Allison's Wonderland

Italy or Bust . . . Seriously. I’m doing it. I’m finally doing it. And maybe it will totally suck and be the worst decision of my life, or maybe it will be wonderful and be the best decision I have ever made. Either way, I’m going for it. What you may ask? Come November 1, 2011 I’m picking up my little Lynchburg butt and I’m heading to northern Italy. I have been diligently searching since July to find an Au Pair job overseas. It has proven itself to be a difficult search. One day I’d get my hopes up that something would really work out, then the next day my hopes were dashed on the rocks. It was kind of like a roller coaster. Excitement. Disappointment. Excitement. Disappointment. The whole process got to be extremely draining. I talked with two extremely potential families on Skype but the one that I wanted in Switzerland decided to go with someone else. I had emailed back and forth with numerous families and nothing seemed to come of it. Then Low and Behold Simona contacts me and BAM! I talked with her while I was down in Durham visiting Ernie and Lorrie and she was wonderful. We talked for an hour on Skype about random stuff and towards the end of the conversation she's like, "Well I'm cool with it if you are." I'm like okay let's do it! So that's that. We will be staying in Villanova in the spring and summer and Prato Nevoso in the winter where Simona is a ski instructor. Super excited! EEEK!! I'll be taking care of five year old Mattia and we're gonna be besties! He's going to teach me Italian and I'll teach him all the English I know! :) CAN'T WAIT!

Shaun and I hit up yet another concert...I only have one more to go and then it’s no more concerts...well, maybe there will be more concerts, but there will not be anymore "Year of the Concert". Not going to lie this year has proven itself to be a tad bit expensive in the way of live shows. It was worth it though...every cent I do believe. Anyway, I know I have said this before but one of the best parts about going to a concert is eating first, and eat we did. I messaged my roommate’s friend Ben on Facebook who is a Charlottesville food connoisseur. Well, maybe not all that, but he knows the area and supposedly he knows good food. He recommended a little hole in the wall called "Continental Divide". He said it doesn't even have a sign out front pointing people there. Those kinds of places are indeed my favorite.

So, we drive down to Cville after work with the address punched into the GPS. We wouldn't have seen the place otherwise. The only sign marking its whereabouts is a green neon sign that reads "Get In Here". This place is pretty small, and every table is full. Shaun and I got the last booth! Woot Woot! We get the Hummus as an appetizer which was just okay. I'm not a big hummus kind of person anyway, so it wasn't that big of a deal. But the main event was the Bison Meat loaf. This place is very southwestern hence the name, but it is so good. The Bison Meat Loaf came with these southwestern potatoes and these vegetables that were cooked to perfection. I really couldn't have asked for better. SOOO GOOD!! After our filling meal we headed to the downtown mall and went to the Jefferson to see Matt Kearney.We found some seats in the balcony for the opening band which were called “The League”. I liked them a lot. I've been impressed with most of the openers we've had. The worst opener I’ve heard this year definitely Lady Gaga. I'm glad I only heard like one of their songs because they were terrible. I don't even remember their name, but like I said...terrible. “The League” was good though and Shaun and I danced our butts off in the balcony like no one was watching...which someone was, but whatever...WE DO WHAT WE WANT!


During the break we went down to the main floor so I could get some better pics. That's where we met a girl and her Dad from Lynchburg. She's actually in the Physical Therapy program at LC which is what one of my besties is doing. It was just cool to meet people that have some common ground. He opened with “Count on Me” which I didn't know very well. He played "Fire and Rain" while we were down on the floor which is one of my all time favorites. After we had our fill of getting crowded, pushed around, and unable to see, we went to the third floor balcony. Where we danced again. :) So fun. This couple behind us was making out hard core, but we gave them a show too of our mad dancing skills. I got mad though because Matt got off stage and started walking through the crowd right where we were standing and started taking pictures with people. Coulda been there. Oh well, coulda, shoulda, woulda, it didn't happen. He ended with “Hey Mamma” which is a wonderful dance song! UGH so good! Bad ending to the night though. I went to the Merch table to pick up his latest CD and their credit card machine wasn't working. The girl ran my card like 3 times...so I went to the ATM. Checked my bank account today. Yep. Doubled charged, like I knew would happen. Rude. Whatevs...the concert was wonderful! Couldn't have asked for better! Till next month. :)

My friend Lindsay's Dad is a big time river guide. Howard Kirkland. Ever heard of him? Probably not, but it seems like everybody at Gauley Fest knew who he was. He's kinda pretty much awesome. He's 69 years old and goes down white water rivers like its his job. Lindsay invited us along to go to WV to raft the Lower Gauley and we were stoked. Like seriously.

