Here and There

Glad last week is over. It all started out at 5am eastern on tuesday. One would (and rightfully so) suspect my roomates and I to be sound asleep in our respective home away from homes. However, on this disastrous morn we could be found wandering through our abode, in search for some pungent and seemingly causeless smell. When i woke, I actually figured someone had burnt some onion while cooking. After finding out that this was certainly not the case, and the four of us playing around with every heater in the house, we decided to move on with our lives. After causing quite a stir in all of our classes that day, and the rest of the week, we had found the fickle cause of the smell.

This guy, minus the adorable features. After completing a ride on the trainer that evening, I found myself on the couch with a horrendous burning in my throat. It surely was just the skunk.

Alas, the following day it became evident that such a smell could not also be responsible for the severe cough and congestion that had festered overnight. In class, I was feverish, nauseous, and I smelled awful. The skunk was ruining my life slowly. I felt like I was reenacting a scene from seinfeld as I stormed out of Lowe's hardware, toting 16 dollars worth of simple green in bags (which is, truthfully, the only way to rid a house of "mountain musk"). Hoping for detoxification, I opened up all the doors in our house, and embraced the small cat. 5 hurricane produced by the 6 box fans raging in the living room. After an hour, we had hit our limit, unable to withstand the arctic chill of the crisp air:

The post indoor winter saw heavy showers of simple green, resulting in the most successful house cleaning yet. But gaining strength and moving in quickly was the sickness in my chest. A few of my teammates had had similar symptoms earlier in the week, and after much assurance that health and wellness was forecasted within four days, I hunkered down in bed, resisted the desire to exercise, and waited for the worst to pass. Friday had arrived, and recently departing were nausea and fever, so I looked happily to the weekend's task--

I was going to see my sister's ballet! After a 6 hour drive to Birmingham, AL, I was chillaxin' with the fam, as both my parents and even my Aunt Sue had travelled to watch the show as well. My dad had "William Shatner'd" the Hilton Hotel with priceline.com, so we were sleeping in style as well. Saturday involved quality time browsing the stores of Homewood (severe cough invited himself) with everyone before the big show.

The Student Choreography Workshop began at 730 and it was awesome! All the seniors in the dance program at Birmingham Southern College get to pick a piece, select fellow dancers, and choreograph as they choose. Some of my favorites were "The Red" (which my sister performed in), "Circle in the Middle Circle in the Middle" (a really trippy, modern piece), "Escala" (My sister's roomate's brain child--also a string tribute to led Zeppelin's "Cashmir"), and the only classical ballet piece in the performance, my sister's work! She and her friends are so good at what they do, it's wicked awesome! Too bad they don't let me take pictures in the auditorium . . .

Anyways, we celebrated in style with some good ole', down south gluttony at The Cheesecake Factory. Fun fact, we ran into a great Memphis friend of ours who attends Auburn. He and his friends just finished watching some motocross race downtown. They missed out.

Sunday was fun/sad, but its nice to finally be back in the mountains. I get so flustered in the humidity which accompanies sea-level regions. yuck. I also just found out today that I have bronchitis, so I get to spend 2 more days without training (8 total). I will be vegetating in my kings size bed for a while now. Nothing like gaining back the 6 pounds you lost in february through one week of bed-riddenness.

Carpe Diem, before you get skunked on and bronchitis-ed.

Sequel

As you can see, I have abandoned my blog. After my little stint in August, I figured there weren't enough people who would care to read my blog, and that in general, blogging was a kind of selfish, conceited thing. I also didn't seem to think that there were enough interesting things going on in my life, which is most likely true. However, in the past few weeks, I realized that I have a lot to say, and whether or not people want to read about it is their decision.

I guess I'm selfish now. Such is life. Or maybe my life is more interesting, you tell me.

Speaking of life, it has been markedly snowglobe-esque as of late. Banner Elk is in a record snowfall winter, with over 80 inches since October. Since the semester has started, I haven't seen grass in my yard. It sure is a pain when you get your car stuck twice a week (fact) and your board of trustees hands you 8 snow days in 3 weeks of class. But, damn, its pretty up here.

Accompanying the beauty of Beech Mountain is the Appalachian Literature class I've been taking this semester. I can't tell you how exciting this class is, as our professor, Dr. Michael Joslin, has been submersing us in dozens of writing excerpts from the 18th-19th centuries. The following are the words of James Kirke Paulding, as he describes his first dusk within view of the Appalachians: "Between us and the mountain was spread a wide landscape, shade softening into shade, with such imperceptible gradations, as blended the whole into an indescribable

harmony. Over all was spread that rich purple hue, which painters have often tried to imitate in vain. All that they have been able to do is, to put us in mind of it, and leave the rest to imagination . . . "

I have slowly been falling in love with this place, and as I continue to read about its first descriptions, I'm increasingly jealous of the frontiers who experienced its unindustrialized beauty.

That said, the next comments regard the Winter Olympics. I watched the olympics religiously over the past 2 weeks. Curling/hockey in the afternoon on the treadmill; NBC prime time coverage while riding the trainer/cooking/eating dinner. Its always great to watch Americans coming out on top, and I'm super stoked about how well we did. Nothing like living vicariously

through others.

It was also great to see the Canadians do so well. It was a bummer to lose to them in the men's hockey final but what a game. The story about their first gold medalist, Alex Bilodeau and his brother was certainly a tear jerker as well. Another one of my favorites was Petter Northug's insane comeback in the final leg of the 4x10km relay. The Norwegian is known for telling his competitors mid race that he is going to beat them, then he does it. I wish the Olympics lasted 3 weeks!

Well, there is plenty more to be said, but I certainly don't want to make this one too long. I hope you are all having a wonderful time.

Carpe Diem

Joseph

PS-Kristin, your turn.