Fireless Camping

A group of friends and I went camping at Umstead Park last weekend. Because North Carolina is under a state-wide fire ban, we couldn't have open flame. We were restricted to using only charcoal as well as covering the hot charcoal with aluminum foil. So no traditional s'mores sadly.

Friday night we cooked up a couple dutch oven cobblers: apple and cherry around the fireless fire-ring. Before that, we ran around the woods for a while playing capture the flag. It was pretty uneventful for a time because it really didn't seem like anyone was moving, then we had to stop about 3 times in order to reposition the flags. It finally ended with Christian climbing trees and stealing my team's flag while I sat helpless in jail.

For breakfast I made us a dutch oven breakfast of bacon, eggs, hashbrowns, and cheese. It took a while to cook because the charcoal doesn't heat up as much as a real fire. Good thing the planes flying over the park at all hours of the morning woke me up early enough to get started on it. Oh the joys of being able to camp five minutes from my house.

We made it absolutely clear that the boys and the girls were camping at separate camp sites. We even separated the sites with a "chastity rope". The boys had one small tent and all the rest slept outside in little Coleman cocoons. It was a toasty 40 degrees that night. The girls had two giant tents but somehow Mary still ended up sleeping on the table.

Me in six splendid bullet points:

I got tagged a while ago so I figure it's about time I come up with six tagable things about me:

1) I hate shoes. I know... how can any woman HATE shoes?!?! I feel so cramped and icky when I wear shoes. People in my office think I'm crazy when I show up to work in flip flops when it's 50 degrees outside. Is there snow? Alright then, bring on the sandals. I never feel in style enough with the shoes I do own and anything in style is clearly never made to be walked in. Also, I hate nylons. I'll add that to this one just for fun. I don't own any. I think they are of the devil. For these two reasons I could never be an attorney. Who was the last attorney you saw with sparkly flip flops and bare legs in a courtroom?

2) I want to live in a foreign country for at least two years at some point in my life, preferably with my children/family. I've always wanted to see the world but not as a tourist. I want my children to see a world beyond the United States. I love the US, don't get me wrong. I think acquiring appreciation for other people and cultures is a very valuable attribute that not enough Americans have.

3) I look horrible in the color pink. Which is fine by me because I hate the color anyway. People in the past have disagreed with me and proceded to dress me in something pink, then back off when they see it is true. I'm not sure if this hatred started as a result of my Tomboy-ness at a young age or when I got old enough to associate pink with giggly, lip-glossy girls, but nevertheless, I have yet to own pink clothing.

4) I fear being just like everyone else. I hate bandwagons or feeling like I'm blindly following a popular notion. I'm not trying to make myself into a human billboard of opposition and independence... I'm more just focused on the awareness that I do what I do because I made the decision all by myself. I started out my adolesent life feeling that the only way to be accepted was to be just like everyone else. I realized how annoying and boring that was about the time I got to college and thus sprung the Kelley 2000... a new, improved and slightly more tanned version avaliable as of 2007. (*I am aware that this statement is a contradiction since I'm writing on my blog-one of the more popular trends today. oh well, can't win them all*)

5) I have a mental list of sporting events to see in my lifetime. I won't name them all but the list includes: a Duke-Carolina basketball game, the Super Bowl, a baseball game at Wrigley Field, a futbol game in Europe. If anyone has any suggestions to add to my list, feel free to let me know.

6) I am, and always will be, a night owl. Though I guess I can't say "always" because that may very well change when a family starts. There's something about doing normal things late at night as opposed to during the day light that is much more interesting. Eating chocolate cake at 2 am is so much more exciting than at 8:00pm immediately following dinner. Or who can deny the midnight Wendy's run? In college (in the thriving metropolis of Rexburg) there were only about 40 stations on cable, and only about 2 of those played something other than informercials after midnight, that something other was often dating shows like "Blind Date" or "Elimidate". No self-respecting person would watch them during the normal hours of the day, but at midnight, much more acceptable. Plus, I just hate going to bed. Call me a 9 year old but I really do stay up for the sake of staying up.

