Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Throw it on the fire...


Haha, best sign EVER. So I just got back from my trip to the middle of nowhere, NY; I had an awesome time! I went with my friend Emily to her grandparents' cabin this weekend, and it was pretty far removed from modern "civilization." The nearest small town with a convenience store was a 10 minute drive away, and the nearest Walmart was about 45 minutes away. No cell phone towers or anything of that sort, just a lot of nature. It took us around 7 hours to get there (possibly more because we sat in traffic for a ridiculous amount of time), but it was worth it. Also the names of some cities along the way were flipping awesome or just plain hilarious, such as Moosic, Lackawanna, Frackville, and Schenectady. I love Emily and her family, they're so entertaining! I got to meet her grandparents and some extended family members, I already knew her parents and younger sister.





We occupied ourselves by doing ridiculous things, like sticking Oreos to our foreheads and trying to work them into our mouths without using our hands, harmonizing to "Lean on Me" and bursting into song constantly, and just being generally loony. Hence the awesome sign! Yes, Emily's grandparents have that on their front porch, how great is that? The Oreo thing was hysterical, I had tears streaming down my face because I was laughing so much. Therefore I failed and the Oreo ended up on the floor instead of in my mouth... oh well. If you look closely at the picture up there you'll probably be able to see that I was crying.



I saw lot of wildlife there too, including a hummingbird, a pileated woodpecker, lots of frogs and toads, and a mother deer and her two fawns. I wish I had been able to get more pictures of them, but it always seemed like whenever I saw something, my camera was elsewhere. I did get some really nice pictures of the landscape though. Unfortunately I couldn't capture the beautiful night sky on camera as it was so dark, but I had never seen so many stars before.


The cabin was only a block or so (well, not your typical city block...) from a lake. On Sunday we all helped to build a huge bonfire on the shore of the lake for an event the locals call the "Ring of Fire" (no not the song). Everyone who lived around the lake built a fire, and all lit their fires at the same time. When you looked across the lake you could see everyone's fire burning, hence the name "Ring of Fire." We watched fireworks that some of the neighbors set off and sang songs around the fire. Emily took a video of me and three other people who were family friends singing "Green Grow the Rushes, Ho!" I had originally learned the song at the Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire a few years ago. It's only the last verse, and you can't see much because it is so dark, but I am there. Listen to how lovely the others' voices are! Mine is probably the worst of the bunch, heh. I uploaded this because it may be included in my R.E.M. comic in the future, considering they have a song called "Green Grow the Rushes" which has parallels (including the name) to this song. (If you are reading my blog you probably know that already, but just in case!)

And now I am, most unfortunately, back at school. Ah well, lovely weekend! Hopefully I will get to visit again soon.

1 comment:

dubious.blues said...

I'd like to see those fires. Sounds impressive.

Also, cool sign indeed!