After work Shaun and I (my trip buddy) get to Rainelle, WV. Who ever heard of Rainell, WV? It's one of the most terrible towns in the world. We see the Golden Arches when we've been looking for a Chik-fil-A the whole car ride. It seems that West Virginia doesn't have Chik-fil-A's. So we stop at McDonald's. The first personto greet us is this young blond chic who says to Shaun, "What does it say on your shirt? I can't read it." He's wearing the Liberty University "Champion" shirt that has the pronunciation on the bottom. And he's just like "oh, it just says Champion." And she says, "Oh. Weird." You have to of heard how this girl was talking because there was no emotion at all in her face and her lips hardly ever moved. Then i get up to order. I start talking and she just says staringly, "I like your voice." Not gonna lie I was a tad bit creeped out. Who says that? And weirdly too. I just said thank you and tried to move on. Then she says, "Do ya'll have like accents or something?" We didn't answer. I just finished ordering. After the weird run in with Mrs. Personality the cashier we sit down and start eating our food. This little chubby white lady comes up to us and asks us how we're doing while she wipes down the table. I reply with the standard,

"Good, how are you tonight? Are you about to get off or do you have a long night ahead?"
"Oh, I don't get off work till 10:30 tonight. And I'm just not doing good. Not doing good at all. Tried to kill myself last week. Took too many pills. I was in a coma for two days."

Okay! Hold the phone. A simple how are you turned into life story 101 about suicide. Yikes. I kicked Shaun under the table as hard as I could, well maybe not as hard as I could, but I wanted to get his attention. It was bizarre. I hold back a laugh and I can't look at him, because if I do...it's over. So I ask her why she tried to kill herself. I was curious. She replies, "My husband. He kicked me out. Burnt all my clothes. All my underwear. Everything." She starts talking about some other mistress and how her and her mother-in-law are going to take revenge. I start telling her that revenge is God's and not hers. She's just kinda lil nuts I've determined at this point. I ask her if she has any kids...her reply "Nope. Don't have no kids. That's a whole other story. My first husband tried to kill me in a car accident. Had a hysterectomy. Almost bled to death. No kids after that." She then tells me she doesn't have any friends and no one to talk too. How her mother worries and she can't use the phone cause her husband took that.



I ask if she can use McDonald's phone and she says she can't because where her mother lives in Pocahontas Count, WV is long distance. It was all just so incredibly weird. I didn't know how to react! Meanwhile, as I'm talking to this lady Shaun is over in the corner just watching everything unfold eating his Double Cheeseburger, while I'm left floundering! Nice friend. I finally get a word in to say we have to leave, and she goes on over to the other part of Mickey D's and starts wiping more tables. The whole time we were talking she must've wiped the same table at least 15 times. We get in the car and Shaun tells me he thinks everything she said was a lie. I just don't know. Maybe it was God...maybe this woman really was crazy. But Shaun's impression of her is absolutely perfect. Theresa her name was. All the locals in the restaurant were looking at us snickering to themselves and shaking their heads. Which makes me think that she was just a little crazy if not a lot. After our weird WV run in at McDonald's we make our way to Ray's Campsite where Lindsay and her Dad are no where to be found. Shaun and I are sitting in the dark thinking of what to do next. So we start putting the tent up by the light of my car headlights. Just for the record West Virginia has NO cell service. It's kind of awful to say the least. So Shaun finally gets ahold of Lindsay and fortunately we get to stay in a nice cabin and not in the tent that hasn't even been set up! I actually slept pretty good on the little bunk bed. Shaun, Lindsay, and I stayed up talking for awhile and then passed out!

