India Ink

My New Crush

When I decided to join some work colleagues in Charleston for a performance of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, I thought I was going to hear a philharmonic from Russia. I dressed up nice and prepared for an evening of classical music.

I couldn't have been further off the mark! My first clue was that the audience walking in was in shorts and blue jeans, and tubs of popcorn were being sold in the lobby. The show was a crazy mixture of rock band, heavy metal, laser lights, pyrotechnics, opera, and storytelling.

The highlight of the evening for me? A bad-ass violinist named Roddy Chong.  Yeah I know, you don't usually hear bad-ass and violin in the same sentence (except, perhaps, for Nadja Salerno Sonnenberg, whom I also adore). But the guy was insanely cool:  playing his violin over his head, running across the stage, doing splits, dueling with the guitarists, hoppin' and stompin'. I am officially a Roddy Chong groupie; I want to follow him around from gig to gig and swim in his brand of crazy.

I wasn't close enough to get a good shot of him (a few of my photos below), but you can check him out on this video someone posted on YouTube:

Scarecrow Bunnies

Easter Bunnies, Charleston, West Virginia

All Things Chocolate

"There are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, and chocolate truffles."
[Author unknown]

I'm not much of a chocoholic, but apparently many people are. Looking for things to do in West Virginia this weekend, I stumbled on the West Virginia Chocolate Festival, held in the tiny town of Ripley, about 40 miles north of Charleston.

My favorite fudge: Key Lime Pie (Out of some 40 varieties)

Yum....?!  On the right is also poop-on-a-stick...

Chocolate Festival Royalty. 
Miss Chocolate Festival's pitch:  "I like mine dark and rich. And I'm not talking about the men..."

 Something for everyone...

 

Where:
Ripley, West Virginia

Terrapin Turtle

A terrapin turtle saunters through Kanawha State Forest, near Charleston, West Virginia.

I Left My Car In West Virginia

Nothing like a near-death experience to reignite one's blogging voice.

Want to experience a sickening feeling? Be barrelling down a narrow winding road on the hills of West Virginia, and have your brakes fail. Have cars directly behind you, and no shoulder to pull onto.

That was my adventure on a recent Sunday morning, en route to hiking in the Kanawha State Forest just outside of Charleston, West Virginia.

I managed to keep the car moving on the road for another 30 seconds or so while frantically looking for a place to pull over without crashing into anything. An empty lot on a slight incline allowed me to slow down and pull over.

Instead of my planned hike, I ended up riding with a AAA tow truck back into town, depositing my Toyota Corolla (which had just turned 100,000 miles on this trip) at a Toyota service center.

Getting towed by AAA

The $1800.00 repair estimate was going to be more than the car was worth, so I opted instead to donate it to Good News Mountaineer Garage. This nonprofit fixes up donated cars and gives them to low-income West Virginians who are taking part in work training programs.

Bye bye Cory (as in, Corolla), my faithful traveling companion for over 12 years....

2012: The Year of West Virginia

West Virginia State Capitol building, Charleston, WV

My latest work assignment will be taking me to Charleston, West Virginia, for the next year or so.  I'm especially looking forward to exploring its Appalachian heritage. Though I'm a little intimidated by the knowledge that the European Honey Bee and the timber rattler are the official insect and reptile, respectively, of West Virginia. Wonder if that means I'm not allowed to kill the little buggers, when they attack? (Being highly allergic, I have no doubt the honey bees will find me...)