My journal entries from the first days of my West Virginia trip. The tenses are all off. This is what happens when you write late at night when you're on vacation. I'm too lazy to fix it. Besides it's a good exampe of why you should never try to write seriously while on vacation. Vacation is about having fun and relaxing and not writing. Unless of course, it's a working vacation, then well, that's different. Some of it may seem repetitive.

More Day 1 - July 1
We rented a mini suv instead of a compact car. Thought that a chevy tracker would somehow look better on country roads than a Hyundai. For $3 more a day, it seemed a good bargain. I was bummed that we had virginia license plates instead of west virginia ones. Didn't want the locals to think we were tourists.

The people at the rental car place call Charleston "Charley-West", we think to distinguish it from the other Charleston in the Carolinas.

Day 2
My friend and I take a walk to see horses on someone's farm. It's along the country roads. This is my first real view of West Virginia. The road is windy and the hills are rolling. We feed the horses grass. How bucolic!

My friend's aunt was flying into the Greenbriar Airport and we go to meet her. It's raining on the way there. One of those emergency alert services message comes on. Only it's not a test; it was real. My friend and I had never heard a real emergency alert service message before. The message said there was a thunderstorm approaching with heavy rain and hail and to not be afraid to pullover. The message said to be alert until 2:30. We don't know if it's for 2:30 pm or 2:30 am. The car clock said 2 pm. We both looked at each other both saying we'd never heard a real emergency alert service message before. My friend tells me that we needed to count the seconds between the thunder noises because the number of seconds will tell us how many miles away the storm was. We stop and count and it's 10 seconds, but we still aren't sure if the storm is heading our way and if we were driving into it. We see other cars driving in the direction of the airport, so we decide to move on. The emergency alert services message comes on every 5 minutes.

We get to the airport and the plane we are waiting for is delayed. Finally the plane lands and my friend's aunt is okay. She didn't know why her plane was circling. Guess they don't tell the passengers what's really going on.

Later than night, we go to a brass concert at Carnegie Hall in Lewisburg. The concert is supposed to be outdoors but because of the rain, it's moved indoors. It's the event of the evening in town and many townspeople show up. Afterwards, we head over to a small bar call the Hobnob. They tell us it's the hippest bar in town, in Lewisburg West Virginia that is. Four old white guys play jazz in the front. They tell us the literati of the town hang out there. The bar is full of locals and young kids. There is even a table full of women wearing hats like in The Divine YaYa Sisterhood book. There are about 30 people in the bar and they tell us it's a swinging night there.

Day 3
Another walk this time on my friend's sister's property. She lives in a holler. From the air, it looks like a wedge shaped strip of land in the forest. We see deer, possums and the beaver pond that the pesky beavers made when they tried to flood the farm out. There's a barn on the property full of hay and another one where the cows come to escape the heat. My friend's sister rents her land out to a farmer for his cows to graze. My friend thinks she sees a snake. She calls me over to look but I told her I didn't need to see a snake. We pick green apples to take to the horses. The horses love the small green apples.

Next, we drive to my friend's mother and stepdad's property which is beside Droop Mountain. They live up on the next mountain over. The farm is a 150 acre parcel of land. It's beautiful up there and they live in a two bedroom house that they built themselves. We walk around and talk and eat dinner. My friend and her family talk about old times. I think about the joy of my not so close dysfunctional family.

Day 4
It's the Fourth of July and we're invited to my friend's sister's boyfriend's cousins' house in another small town called Renick for a holiday lunch. He says he's obtained bikes for us so we can bike along the Greenbriar trail and then go swimming in the river. The Greenbriar trail is 76 miles. We bike about three miles and then swim in a muddy murky river. We see lightning on the ridge in front of us and we worry about the lightning hitting the water, so we head back.

At the picnic, we have home made bread and butter pickles which are divine and authentic west virginia barbecue pork. We also have two different kinds of potato salad and a baked bean dish. The meals is a very authentic West Virginia type of meal. Since I don't normally eat this kind of food, I eat way too much and ended up sitting in a chair on the lawn outside bloated from my gorging. Everyone else seems to have done the same, so I'm not embarrassed.

We hear the Shrub is in West Virginia that day giving a speech in some town called Ripley. We speculate that maybe he came here in case the terrorists bomb DC. There's a former bunker nearby. Maybe he wanted to be close to the bunker. The whole point of our trip was to be somewhere safe where the terrorists wouldn't dream of bombing and the Shrubmeister comes here. So much for planning.

To see fireworks we drive to the Greenbriar Resort. The local people park their cars along the road and invade the golf course. The Greenbriar resort security patrol is there so the riffraff like us don't get too close to the hotel. My friend and I settle on a spot, which turns out is directly in front of the fireworks launcher. We're also close enough to the hotel to hear the music they're playing and the sound of people clapping. The fireworks show, surprisingly, lasts half an hour. The Greenbriar must have lots of money. Some of the fireworks are like strobe lights and we're definitely too close because we have to shield our eyes. We're so close that we can see the dud fireworks that don't go off and crash to the ground instead. The local townspeople are there with their coolers and lawnchairs. Children run around the perfectly manicured golf course while the security patrol looks on.

