I got some money cause I just got paid

Overcast Sunday morning here in Morgantown, my one day off in the week. Oh yes I'm a working girl now, Mon-Sat. Things are good. It was Brian's 28th birthday on Thursday, I made vegan, soy free, gluten free chocolate cupcakes like I did last year. Yummy. I think things like Birthdays make me and probably Brian too, realize how far from all y'all we are. Hmm.

We had our first visitor from the west coast!! Jonathan came out last week on his way moving to NY for school, he and Brian went to Seneca rocks to climb and he stayed for several nights. It was so nice to see a familiar face and visit with such a nice friend. On that note if anyone feels the urge to visit the east coast you have an open house to crash in, and I'll even throw in home cooked meals.

I got a full time job at the health food store called Mountain Peoples Co-op. It's a wonderful place and it's really little. There are only four people working there including the manager and assistant manager. Ha! I love it though and it's really great to work in an environment that I know much about and really support. So I guess we will be staying for a while after all, Brian got a position in the grad program, he starts this week. I admit part of me hoped that we would be unable to really work things out here and would be forced to move on (westward), but alas here we shall stay.

I think I'm going to sell the Karmann Ghia, I don't want to dump any more money into it, especially when I'm making 4 times less working here than I did at home.

The garden is a sad subject for me.... now that fungus got the cucumbers, zucchinis, sugar pie pumpkins, the eggplants are screwed up by flee beetles, the corn is really tall, but each stalk only created one cob, a rabbit ate the lettuce, the watermelons and cantaloupes shriveled for whatever reason, deer ate anything they could possibly reach, and I find this all disheartening. We did get lots of tomatoes and peppers though, and kale and chard. The onions fluked. Oh, one exciting thing we dug up our potatoes and made homemade french fries, and this morning I made my mama's potato pancakes!! My favorite.

I'm trying not to be homesick, but it's hard. I really want to go dancing, Ellington style, and I want to see my kitty Homer.... and my family and friends of course:)

Sorry if I'm being a downer.

A Garden Moment

Garden excitement! I just made fried green tomatoes! They were ridiculously good. We harvested our first corn, which were mostly yellow and white, but had a few pink or blue kernels inter mingled. We planted some heirloom colorful corn varieties as well as basic corn, and they cross pollinated a bit, making the cobs look beautimous! Dug up all the potatoes, I was expecting a much larger yield, but it's all good. We may try to make some gnocchi. We are still eating salsa every day, and have eggplants and peppers ripe for the picking.

Yesterday, we drove to Grafton to visit Uncle Joe and Cathy, they took us mushrooms hunting! Now we have a bunch of beautiful golden chanterelles in the fridge just aching to be cooked up. It was a fun adventure. I think Brian and I should open a restaurant, we both love to cook and seem to be good at it (a nice combo). Th.. th.. th.. that's all folks!

Hmmm... Things I like about Morgantown and areas in close vicinity.

1. Each house is unique, no developments and track housing. I've found that to be the case out here in the east. Homes are beautiful, actually thought out and designed by different people. No cookie cutter blocks! Everything is younger out west, and you can feel the age of towns here, pretty sweet.

2. Fireflies

3. For some reason (I can only imagine it's the good times of the college students), there is a plethora of shoes thrown over the telephone wires. It's all over town, and usually they come in clusters, you don't often find that lone pair of dirty old track shoes. Together with sneakers, boots, girly shoes, they hang from the wires like flocks of birds eyeing the streets below.

4. The weather, well... now I'm starting to wish it felt more like summer.

5. Downtown there is an old movie theater. It opened in 1924, designed for silent movies and vaudeville, re-designed in the 50's for Cinerama movies. Anyhow, movies are only $5.00 there, and once in a while they show a movie from my childhood, like E.T. or Back To The Future. It's just rad, I wish i could work there.

6. That my car insurance for a 6 month period is the same I paid in Cali for 1 month.

7. Streets here are like a giant maze. It seems that whomever settled here didn't really think about designing a city, they just started building wherever was convenient. The roads swirl around and bumble in and out of downtown, across the river and over hills. I like it, it's without rhyme or reason.

8. The beautiful little health food co-op called Mountain Peoples. There is a mural/collage out front that Brian and I helped make, and I might work there a few times a week.

9. OMG!!! People at the DMV, the post offices, and other similar businesses are so nice! And helpful! It's a breath of fresh air compared to the Santa Rosa DMV... dun dun dun.

10. My wonderful Uncle Joe lives 20 minutes away with Cathy and Moose(the greatest cat in the world, besides my Homer of course) and Beau and one other kitty I can't remember it's name. They have a beautiful piece of property with woods and a pond, and a little flying squirrel that is their friend.

Those are all nice things around here.

On another note Brian got the Karmann Ghia running!! I just got the plates, insurance and new tires, soon I will be on the road! Super exciting!

She just needs a real good cleaning, and a little extra TLC. This pic is of the day we brought her home. (She has no name yet, so I call her Chief for now, little BSG inside info)

Also, I got my motorcycle permit today, so now I can take off on the vespa whenever I want, but I'm taking it slow, to make sure I feel comfortable when I finally start going on the main roads. Woo! I know my pop isn't too thrilled.

The garden is doing pretty good, we are in an abundant tomato heaven, we've been eating the best homemade salsa I've ever had for the last week. Every day, we pick a big bowl of fresh heirloom tomatoes, an Anaheim pepper and fresh cilantro. Roast the pepper, mix it up with a little sea salt and garlic!! Wow! It's amazing!The Zucchini plants are all dead, and a fungus has attacked our sugar pie pumpkins... so I might cry, though we will at least get three off the plants. On a happy note, my poppies and cocks comb are blooming and amazing, once we get a new camera I'll take some more pictures. I don't think I'm going to mention why it is that neither of our cameras function anymore. For dinner tonight we steamed fresh little carrots and fresh beet greens with some purple potatoes we bought at the farmers market, yum!

So, I keep smiling and eating good food, and loving. I really feel the un-permanence of our situation here, we won't be here too long, I have no clue where we shall adventure next... maybe back to breath taking Sonoma County. I miss my peeps, and the ocean. Who knows what the universe will bestow upon us? It's all an infinite mystery, and that my dears, is what keeps me excitedly ticking. Love love love. I hope our paths cross again soon.

P.s WHy the font went blue on me, i'll never know.