Howard came in the cabin at 7:00 in the morning and made us get up. Oh terrible. Saturdays are for sleeping in and nothing more! We get all our stuff together and head out for the river with a pit stop at Shoney's for their amazing breakfast buffet. I kinda love it. It must be because its ingrained from my childhood. Met up with some people who are doing the Upper Gauley to give them their boat. The Upper is pretty much for the crazy people. The rapids up there are killer. Can I just comment on how many attractive men their were up there? Ooo...la..la...doggy. Some real lookers! Anyway, after dropping their boat off we go to our put in which is called Mudberry or something like that. Shaun was really nervous and it was kind of funny. We had to get in wet suits. Wet suits are the devil. They show every little chub curve and are murder to get on. But we made it. We had a quick lesson from Howard on safety and all that jazz, and then we hit the river. My favorite rapid was Mash. It's two huge class four rapids that are pretty much mashed together. We did really well though and Howard was proud. :) We got stuck on a rock in this little baby rapid and I got scared! I thought we were going to stay on it forever, but we weaseled our way off thanks to Howard's expertise.

We stopped for lunch on a this rock where our neighbor's were just sitting there smoking a dubie like it was no big thing. Paddlers. Whatever! Ha..My favorite part of the whole trip was the huge waves we got to ride. It was like a roller coaster. So fun! We did about 14 miles and were on the river for about 5 hours. Afterwards we were starving, tired, and wet. Met up with the rest of the paddlers who did the Upper. glad I didn't go with them because they flipped their raft twice. Yuck! The river wasn't too cold, but just the thought of going into that crazy water is little
scary. After a nice hot shower at Ray's Campground we went to "Pies and Pints" in Fayetteville. It was pretty good, but think I might prefer Rivermont Pizza over them. Afterwards we headed down to Gauley Festival which was in Summersville. Check out the vendors and danced to the live band. They were pretty good, but the lead female singer kept doing this weird like yodeling thing which wasn't cool. We danced like idiots and there was this guy running around in a purple suit with permanent marker written all over him. He was obviously drunk. But hilarious. We didn't get to bed till after 1:00 in the morning. Yuck.




The next day Shaun and I had to get back home. He had chores to do at his Dad's house which sucked because I wanted to stay and raft some more. We went to the New River Gorge bridge and got pins. We always have to get pins wherever we go. :) Its just what we do. On our way home I saw a sign for gas saying that it was only a dollar a gallon. So I had to take a picture. Can you imagine if it was still a dollar? I'd be able to fill up for 11 bucks! Ugh...where did the good ole days go? Anyway, we finished the weekend off with a burger and fries at The Cavalier. Perfect ending to a perfectly wonderful weekend.

Have you ever been in a hospital waiting room? You can be there for several reasons, many of them being negative. But when you're waiting for your first niece to be born it can be a little bit exciting and a lot of non-patience taking place. We're all sitting in the Durham Regional Hospital waiting room, waiting for Baby Brooks as we speak. Lorrie got here at 12:30 pm with contractions starting at 5:30 in the morning. I left work early at 1:30 pm along with sister and we headed down. Of course we had to stop at Cook Out Burger on the way. Whenever we come to Durham we just have to stop there. It's kinda tradition. Headed over to the hospital and said hi to Lorrie and Ernie. Got to watch the little contraction monitor go up and down. Lorrie just looked tired and ready to have the baby. I keep getting texts from the New York Family asking when she's coming, but it's now 09:07pm and nothing yet. We're all just chilling in the waiting room, waiting for this baby to come! Aaron texted at 08:04 and said that they were starting the pushing. UGH I just want her to be here!