Day 5
Rest day. Our hostess made us a typical West Virginia breakfast. I had cheesey corn grits for the first time. It tastes like cream of wheat only grainier. We also had the totally fatty bacon that people in San Francisco would never dare admit they eat and crave and homemade fresh out of the oven biscuits. Our hostess is known for her baked products. We sit around and laze in the West Virginia sunshine, since the storm has since disappeared.

Later, we go to a party in Lewisburg that our hostess is invited to. The party is at a country type mansion and it's obvious that the people there have alot of money, since there's a brand spanking new grand piano in one of the living rooms. The people pretty much look like they could live in California and are at some hot summer party out in the suburbs, that is until they open their mouth and speak to you. California we are definitely not in.

Since we have a 45 minute windy road drive back home, I decide not to drink. The drive normally makes me a little nauseous with all its twists and turns and I could see myself having to hurl my cookies if I drank too much. Besides the weather is very muggy now and it's just too hot to drink.

On my afternoon walk I started making a list of the crazy things I've been doing for love since February.

1) I started a collection of pinot noir wine because I found out it's hottie boy's favourite wine. Now that I am seriously out of love and don't drink that much wine anyway because my accupuncturist said I'm allergic to red wine, what am I supposed to do with all this wine. Pinot noir isn't cheap either.

2) I bought books by one of his favorite authors, Michael Chabon. This decision I don't regret.

3) I watched the movie "Wonderboys" because he said it's one of his favorite movies and totally hated it. Maybe the book will be better. This episode reminds of going to a restaurant on a friend's recommendation and hating it and then wondering the whole time while you're eating the bad tasting food, whether you need to contintue your friendship with someone who can't tell good food from bad.

4) I watched "The Legend of Bagger Vance" because we got into an argument about it and actually totally loved this movie and even got a wild thought in my head the hottie marina boy was really my Krishna, my guru in disguise. NOT!

5) I fantasized about all the fights we would have, because he's a bit of a slacker and a flirt, and I got right away that these traits of his would drive me off the deep end. I sympathized with his other aquarian girlfriend, the one who he says "ripped his heart out", thinking that if I were her, I'd probably boot his butt out of my life too.

6) I created a database on my palm pilot to track good wines, especially pinot noirs. Never mind that the only time I drink wine is when I'm at a party or at a restaurant and I never drink wine at home anymore ever. This is okay I think, because now I can refer to my list when I go shopping for wine presents.

7) Thinking I was so in love with someone without really getting to know them, just because well, they're as cute as heck! I mean, movie star cute, not rock star cute like the hottie man in the Witchblade episode, but totally movie star cute. Think Charlie Sheen with beautiful blue eyes. And he does yoga too! But I don't know him and somehow while I was in the mountains of West Virginia where people live simply and do things like falling in love for what seems like more practical reasons, like my hostess who is now dating a guy she's known for 20 years, being in major crush with a guy I barely know, did not seem like a good thing.

Maybe that's what vacations are for; to clear your mind of the junk and nonsense of your life. Anyway, screenwriting marina hottie boy was at the end, what I thought he was, a distraction to my writing. And I don't need his kind of distraction in my life right now. Not if it's not going to contribute to my writing career.

It's not that I don't count him out, and don't secretly fantasize that someday we'll get together, but I'm not worried about it now. Besides if I do really well in my writing and publish and have my Andy Warhol "five minutes of fame", who knows what beautiful men I might meet. I read somewhere that a good question to ask yourself about a guy is "if you could have anything you wanted in life, would you still want the guy?" It's not that I wouldn't want screenwriting marina hottie boy, it's just that I don't him well enough to make an informed choice. I don't think I can be very much in love if I'm not informed. It's a sad but true fact.

It's weird to be back at work after two weeks of vacation. The traffic on 19th Ave and South 280 was slow as usual. My office looked the same and when I asked the receptionist if anything had happened while I was away, she said "nothing important".

I didn't listen to my usual radio shows while on vacation, so it's kind of odd to hear Jim Rome ranting about something like he's doing now. Somehow The Jungle and vacation in West Virginia weren't very compatible. The house I was staying at was so far away that I couldn't get good radio reception anyway. And the time zone thing threw me off since the two national radio shows I listen to are West Coast based and instead of listening to them at my regular time, I had to wait three hours.

I did the usual office thing and distributed gifts to the few choice people in my office, the receptionist since my office is near that area and the only other person in my group. Thank god there's only two of us and I didn't have to worry about buying a whole bunch of stuff. Then there's the present for "the kitchen", which is usually food. You put the food in the kitchen and magically it disappears. Who eats is is unknown, but in any office news of food in the kitchen travels fast.

For my kitchen gift, I bought some fudge made in West Viriginia and since I didn't buy any for myself, I had to eat a piece. It was very good. Authentic too since I bought some homemade fudge at John Henry Days in Talcott, West Virginia on Saturday July 13.

