Finally got and got a chance to edit the video from rafting way back when in October. I'm the small one in the back in pink (at least, for the first part of the video I am) :-(

it may take a bit of time before it will start to play.

And here's a pic of us too!

Posted by valry at 11:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

White Water Rafting on the Upper Gauley River in West Virginia.
October 11-14 2007

Thursday

How many Emilys?
Despite being vallate, I arrived at the yK residence and JoeJoe was not there :) He had arrived earlier but when MattyK was late at arriving at HIS OWN HOUSE, Joe went to get food. Hilarity ensued I'm sure. We then split up into cars and I sat with JoeJoe while he hit on me the whole time, and then tried to search out Plecki's place (Joe knew the street started with an "M"...unfortunately there were about five "M" streets in a row to the one we (luckily) determined was hers). Then I switched to MattyK's car with Emily (human), Emily (electronic), and heated seats and it was off to Indiana...




Shut up and go to sleep
After a couple of wonderful hours in the car (Emily and I totally made that car unboring) we stopped over at the Super 8 (it may not have been a Super 8, I don't remember). While the other room was trying to sleep we instead watched America's Funniest Home Videos (and Sid refused to give me the remote!) watching people get wondrously injured :) and ate my s'mores bars (haha, sucker other room!) I broke the sink. Sid did not brush his teeth in the shower. The other room wanted to sleep or something so they pounded on our wall a bit. ohwellz.








Friday

300 horsepower!
Woke up, shower, change, pack...I spread the s'mores love to the other room and found out that Alina was determined for her room to be finished before ours...so I rushed right back and everyone was all ready to go! Who'd have thunk that a room with Sid would be done first :) (It was all MK holding up the other room by trying to be all clean and stuff by showering...but I guess that's good because I was then stuck next to him the rest of the way...)

We stopped at breakfast and everyone got sausage biscuits except for JoeJoe, who got an ice cream cone. And then it was time to hit the road! MK says that his car has "300 horsepower" way too much. Waaay too much. So Emily and I decided that we would make that the word of the day, so every time Matt said it we screamed Pee-Wee style. It was kind of awesome. Our car was super awesome on the trip because it had the three most superawesome people there (by that I of course mean me, humanEmily and electronicEmily) :)




Winding Down
Finally about 50 billion hours later we made it to West Virginia!

Here electronicEmily failed us by not going the way JoeJoe thought we should ( ;-) ) and then disappearing when she determined we were no longer on any road at all. Joe apparently got a speeding ticket, although I didn't hear about that until muchmuch later. We saw deer (but MK managed not to kill it) and confederate flags.




Cabin Fever
We finally made it to our cabin at Major Harding's Abode in the Carnifax Ferry Cottages.

The place was damn sweet! It had a kitchen, fireplace, three bathrooms, hot tub... Unfortunately I didn't get a bedroom or a bed and had to sleep on the couch :(




Trailing Behind
After getting most everything settled we decided to do a bit of hiking. So we hit the trails! Hiking is my favorite part of camping (even though we weren't actually camping) because it's just so calm and peaceful...except when you realize that everyone else is so far ahead of you that you can no longer see them or hear them...oops.

Coming out of the woods we realized that we were actually pretty close to the cabin, so some of us walked (or ran to definitely try to beat the others) back while the rest got the cars. I made it almost to the cabin before the cars got there so I decided to walk in the middle of the road as slowly as possible :) Yeah, I'm a jerk like that :)




Hot Tubbing
Then it was time to hit the hot tub! With a glass of wine...or five...we soaked away while some of the boys prepped the grill and the fire for the hot dogs and burgers. Yum.

Jen gave me her fiancé, so now I am engaged to Andrew instead of JoeJoe, but I can still have him on the side.

After soaking...and drinking...and drinking...and me being one of the very few who went to go appreciate Joejoe's fire and eat a s'more (yum) it was about time to call it a night, so I curled up on my little couch and went to sleep till morning.








Saturday

Rolling on the River
Rafting was totally awesome! OK, so maybe it didn't start out that way (or really *end* that way)...but it was still totally awesome!

Like always I started out as the crybaby scaredy cat that I am and started having one of my panic attacks that resulted in me crying, Sid having to hold me for a while, my guide wanting me to be put back on the bus, and the main guide (who was the guide for the rest of the group) having to come check up on me...

Of course, once we actually got out there I was pretty much fine...and did I mention that it was totally awesome!?!? We did five class fives and a bunch of other littler ones. The weather was actually decent, in the sixties and the water wasn't too cold. I still bundled up in a wetsuit and polyester sweatshirt though. The dude at the rafting place tried to find me a pink wetsuit to match everything else I was wearing, but he was not successful :( For lunch we had actual grilled food (no sammiches this year!) By lunch I really had to pee but had on so many layers that I would have had to take off to be completely naked while doing so, so I decided to just hold it. You didn't need to read that.

