Those Pesky Mountains: Employment, Fame, and Fatigue

Well it's happened again. I packed my junk in my Subaru (all the while creating an ad for a company called, inexplicably "Subaru Moving Service, Janney Speaking."), and drove to Whitesburg. I've done some work, consumed some fried food, gone to Open mic night, drafted some grant-related stuff, seen some friends. It's Friday evening and I feel like I got hit by a bus. Going from mono recovery, doing absolutely nothing mode, to working 9-5 and then attempting to exercise and socialize afterwards has been a rough transition. I'm just plumb tuckered out. But I'm in my PJs, I bought some orange juice and am ready to curl up with Thomas Wolfe's "Look Homeward Angel," and/or the movie Grease. As you can see, I'm not exactly up for a wild night of Kentucky craziness quite yet.

Work is going really well so far. I'm working for a group called STAY (Stay Together Appalachian Youth). We're trying to create a network of young people in Appalachia who are looking for economic and environmentally sustainable ways to live and work in the region. My wonderful co-worker and I spent the last two days working on a report for a grant we got last year, and working on a short application for a smaller grant (now that I'm working with grants and grant money, my perception of "smaller" has gotten distorted. $3,000 isn't shabby, but in the world of grants as I understand it, it feels like mere pocket change). I've been uncharacteristically productive, cranking this stuff out then working together with my co-worker to make everything tighter (I know I try not to use names, but this is unwieldy, so the person I've been calling "my co-worker" will now be referred to as "A"). "A" has a lot more experience and knows a lot more about the organization and issues than I do, but I think having another person there who is eager to get things done has helped a lot. Together we've done a lot of work this week. It feels good.

Also, I found out that a radio piece that I did about the National Radio Astronomy Observatory and Allegheny Mountain Radio is being featured in this week's Inside Appalachia, a radio program that is on NPR. It airs on West Virginia Public Radio on Saturdays at 6 am and Sundays at 6 pm, but you can hear the program online afterwards at http://www.wvpubcast.org/insideapp.aspx. I'm really excited about this and sort of want to tell everyone I know and did a little internal jumping up and down and probably spoke in a high-pitched voice a little bit when I found out.

I just wish I felt a little better physically. I've been feeling down and was worried that I was going to get really depressed, until I realized that it's probably just that my immune system is depressed, which is affecting my mood. It's good to know this, but I'm also sick and tired of being sick and tired. I'm not good at playing the invalid.

I also forgot how shy I can be when I'm feeling kind of crappy. Lately I've been fine one-on-one, but add another couple of people into the mix and I don't really have much to say. I blame the mono and hope that with a relaxing weekend and a lot of orange juice I can get back to normal.

Finally, lest you think that I have forgotten all about mountain-top removal, I share with you the following brochure. Sheer and utter stupidity I found this while doing research about the Eastern Kentucky Elk Herd. I was reading it in the office and started laughing really hard because I thought it was a joke. A informed me that it actually wasn't. Although it does read as excellent satire in my humble opinion. Future Jonathan Swifts take not. This brochure would be hilarious if people didn't actually believe this. Oh those pesky mountains.