Dancing in the dark

"it’s not about the girls, it’s about the guys who will want to be me"

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:08:13 -0700

“it’s not about the girls, it’s about the guys who will want to be me”

- me, regarding the new shoes i purchased.

Super Desserts..?

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:07:00 -0700

so I went home this weekend, home being columbus.

I saw my nephew and he is really cute. for our own good. He could get away with murder and we might let it slide. it was really fun seeing him along with my brother and sister in law. We never get to hang out or talk or anything and we actually found some time.

One of my favorite nights of the evening was when my lovely friend sam (who is wonderful, by the way) invited me to come to one of her local shows at a crafts store. Not only was her band really cute and awesome (the curiousities : www.myspace.com/thecuriositiesmusic) but the band immediately following them was just as wonderful. Their band name was the super desserts and included 2 cute girls and 4 cute guys. Their music was so smooth and fun to listen to. Their website is www.myspace.com/superdesserts (i think). I am not sure, but what was most fun about the show itself was that I went alone and had the time to really absorb the music and enjoy myself.

what i am trying to say, is that this weekend rocked.

but I am ready to chill in toledo for a couple weekends :]

"Be easy like the sun in the mornin’, mon."

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 10:39:40 -0700

“Be easy like the sun in the mornin’, mon.”

- Humphrey, the lovable Jamacian Chef in my food area.

Weeks go on forever, but the summer goes so fast..

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:32:05 -0700

This place feels more and more like a community of friendships. It is crazy to think that these people I am getting closest with are going to be heading separate directions in just over a MONTH.

Last night we all got really dressed up and went to the schmancy restaurant/bar/hotel in Yosemite and had the most delicious cheesecake I have had along with some fancy drinks. It felt good to dress up and have a good time with some folks for someone’s birthday.

It is really weird. I feel like I have been here for a month or so, but really I am rounding the 2 month area. Every week I work I feel like it is lasting forever and the events that felt like I did a week ago were the longest time ago. For example, there was a huge party that had half of our community there drinking and being obnoxtiously loud until midnight when the rangers finally found us. That was this past saturday. However, feels like it happened easily 3 weeks ago. Insane.

I need to hike some more, but I have been discouraged since it is so smoky here. Yes smoky. There are lots of fires in the surrounding area that are all controlled and the smoke is drifting into the valley so we cannot get any good views. Last on my list to really hike up to is Cloud’s Rest. That is one of the highest points in the valley.

Brother Pat is coming to visit in a week. We are going to get our hike on, hopefully. He has talked about wanting to hike Half-Dome. Should be interesting.

Ugh.. have to go to work.

"I ain’t sayin’, I’m just tellin’."

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:25:40 -0700

“I ain’t sayin’, I’m just tellin’.”

- Tommy, co-worker who has some attitude.

Sunrise

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:02:20 -0700

Sunrise

Sunny summer weather

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:43:57 -0700

So the other night after work someone had this idea to hike up to the top of the falls and watch sunrise. Of course this was desirable to me, even though I had just got off work and had to work again in the afternoon. These things mean little to nothing to me. ANYWAY, we went on the hike and we started off and it was freaking hot at night, even though everyone told me it would be cold. I then stripped down to next to nothing during the hike, mind you it was 1 in the morning so no one was around. As soon as the falls came into our view, we were shivering. It got worse once we reached the top of the falls. It went from 60-70ish degrees to easily 40-50ish degrees with a lot of wind. Like a TON of wind. We were so cold, we forced ourselves to illegally build a fire at the top of the mountain. It was so worth it though. A couple hours later we had the pleasure to watch the sun rise at 5-630 from atop of Yosemite point. It was absolutely beautiful and everything I ever wanted to view from Yosemite. I will post a picture here regarding it.

It is getting really hot out here during the day. I am getting a lot of sun and I wish it was from playing ultimate! I am in deep miss of playing, but I am considering this sort of a resting period to rest up my muscles. We went rafting yesterday and had some fun. Naturally, I brought my frisbee and threw it to unknowing tourists. We swam after so many frisbees..

The new mates of state album is out, and I just got it. I had to download it, which is shameful to me, but I really wanted to support them by buying it. So I am going to buy it the first chance I get. I love the new album though. It makes me want to see them in concert again, which is a big deal, because I don’t like going to concerts much anymore. There is something about some concerts where I am just annoyed half of the time, so I am becoming very choosy of which ones I am going to attend, I guess. Mostly just Mates of State and Anathallo, because those bands are awesome in concert.

Laundry is done..

Busy, busy, busy with some grievances.