I stepped on the scale this morning and I gained the four pounds I lost in June, so now I have to go back on my strict eating plan to get back to the weight I was when I left. I'm also doing alot of cleansing remedies since I did nothing but chow on pork in all its glorious forms in West Virginia. From fatty tasty bacon, to pork sausage, sugar cured ham, countless numbers of shredded barbeque pork sandwiches, pork everything actually. Our hostess is also a fabulous baker and so of course we sampled all her cakes, corn pone, biscuits, and her homemade truffles.

I was so off my new kosher/levital diet, but I rationalized it by telling myself I was on vacation and it's not like I eat food like this all the time, if hardly ever. I think I'm going off meat until August just to get the pork and pork fat out of my already clogged arteries.

I drank my usual lemonade cleansing drink yesterday and had the worst headache. It freaked me out. Did I really eat that many toxins while on vacation? But it's so much fun to eat like a pig on vacation! It's like a free pass into the world of food and I never stick to my strict eating plan while far away from home. It's way too hard! I'm not a food nazi either and I don't ever want to force my weird way of eating on anyone, except my next husband. I'm hoping I marry a food freak like myself so I don't feel so strange about my odd food habits or guilty either.

At least it's warm where my office is. Our last few days in West Virginia were drizzly and raining and quite cold. Where the usual summer vacation weather is, god only knows. It wasn't in West Virginia. There were quite a few very muggy days, but not as many as I was told I should have had. Oh well. I hate muggy hot weather anyway. Maybe I brought the cold foggy weather from SF with me.

A two week vacation is great. It's just weird to be back in one's normal life when it's over.

I watched Witchblade tonight and OH MY GOD, there was the cutest looking guy on the show. He's supposed to be Cartaphilus, the Wandering Jew, who Christ condemned on his way to Golgatha. Man, the actor they picked to play him was soooo cute. I wonder if every woman watching the show thought the same thing. He was beautiful like the beautiful elf man in The Lord of the Rings. He was like the love god himself Jim Morrison from the Doors only modern.

And of course, he was the bad guy, a demon, who killed and maimed without a conscience. But still, god was he cute. I taped the episode and had to watch it again because Mr. Demon was so darn handsome. It just reinforces my theory that the bad boys for me are often the major hotties in my life.

And it was love at first sight, like how every girl fantasizes, meeting some guy in some weird place like at a restaurant bathroom, and you both stand there and stare into each others' eyes, where you're half expecting the earth to move. Then of course, they make Mr. Demon, such a guy-guy and he drives a motorcycle, but he's into art and he puts the seat down in the toilet. Now if the guy did yoga, he'd be a dream come true.

I don't believe in first love myself, but it's my total fantasy that I meet a guy at some weird place and we stare into each other eyes and the next thing you know, you're married. I thought I had a love at first sight experience in February in my screenwriting class with my beautiful marina hottie boy, but the only eyes that were sparking were mine. His were turned away and surveying all the available chicks in the room, not including me. Ah well. He was a beautiful man and there's nothing like have a pretty boy in your class that you can stare at if class is boring. So he was good at least for that.

I have no idea why I thought this particular actor playing demon boy was so attractive either. But god, he sure was and he also had a great voice. His character was also plain speaking which I liked. When the witchblade chick told demon boy she had fallen in love with him, he replied that he had fallen in love with her too. God, what a totaly fantasy! An honest man. The only guy who ever admitted to me what he really felt was Brian and I think that confession came not of his own volition, but out of a need to explain our relationship, which of course was incredibly unexplainable. When the witchblade chick said to Mr Demon guy that she'll never get used to watching him leave, he turns around and says, you won't have to, ever. Well the guy has been wandering around since the days of Christ, so you'd think he'd have picked up a few tips on what to say to a woman to make her happy and how to treat a woman. He's practiced, that's all.

Then of course to complete the total chick fantasy, Mr. Demon says at the end when he's dying that the witchblade chick is the only woman he's ever loved. Nothing like a guy dying in your arms and saying you're the only he's ever loved, which of course is true because now the guy is dead. How convenient.

Mr Demon guy reminded me of Anne Rice's The Mummy. Of course, you'd want a guy who's been wandering around this earth for centuries. Think of how many sex tricks the guy knows and how many positions. I'm bad, I know.

I wish I could fall in love at first sight but I never have. I don't know if it's because I don't believe in it or it's just never happened. I've never met a guy who had eyes I wanted to stare in for a very long period of time. Except there was this one guy at some outlet store near Jackson Square park a very long time ago. I couldn't take my eyes off him and he couldn't take his eyes off of me. I ran out of the store blushing and embarrassed about doing that, but I had the distinct feeling that the guy might have "the one" and I passed it up. But then again I was married at the time and it didn't make sense that there could be two "the ones" and I wasn't willing to think that maybe I had married someone who wasn't "the one." That would have been way to depressing. And I never ran into him again and I put the whole episdoe down to me salivating over some beautiful man in a store.