So there's a little bit of me. If you want more, the expanded version will be avaliable for an additional $3.98 per blog page. A total of $14,635.32... I have a lot of thoughts and a lot of journals.

Now I get to "tag" others!! I hereby tag Erica, Lydia, Kristy, and Jessica. That means when yall read my post... you post 6(ish) interesting facts about you on your page. Yay!

NC State Fair 2007

This posting is a bit delayed because I had intended to add pictures of my wonderful experience at the fair but my camera and computer and me, as the third-party instigator, got into a fight and I lost the pictures. I have just now gotten over it and forgiven technology for losing my pictures.

Jericho had never been to the NC State Fair (!!) so I took a half day off of work and went on military appreciation day (because we got free admission thanks to Jericho's National Guard status). We, thankfully, didn't ride any rides but toured around all the exhibits and looked at all the freaky people. (Do they dress like that normally or does it all just come out for the fair???) Oh, and let's not forget the food! I had forgotten how food-focused the fair is. I ate the following artery-clogging items: Nathan's hotdog, NC State ice cream, Methodist church's famous ham biscuit, and a deep-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Yes, that's correct my friends, a deep-fried PB&J... doesn't get much better than that. Although hot peanut butter seems even stickier than normal. It was a tossup between the most yummy and most disgusting thing I've ever eaten.

Overall it was a fun trip. I was glad I got to take Jericho on his inaugural State Fair experience! This post would be sooo much better if I had actual pictures from my trip. Boo on that.

Kelley vs Halloween

Many of you that know me well are familiar with my aversion to Halloween. I didn't much like it as a kid, mainly b/c I was too self-conscious to draw attention to myself by wearing a costume. Now, as an adult, my main dislike is that it seems to be the only holiday that carries a negative connotation. Ever hear of a horror-movie-Valentine's Day-marathon? Haunted houses don't scare me, candy makes my tummy hurt, and I still look awkward in a costume.

But this year I finally realized that Fall is my favorite season. And with that, comes Halloween. I am therefore going to embark on a reconciliation with the Halloween holiday. I intend to find all the fun, good, happy things and make those my references and not the stupid media and it's demonic celebrations.

My first task is one that I wish to share with everyone. (This will come as no shock to my parents that I remember this). When I was in elementary school, Mrs. Benton, our music teacher, played us the same classical music piece every Halloween. I still remember very clearly having her turn out all the lights while we layed on the music room floor and she would explain to us exactly what was happening in the story that the music was telling. But of course, I couldn't remember the name of the song. I could still hear the music in my head so I figured I could eventually find it on the internet. And I did! This has remained one of my favorite Halloween memories to this day.

So this dear friends is the Danse Macabre (Dance of Death) by Camille Saint-Saens. It is based on a poem on a French superstition about Halloween.

Zig, zig, zig, Death in a cadence,
Striking with his heel a tomb,
Death at midnight plays a dance-tune,
Zig, zig, zig, on his violin.
The winter wind blows and the night is dark;
Moans are heard in the linden trees.
Through the gloom, white skeletons pass,
Running and leaping in their shrouds.
Zig, zig, zig, each one is frisking,
The bones of the dancers are heard to crack—
But hist! of a sudden they quit the round,
They push forward, they fly; the cock has crowed.

According to the ancient superstition, "Death" appears at midnight every year on Halloween. Death has the power to call forth the dead from their graves to dance for him while he plays his fiddle (represented by a solo violin with its E-string tuned to an E-flat in an example of scordatura tuning). His skeletons dance for him until the first break of dawn, when they must return to their graves until the next year.

"Kitty"

My parents don't have a blog yet so I decided I'd post this update. They now have a new addition to the family. Welcome new kitty! A name has not yet been decided so we welcome any suggestions. We're pretty sure it's a "she" but we might need to wait until confirmation from the vet before settling on a name. She is all white with three little black smudges on her forehead. She's sooo sweet and likes to hide behind and underneath stuff. I think my parents will have fun taking care of another youngin in the house. We're not sure yet how their older cat will respond to her. He's old and lazy now so he probably won't care.