Sun, 08 Jun 2008 23:07:27 -0700

Hiked up to Glacier point via Panorama trail then back down on the 4 mile trail. Took about an 8 hour total round trip. It was my first time really experiencing the trail. There were some beautiful views that I might get a chance to post some pictures up here on. I got really really sunburnt on my thighs and a darker tan. It is so easy to forget to put on suntan lotion or not bring enough and get cooked.

I cannot believe that four weeks have already passed. It feels like I still just got here, but only in the sense of living here. I have pretty much already gotten my job stuff down pat. There are somethings I just need to say that bother me about the questions some silly (mostly idiotic) tourists. Coming to the ice cream shop:

- We have two different types of cones in our store. A cake cone and a sugar cone. 50% of the time when we ask the customers which they’d like, they tend to say “I will take the regular cone”. I am sorry. There has yet to be a regulated cone that everyone detects as “The regular cone”. I know this, because everytime I go to read your mind and try to pick “The regular cone” you get mad at me for picking the wrong one. Just point at a fucking cone for me.

- When you point into a curved, mostly blocked, ice cream case and point into the entire void of the freezer and say either “I want that one” or “What flavor is that one?”, I cannot see your finger or figure out what the fuck you are pointing at. Don’t be afraid to use colors in your questions, or is that too much to ask?

- When we ask you, “is that all?” and you say “yes”, that means to us that we are done serving you. When you go to the register and ask for 2 milkshakes and a latte, that’s not asking too much, but it is.

- We understand that you want your coffee drinks as hot as possible. But when you ask us to make it hotter than the surface of the devils ass-crack, its fucking impossible. Just take what the machine says is “hot as fuck” and drink it.

Just some things for everyone to remember :D

Happy Day

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:46:13 -0700

Happy Day

On top of the North Dome

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:43:13 -0700

On top of the North Dome

I will always love this picture

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:42:11 -0700

I will always love this picture

A cliff just before North Dome

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:40:58 -0700

A cliff just before North Dome

North Dome and Merced

Sat, 31 May 2008 00:38:08 -0700

So I had these past two days off. I had to take immediate advantage.

Me and two other guys decided to take off towards North Dome which is about 7,500 feet in elevation and about a 18 mile round trip hike. It was pretty exhausting, but quite worth it. We took off around 11 in the morning and started up towards the Upper Falls, where the path starts. We eventually got up to the top and it was BEAUTIFUL. I will post some pictures after this post. It was really tiring towards the end. I seemed to have been hiking with people with much longer legs than I and it was tough to keep up. We eventually made it back to civilization just after 9 pm. 10 hours of hiking can be very tiring. Sometimes when I get down and my knees are hurting and my feet are dead, I wonder why I did any of it. It isn’t until I realized how much I just hiked up and the unbelievable pictures I took while up there.

This path to North Dome is one of the hikes from the Valley that is not very popular. Most other trails you will see tons of people crossing your paths and such. The entire time on the way there past the falls, we were the only ones on the trail. The tranquility and peacefulness was amazing. When we were on top of North Dome none of us spoke for about a minute. It was so cool to be so far away from everything, but I could still see everything that creates all the noise. Moments like those, where I can be with myself… those make the hurt knees totally worth it.

On my second day off, I went through and took the little bus-erro to Merced to meet up with Jessica, my online friend for years. We had never really met before, but we got the chance to hang out today. It was only for a couple hours, but it was a lot of fun. It is weird to be in a position of meeting someone who I have known for a while… it was amazing though. We never really had any awkward ‘uh uhm we just met’ moments. It was almost like we had hung out before and we were just doing what we do. It didn’t hit me until we had just a bit of time left and I realized I just spent a day with someone I had never physically met before.

I bought an ALF lunch box and got to eat delicious cookies with Jessica and Melanie. This trip to California is really panning out to work out great.

Work tomorrow at 2pm. Better rest up for it, ha ha ha…

Oh let the rain fall down and wash this world away. If it's ever gonna get any better, It's gotta get worse for a day.

Wed, 28 May 2008 11:43:48 -0700

It has been raining since I got down from half dome. It sucks, majorly.

Today is the first day of full sunlight since then. I didn’t think it would get that crappy here, but it definitely did. It all happened on Memorial Day weekend too. This is the busiest weekend starting off the summer. I work in the Ice Cream corner which means like rain+ice cream= no service, right? I forgot to mention it is an Ice Cream/Coffee drinks corner. We had lines the whole day for people buying Lattes, Mochas, Cappuccinos or god forbid Hot Chocolate.

I don’t mean to be mean/stereotypical but foreigners are the meanest people by far when it comes to belittling people when they don’t get their coffee in under 1 minute or if it isn’t hotter than the surface of the devil’s asscrack. Seriously, this steamed milk was just steamed to the hottest temperature our machine will let it.

