copper

Had quite a down-home redneck weekend so far here.

Yesterday I accompanied Nate down to his hometown of Circleville, where for some reason although it's only 45 minutes south of the city, everyone has a southern lilt to their speech. Including my boyfriend.

We arrived at his parents house just in time for a supper of chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes with white gravy, and cornbread. Where are the vegetables, you may ask? Well, cooked right into the cornbread! Broccoli in cornbread is ingenious as well as delicious, in my humble city-fied opinion.
I love his parent's house. It always smells of cinnamin and vanilla, comfort food and dried flowers. The decor is straight out of a mix of Better Homes and Gardens/ Country Home Magazine. Her garden (which spans over the entire property) is impeccable yet sprawling, filled with birds bees and butterflies, and there's even a tree swing overlooking a goldfish pond. An oasis in a neighborhood literally on the wrong side of the tracks.

Anyway, after dinner we trekked off to the brand-spanking new Super-Walmart to buy fishing supplies. I got myself an Ohio Fishing License and Nate bought me my first pole since the souvenir-grade bamboo one I used to catch baby bluegill as a kid.
Nate, his brother Kyle and their Dad and I all drove out in his brother's pick-up to DeerCreek State Park, where we set up on some lake bank as far away from the crowds as possible. Nate put together my pole, because I'm bobber-placement/ hook-knot ignorant. I then propped my pole up against a cooler, so I could read as I get bored with fishing easily. Apparently the boys really don't actively fish too much either. Their poles were propped and out of their hands as well and they mainly sat back, relaxed and conversing. I guess that's really what modern day fishing is about (when you're not trying to catch your dinner) relaxation without television assistance. A way to get away from everyday life for awhile. Manly socialization. It wasn't like a beer commercial on TNN either. We didn't drink at all and the conversation consisted of a lot of gentle poking fun of one another and life, gossip about family and friends.

We arrived at 7:00 and left after 10pm after not too much luck. I probably did the best, as I caught the first fish, a foot-long Sheephead, which is apparently a sort of Carp. And I finished my book ( KornWolf, by Tristan Egolf. Quite good.). Nate caught the cutest little Mud-Catfish (with the biggest mouth). Catfish are flipping adorable to me for some reason. Phil (The Dad) caught a Shad. Poor Kyle didn't catch a thing, so he was the first to request that we leave. Nothing that we caught was edible, which is fine with me since 1. The taste/smell of fish is NOT pleasant to me. 2. Apparently the mercury level in Ohio fish is at such a level to be dangerous to women of child-bearing age.

We spent the night on his parents couch and headed back up to C-bus this morning. We stopped at Rennicks Farm Market off of rt 23 and purchased some homegrown veggies, Amish peach cidar, homemade soap and garlic salad dressing. If we would've stayed longer, we could've seen the Old South Bluegrass band play out in the corn-roasting tent.

We're back in C-bus now. And I'm just lazing around. Sigh. I always have such big plans for the weekend but always end up just lazing around. This 90Fucking degree weather doesn't really help, though.

Maybe I should go shower. I still smell like bug spray, fish and sweat.