work...

I called to get my cable TV and internet set up as soon as I got here but couldn't get an appointment until the 19th. due to the ice storms and all the techs being in Lexington fixing stuff. SO.. I have NO TV, not even local, and NO internet... Luckily, someone near me has an unprotected wireless router and I am able to hop on.. I have been having to watch TV from the internet and have been reading ALOT!! 

My mom is on her way here from Phoenix and she should arrive this weekend. I am sure that we will find stuff to keep us occupied, we always have the Wii...

Check back and I will keep ya up on all my adventures!!!

Christmas Letter 2008

Greetings all, the time is here: the end of another eventful year.

2008 has been so much fun.  Let me fill you in on some things I have done.

January found me in San Jose. I met some awesome friends there and boy did we play!!

From pint night at Rock Bottom to Sonoma to taste wine, we were always doing something, which suited me just fine.

I started playing golf although I must admit; it kinda makes me talk like a trucker a little bit!!

I went to Cabo in February foe some sand and sun, and drinking a $75 margarita guaranteed some fun!

Caught a 100-pound Marlin, that was a BLAST. I had it stuffed and shipped to the cabin at last.

Mom thought my life was such a fun ride, in March she rented her house for a year and is now by my side.

In July we decided to try something new; I didn’t have a job so there was only one thing to do..

We headed north to Boise to visit for a bit, I had to buy a trailer cuz we had way too much shit!!

From there we went up to Montana for I still didn’t have a job.. I was beginning to search for a bank to rob!!

A job came open in Phoenix in late July; I didn’t want to go cuz I knew I would fry.

But I had to take it cuz the funds were getting low. So to the face of the sun we would go!!

In August I went to Vegas and met my friends from San Jose. We partied like rock stars at night and chilled in our cabana by the pool all day.

Finally my assignment in Phoenix was done, now I am in Denver and am again having fun!!

I am working at Children’s Hospital taking care of all the little hearts. I look forward to my days before they even start.

I am here till February and then I don’t know… on to a new city I am sure I will go.

I hope healthy this finds you and those that are dear..

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!!

Love and Miss You!!!

Lexi

Let's give it a whirl...

So, I am going to try this blog thing. I am headed off to London, Kentucky.. population 5,000.. so I am sure I will have much to share here... As some of you know, I write a Christmas letter every year that sums up my year and I will try to post them on here as well. Hope ya like it!!!