Anyway, it is sunny out and starting tomorrow I have 2 days off. Woo! Happy days.

BUT, my friend Som is leaving. She is this cute Thailand Cashier who I talk to every morning. She gives us chocolates all the time and marks off my meal cards with a :D instead of a boring X. I’ll post pictures of her and her smilies when I get things together.

Next hike up for grabs is either Glacier Point or North Dome!! AHHH I’ll let you guys know.

Lauren’s Poloriod of me and her atop Half Dome. Pretty...

Thu, 22 May 2008 22:36:14 -0700

Lauren’s Poloriod of me and her atop Half Dome. Pretty huh?

Moonbows and Half Domes

Thu, 22 May 2008 22:19:42 -0700

So someone told me to go to Moonbow.

What is moonbow you ask?

Silly you, you must not have lived in Yosemite forever.

Moonbow is an amazing phenomenon. Every full moon, the moon goes through a motion of roaming the skies of Yosemite. Eventually around midnight, the moon comes from behind the mountains in the south and casts its’ bright light on the lower Yosemite Falls. Someone tells me that every time this happens a rainbow formed by the moon is created.

So we went. And it was awesome. I have never seen the moon cast a rainbow (obviously) until that night. It was long and very visible. I would have taken a picture, but it is only visible by having a tripod and taking a very patient picture. I don’t have a bone of patience in my body, so there ya go.

In other news, today was my day off (Thursday). Like normal people, I decided to do a 16.4 mile round trip hike to one of the highest points in Yosemite valley, also the most popular rock in the park. I have shown you two pictures of it so far, and it was half dome. It is beautiful, but a very dangerous hike! Well dangerous only at the very end.

See once you get to the actual half dome (after a bajillion stairs and crap ton of climbing up) there is a set of cables to the top, since it is such a steep grade. People have fallen off of this area and died, but I had will power. Me and Lauren made it to the top and it was scary as HELL! There were about 30-40 mile per hour winds and lots of people were choosing not to hike up to the top. I was determined because I know once summer starts (a la next week) there is a LINE to wait to go to the top. Today there were 2 people on the stretch of 400 feet of cables. It was very scary, but we made it. It was unbelievable to see everything over the valley and all around us. It truly felt like the top of the world. Now will I ever go back up there again? It would take some convincing, but we will see. Pictures will come later…

from the top of Yosemite point, appx 3,000 feet above the valley...

Sat, 17 May 2008 11:57:55 -0700

from the top of Yosemite point, appx 3,000 feet above the valley floor.

"I love short fat kids. I hope my kids are short and fat."

Sat, 17 May 2008 11:53:50 -0700

““I love short fat kids. I hope my kids are short and fat.””

- Andrea Woods, co-worker.

My job

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:59:18 -0700

I forgot to mention my job in that last post.

I am working at the Coffee Corner/Ice Cream stand.

I will be serving your hottest and coldest treats at Yosemite :D.

Drew Bachmann is also coming to visit tomorrow! AHHH FUN!!

Settling down

Wed, 14 May 2008 22:56:47 -0700

So I am now a resident of Yosmite and it’s GREAT!

We got placed into our assigned housing “units”. They are called tent-cabins, but really they are wooden structures with tent material draped overtop of them. They are comfy though.

These camp grounds have a lot of ambiance of a summer camp, but for adults. They put all workers in the camp grounds that I am living at, so we are all getting to know one another. I also get to see a lot of the same people in our given training classes.

I have friends. Yes, it’s about time. There are a lot of us who are trying to stick together, but there are certain number of us who hike and eat together. I think we all have the same feeling. We want friends, desperately. We know how important these first weeks are to grip into and hold onto friends. It’s pretty awesome.

It is never not sunny here… which is awesome. We always get out of training early and our super nice trainers always let us go early and tell us its a beautiful day so we should go experience it. But it’s always beautiful? Either way, we take the shorter, yet paid longer, hours.

Sorry if I haven’t called anyone (especially parents). I am busy with training and my free time is generally 8 or 9pm. That’s cool right? I just keep forgetting that it is 11 or 12am EST. I’ll adjust :].

I thought I would tell you about some of my friends. We are all mostly from out of state too. Michael from Seattle. We are some of the only younger guys, so we’ve been stickin together. Andrea from Wisconsin (who goes to school in Michigan). We are co-workers and currently have the exact same schedule, so we became friends, haha. Tenaya, Andrea’s roommate, from some California city. She’s really cool and her parent’s grew up here.

OKAY BEDTIME NIGHT!