Towards the end of the ride we came to "Fuzzy Box of Kittens" which was the name for a particular rapid where guides are known to pull crazy shit to try to tip the raft over...yeah, so he totally had the raft completely on its side so that I went flying (he later said "I've never had anyone fall out then from the LEFT side of the boat before!) and taking Sid with me (Sid later said that he had no idea how he fell out since he felt pretty secure...oops!) The scariest moment of my life then occurred when I tried to come to the surface but found that I was trapped under water under the raft. I tried feeling my way out but it seemed like it was forever (in retrospect I am pretty sure that I was going the length of the boat for the most part instead of the width...) It didn't help that I think I was reading those damn brail instructions backwards. When I finally came out I could hardly breathe because I never really learned to swim and therefore never really learned how to properly hold your breath under water without sucking in a ton of water.

And yes, my adoring public, there IS A VIDEO of this particular rapid...that will be posted in the coming weeks...

After that ordeal, rafting was pretty much over...just a little float towards the end.

And then it was all over (I'm doing my sad face. I'm making my sad sound)




Winding Down
After rafting we chillaxed at the rafting place for a bit, dried off, grabbed some popcorn, and watched the video of what we just went through.

Then it was back to the cabin for a quick nap, girl talk in the hot tub (me: I used to date a guy named Matt, he was a total douchebag / MK - pointing at Hood: haha, she's talking about YOU!) and jugs of wine :-) We prepped up some kabob and threw that on the grill, I star gazed a bit, and ate up (p.s. Matt and Matt do not eat straight from the skewer straight from the fire).

Then I made some hot chocolate, the boys lit up a fire in the fireplace, and we played some UNO and watched cartoons. After that everyone pretty much called it a night and I tried not to wake Emily as I washed all the dishes and then woke up JoeJoe as I realized the fire was still going and I had no idea if I was supposed to do anything. Joe doused it with some cups of water and then gave me a fire extinguisher to sleep with. And I did.








Sunday

Goodbye
Sunday we woke up early, cleaned, finished off whatever food we could, packed up the cars and left our cabin :(

We took a pit stop at the New River lookout point to see the big ole Bridge (check your state quarters if you want to see it) and the New River (p.s. the whole rafting trip the guide kept comparing the rapids to what was on the news. I kept thinking what kind of rapids do you see on the news? It was at about this point in the trip that I finally realized that he had been saying the New and referring to this river, which was what we rafted last year. Yeah, I'm slow like that). We played around for a bit, snapping pictures of the bridge, snapping pictures of the river, snapping pictures of each other snapping pictures, then decided to hit the road.

The Road Home
Emily and I jumped in the coolest 300 horsepower car around and took off.

We stopped at Steak and Shake for lunch.

We listened to a lot of songs that had "road" or "driving" in the title.

We listened to some Dane Cook, but then he ran out :(

While Emily slept I made conversation with MattyK to find out the important stuff I wanted to know about him...such as:
He would rather have a heart transplant than a hair transplant.
He would rather eat a dog than a cat.
He would rather drive a gigantic motor on a unicycle than the Cadillac.
He would rather belong to AAA than to AA
He would in fact drive a Kia and only a Kia for the rest of his life if it meant he would be able to have sex.
and other such things of that nature. He refused to ask me anything though and told me my questions are frivolous :( and then I recorded a ringtone for him of me doing my sad noise :)








Homecoming
At the gas station we split into different cars and Isla drove me the rest of the way.

I told Hood to make sure he took Isla through the traffic circle on the way out because last time she screamed and got off at the wrong street...twice.

I finally looked in a mirror Sunday night and realized that I didn't just have a cut on my lip like it felt...rather it was kind of swollen.

My mom's first and only question: "You didn't get wet, did you?"








***PICTURES HERE!!!***

Posted by valry at 10:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sometimes you learn things about your friends...

1. Sometimes your friends can sum you up better than you ever could yourself...
Me: Did you get my message that I might be late?
Joe: Yeah, but you're Val so I figured that just meant you wouldn't be early

2. Sometimes you really find the people who you don't necessarily think of as your closest friends turn out to be the ones who seem to care about you the most, while the ones you think of as being better friends don't seem to be. This can make you feel both absolutely amazing and absolutely shitty.

***

A couple of pics to tide Hood over...

Full recap and pics from the rafting adventure hopefully tomorrow...I have three cameras to go through, including a yet-to-be-developed waterproof disposable. :)

Posted by valry at 8:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)

Where in the world is Valerie Bromann?
a. White Water Rafting in West Virginia.
b. Drowning.
c. Chillaxing in a cabin.
d. Freezing her ass off
e. all of the above

answer: most likely e. all of the above.

Posted by valry at 4:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am back, and I am alive!

The rafting trip started out Wednesday by driving to Cincinnati where we played the alphabet game (I lost), read bridal magazines (I discovered I am not the only one with a folder full of ideas), and stopped for some horrendous Skyline Chili. Then we checked ourselves into a cheap motel and spent the night there before driving the rest of the way in the morning.