Okay you know how said we were waiting on Baby Brooks? Well she's here!!! She got here at 9:25 in Durham, NC and they had to whisk her away to the Special Care Unit because she had a low APGAR score. She wasn't breathing great at all. We were all nervous and scared for the little gill but in the end she was alright and very healthy!....Ernie and Lorrie decided to name her Raeleigh Ruth (pronounced Ray-Lee). When I found her name out, I started crying because Ruth is my mother's name. She passed away in 2008 from breast cancer. It was an emmotional time for our family. I wish Mom was here to see her, because she would've loved her at first sight. If there was anything Mom loved it was babies. And her own grandbaby. Oh dear...she would've been in heaven. Well she is now, but you know what I mean. :). We stayed at the hospital till after midnight. Jeanne, Sista and I were able to go into the unit and see her. She's so tiny! 7 lbs. 13 ounces. She looks just like Aaron. You can see in the pics. I just loveh her. So excited to be an Aunt!!

Oops...I did it again. :) Another concert under my belt! WooHoo! I've been looking forward to this one for awhile. As you can tell, well maybe you can't by the title...I went and saw BRITTNEY SPEARS!! Shaun and I have been trying to get all the big ladies seen this summer (Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Beyonce' etc.) In order to continue our journey we HAD to get Brittney! We drove after work on Wednesday to Raleigh, NC to the RBC Center. On our way there we were going to stop at Cookout Burger but we took a different direction and couldn't find one around. So we had to take the alternative and stop at Chik-fil-A. It'll have to do. :) We got to RBC and found our seats. They were pretty good. I'm not going to lie, I did good this time. I even snuck my camera in! Woot Woot! There were these crazy old women who sat in front of us that were all in Easter egg colored wigs. They were really terrible and the one in the purple wig, who we called awful puyple, kept giving us dirty looks. Hate that! The beginning act was Paris and Desiree or something like that. They were bad. They were from the Disney Channel. Then Pauly D from the Jersey Shore did some DJing. I liked that a lot and danced a lot to it! Loved it! Shaun and I were fist pumping like CR8ZY!! Then Brittney came onto the scene and boy was it a scene! She opened with "Hold it Against Me". And it was good. There was one song though that she did called "Dropped Dead Beautiful" that had a bunch of naked men on the screen. Weirdest thing ever. I couldn't stop laughing. The song "Toxic" was this Samurai sword number and it was so cool. I also loved the Egyptian themed song she did. Her last song was "Keep On Dancing Till the World Ends" where she ended it with a curtain of like fiery stuff and confetti and she flew up with these wings. So Cool! At the end when we were leaving we blasted Britney Spears on the way out and then I got a picture with the gayest guy dressed in this weird plastic red outfit. Gross but hilarious as you can see! Almost done with the year of the concert. Once September gets here I'll be done, and it will be sad. :( Till next time!

08/07/2011
We woke up ridiculously early in order to get Taylor to the airport in time for her flight. 5:30. I don’t do 5:30 ya hear! But I did today. Yuck! After we dropped her off at Hobby airport in Houston we headed to Nawlins! I was so excited about this because I haven’t been to Nawlins or NOLA as it is also known as, since I was ten. So excited to be back.

We checked into our hotel located in the heart of the French Quarter called Hotel Monteleone. It’s one of the Historical Hotel Landmarks of America and it is beautiful. Supposedly there is over 30 ghosts that called this Hotel home. CRAZY! After we cleaned up we headed to the streets. We started our walk to the French Market and found Café Du Monde on the way. This place has amazing Beignets! We had our Beignets and water and they were amazing!!! After that we were on our hunt for Oysters Rockefellar because Jeanne was having a serious craving. So we walked to Hotel Roosevelt because that’s where her Dad said had the best. Well in the meantime we had a torrential downpour. YUCK! We tried to wait it out under the shelter of a random warehouse, but it was no use so we started booking it to Roosevelt. When we got there we talked to the Concierge who told us that their hotel restaurant doesn’t even serve Oysters Rockefellar and that their restaurant isn’t even open on Sundays. So we were stuck. But he told us another place we could go that supposedly had the best oysters.








