My Past Week

Soooooooo, since it has taken me foreverrrrr to get my post done about what I did about my time in the Mountains I will give you two posts today! I have been super busy and trying to enjoy every last minute I have with my friends and family in the States. So, here is the first post:

Sorry about my long absence... I was enjoying the mountain air, doing nothing at all really, well, I was trying to get over a horrible bout of bronchitis which left me fairly unable to do much of anything. But, I am doing better now and can tell you what little I have been doing.

Monday, I went to the doctor in Boone to get some meds. Then to the devil store, aka Wal-Mart, to get my prescriptions filled. Holy cow does that store suck. I think it sucks your soul out as you sit there mind numb due to the horrible lighting and watch people push their bratty kids around the store. Then these people who are trying to teach manners to their kids are complete assholes to the store reps. And, as you might have guessed this, this goes full circle and the store people now suck and are not nice to anyone... it is amazing they don't run over the bratty kids with their giant motorized dolly-things! I would... but that is why I should not work with the general public.

Tuesday, Sam and I went to this great Thia place for lunch in Boone. It is called Cha Da Thai and got some really great cheese rolls, I know they don't sound Thai but they are great. Then we went to a video game store and Sam got the boys 3 or so games that they could all play together. Apparently that is what they do when not playing music. I tried to take a few pics to document band life there. Here is Will dying YET again at whatever it is where you shoot people and drive cars like a wild maniac...

Wednesday, Sam practiced a lot of music with the band. They are working on some new songs they are breaking out this weekend I think in Lynchburg. But they also worked on recording some of their songs to go on their webpages. You should totally check them out on facebook and myspace. My job was to drink wine and press the record button and make sure you could see all of them in the frame. I only had one colossal mistake and I am not going to put it on here... everything turned out alright in the end. My favorite song is Circles... it really gets stuck in my head. Except, I just remembered that the songs they actually used to put on their pages were recorded on Thursday evening... but they started trying Wednesday but the lighting was weird and bla bla bla.

(Will Smith: shirtless vocals/guitar on the left, Taylor Smith: shirtless bass on right,

Gary Addison: bandanna lead guitar and Sam: is in the green on the piano)

Thursday was a very nice day. We woke up and it was a little hazy and we thought it was going to another hot/humid day. And by hot I mean about 80-85 degrees... they have no AC so it was a little warm. I am not sure how much the Smith boys wore shirts, but it wasn't very often due to the lack of AC. But it turned out to be a beautiful day and we went to Grandfather Mountain. It was amazing! You could see for, literally, miles! Sam and I walked over the mile high bridge

and out to these rocks that jut out and you can see everything. You could stand on the edge of this mountain and look down to where you could fall for miles! It was exhilarating and breathtaking when you realized the magnitude of the mountain range and how far a person really can see when not impeded by mountains or trees or haze. Amazing.

We talked about doing the super hike to the very top of the mountain but you needed good hiking shoes (and of course I was wearing boat shoes) and have to be able to climb ladders and ropes and stuff. I did not think I was healthy enough to be able to do those things. Instead, we went down the mountain and looked at the lions, otters and bears (oh my!) in the little zoo they had on the mountain. Those mountain lions are freakin HUGE! Apparently their tails are the length of their whole body! I would much rather come across a bear then a lion!

Then we went on a "nature walk" to Grandmother Point. When I see "nature walk" I think it is going to be a nice simple trail with maybe some little rocks to step around and hills to climb but there were boulders you had to climb over, streams to walk over and constant rocks to navigate:

But, the walk 2ish mile HIKE turned out to be totally worth it... after you climbed THIS boulder:

You were rewarded with this great view and a helluva sense of accomplishment! It was pretty wonderful!

Then back to the band house for them to finally get some good recordings done (the ones that are actually on their websites). They had a great evening for it and it was nice to chill on the porch listening to good music, drinking good wine and watching the clouds roll over the mountains. Those boys really got a great place up there, they are very lucky.

Finally, Sam and I went to a romantic dinner at an Italian restaurant in Banner Elk called Sorrento's. The chef there is to quote Sam "a soup maestro." Everything we had was very fresh and wonderful, I would really recommend it to anyone who enjoys good food and a nice staff. Sam and I did spend the first several (maybe 20 minutes) how to say almondine... they had a trout almondine on the specials and we were both reading The Story of Edgar Sawtelle where one of the dogs was named Almondine, but other than that it was a lovely evening.

Friday, the band was supposed to get one the road bright and early to get to VA to play a show and of course took waaaay longer then planned to leave. We all headed out around 11 AM I suppose. I will miss those boys. It is always nice to hangout with some really chill guys who don't try to pretend to be anything different then they are. It is relaxing and they are all great to talk to, even though I don't talk that much and really didn't since I didn't have a voice for most of the week. You guys should try to keep up with their touring schedules and make it to some of their shows, it is always a good time. They plan to play in Lynchburg once a month and down in the Boone a bunch. Of course, you can always catch them at the Garlic Festival this year! Anyway, on the way out I had to wave goodbye to good ole Grandfather Mountain one last time... I guess I won't be back there until the whole place is covered in snow and looks VERY different!

Friday night my family went to dinner with Valerie's family as a sort of send off for the daughters. Val is moving to Colorado to be a DOCTOR!!! and her little sister is moving to San Fransico to go to circus art school. She does wild things like dangle from the ceiling doing flips on long ribbons and standing on her head for hours at a time. Once, she even taught us to twirl plats on little sticks! It was nice to get together with everyone, our families really get along and there is always lots of laughter and talking loudly and quickly. We went to the classic Thai Orchid where all of the staff knows Val's dad and my family orders out at least once a week!

OK, now I am off to write about my weekend thus far!!!