Thursday morning we woke up early and drove to a Meijer to meet Justin and April and gather food. Then it was off to the campsite to set up and prepare said food and played with the ax.

The site was pretty nice and it had real bathrooms (unlike the one in Wisconsin I went to the last time, 5 years ago, yuck). We set up camp then went off for a hike. I really loved just walking through the woods. It is so beautiful. We went up to a high top that wasn't too scary to look out over and we went through a cave and walked some more. On our way out we went to play on the rocks in the river. I decided to take my shoes off and walk through barefoot, which resulted in my falling on my ass. Then since my jeans were wet I just decided to tromp around some more and get completely soaked. Yay.

Back at the campsite we cooked up some kabobs and smores and called it a night cramped up in a tent.

The next morning was rafting day! So, yeah. Rafting kind of scared me to death. I went once five years ago and have never returned to the rafting trip because it scared me so much. So, I woke up and got ready and got to the place OK. But then I spent most of the morning before we left crying. It didn't help that the friend of mine who said that he'd stay with me ditched me for the other raft. :( Alina came and talked to me and helped me through it though and when we got there she warned Justin to make sure the guide didn't scare me too much.

We had 9 people for an 8 person raft so he asked for a volunteer to sit in the middle and asked if anyone was scared. My hand shot up and I got to spend most of the trip sitting in the middle and not having to row and being able to hold on for dear life. We went through a couple small rapids which resulted in big screams for me. I decided the classes should be based not on difficulty or dangerousness but on how many screams it got from me. More rafting, watching people jump from big rocks, and swimming (they were surprised that I'd get out and swim just fine, but its not the water I am scared of, it's the being propelled from a boat without warning and then dying that I am scared of).

After a few more rapids my "Ahhh!"s actually turned into "Woo!"s and I was really starting to have a great time and enjoy it. There were two times where our guide Zach A. let us get out and swim the rapids where they pull you along and kind of suck you under a bit. I actually got out for them and he said he was really proud of me and he personally helped me back into the raft. (OK, so it didn't hurt that he was pretty damn cute and had a Southern accent and I am a sucker for anyone with an accent).

That last swim one was cool but I coughed up a lung afterwards from being pulled under so much and inhaling water. Ah well, it was a ton of fun.

Near the end of the trip we were coming upon our last big rapids of the day. Right before we approach them Zach says "Wait! Val, go up to the front and lean over the raft while we go through." And yeah, so I do. I crawl up to the very front of the boat and lean over a la Titanic (well, I am still clutching for my life though) and get to experience the rapids full force. I just get blasted with water and it was the most amazing feeling of my life. Awesome.

For the last 2 little rapids of the day I switch with Justin and paddle through them. Yayme! So, I went from being totally scared out of my mind to having one of the best moments ever of my life. And I had a blast!

Later we cooked up some hot dogs and hamburgers and smores and Glen and Jen recounted the story of their engagement for all to hear (yaythem!). We were going to go on a night hike but then it started raining and then started raining really hard. We went to the tents and everyone in my tent but me and MattyK went to go sleep in the cars so I was forced out of that tent into a cramped one with everyone else where somehow in the middle of the night I managed to move myself from sleeping parallel to everyone to sleeping at the foot of Amy and Aaron's feet where he claims I was massaging them (I claim I was trying to find my pillow and figure out where I was).

The next morning it was back in the cars for a 12 hour drive home that I slept most of the way through.

Totally an amazing trip! Seriously, I think I need to quit my job every summer.

More pics here!

Posted by valry at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Where am I now? West Virginia!
I'm out Whitewater Rafting here on the New River.
Eep! I hope I don't die. That would kind of suck. I'll be back Saturday and will soon after be posting Europe pics and rafting pics. I know all two of my readers must be getting anxious. :)

While I'm at it, here's a Best Summer Ever update:

June 2: "Valerie's Unemployed and Wants to Celebrate Celebration!"

June 5: Celebrating Scott's b-day at Hugo's

June 6: The Omen

June 7: Museum of Science and Industry

June 11: Jenny's Wedding shower

June 13: Rachel Cohn (one of my favorite YA authors) and David Levithan at Andersons in Naperville

June 17-18: Barbecue in the Bend

June 22-26: Munich, Germany
June 26-27: Interlaken, Switzerland
June 27-29: Venice, Italy
June 29-July 1: Florence, Italy
July 1-4: Rome, Italy
July 5-7: Vienna , Austria
July 7-9: Prague, Czech Republic
July 9-12: Paris, France

July 14: Jenny's Bachelorette Party

July 15: Inline Insomniacs Chicago Skate

July 19-July 22: White Water Rafting & Camping

August 12: Jenny's Wedding

August 24-28: Washington D.C./Virginia

:( There isn't much left on that list...I suppose I'll have to find a job soon...

Posted by valry at 10:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)