So we run through the storm again this time armed with an umbrella to the trolley station. We took it down to the Hilton Riverside and after running through the rain and the thunder, and the lightning we finally made it to Drago’s in the Hilton. We were all soaked. Come to find out they didn’t even had Oyster Rockefellar. The concierge lied to us! Oh well. We weren’t going anywhere. We started our progressive dinner here and it was a good start. We got Creole oysters, and this amazing cheesy crab dip. After that we hopped on the trolley again and headed to this place called Felix’s. This was kind of a divey place. The atmosphere was kind of terrible but the food was good. Kelsey and I split Blackened alligator and turtle soup. Oh yummy yumkins. After our main course we headed to Brennan’s for dessert. Home of Bananas Foster. This place had all the atmosphere a person could want. It was fancy pancy. I didn’t know that it was the originator of Bananas Foster, otherwise I think I would’ve gotten that. But I still got to try it. Our waiter came to our table and made it right there. It flamed up super high when he mixed the banana mixture with the rum. I got Louisiana chocolate pecan pie which was super good too along with Bailey’s coffee that was $10 bucks. YIKES! That’s a little crazy high priced. Our dessert was super yummy.






We then went for a walk and bought souvenirs and pins before getting on our ghost tour. We met up with the tour at a Flanagan’s Pub which was a creepy weird pub in the French Quarter. We learned about the LaLaurie family which was the freakiest story we heard. This woman and her Doctor husband tortured and mangled their slaves in a room in their home. It was sick the way this woman described it. Yuckity Yuck! She said no one has owned this mansion for very long and she said those who do go a little nuts after owning it. Guess who owns it now? Nicholas Cage. If you haven’t noticed…he’s been going a little nuts lately. Weird! She told us another story about this butcher who chopped up his wife and served her to his customers in the 1800’s. SICK! In the middle of our tour there was a domestic violence dispute where a woman was choking a man on the street corner. So our tour guide had to call the cops. CREEPY! Anyway, it was a good tour and our tour guide went to school for theater. We chatted a bit. Went back to our hotel and once again showered. I had to wash the day off of me because I was so super gross. Off to home tomorrow! I’m kinda of super excited about going home. It feels like I’ve been gone for years!

08/05/2011

We woke up at 8 this morning and drove our little butts through Houston in order to get to the Johnson’s Space Center. I drove this time, because I was a little scared of Taylor’s driving last time. We almost died. Like seriously. It was bad! We finally got to the space center and got our little tickets. We first road the blue tram, which took us to the Houston Mission Control Center that controlled all the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Missions.


The mission control center was pretty cool and was exactly how it was in its hey day in the 60’s and 70’s. Afterwards we headed to the Star Theater and watched this movie that kinda made me sick about being an astronaut. The whole theater smelled like Mildew. Weird. It was really hot, but we wanted to go to the Astronaut training camp so we went onto Tram #2, The Red Tram. Kelsey and Taylor whined the whole time. Weiners. This place was cool. They had an entire replica of the International Space Station. They also had replicas of space shuttles and other things. I thought it was really cool. Afterwards we walked through the Starship Gallery where they had a bunch of replicas, moon rocks, and space shuttles that actually landed in the ocean. I really enjoyed the Johnson’s Space Center. It was history from a different era where men wore ties to work every day and they smoked cigarettes, pipes, and cigars in the office. People weren’t so concerned about their health, or anything else for that matter. Oh while we were there we also go to see Saturn V Space Rocket. It was HUGE! It never actually got off the ground. I can’t remember why, but it just didn’t. I liked this part of the tour as well.


After our JSC tour we headed to Kemah. Kemah is a little ocean town right on the Gulf of Mexico. This was my first time to the Mexican Gulf all though I have been to the Gulf while I was in Florida. So I guess you could say that I’ve been there before. We went and ate at Joe’s Crab Shack and they found out it was my birthday. What I didn’t know is that they make you do weird things on your birthday. I had to put too snow cone cups in my mouth, flap around like a pigeon with two six pack cardboard boxes. I looked and felt like an idiot for sure. But it was fun. After Joe’s Kels, Dad, Taylor, and I went to the Boardwalk and road The Bullet which was a rickety old wooden roller coaster. We had to coerce Taylor to get on because she wasn’t going to go, but she did.  We all felt sore afterward. Maybe not the best choice, but still it was fun. All and all it was a wonderful birthday! I couldn’t have asked for better!